Vei's Rina acquires Phoenix-backed Edif for £118.5m

Kenny Wastell
25 May 2016

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Phoenix Equity Partners has sold technical inspection business Edif to Italian trade buyer and Vei Capital portfolio company Rina for ТЃ118.5m.

Vei and NB Renaissance Partners have made a fresh capital injection into Rina to support the bolt-on, alongside a new financing facility provided by BNP Paribas-owned BNL, Unicredit and Banca IMI.

Under Phoenix's tenure, Edif has undertaken an acquisitive growth strategy, bolting on a total of 12 companies. Most recently, it bought engineering consultancy OST Energy via its Edif ERA division in October 2015.

Phoenix has made a 2.3x return on the deal, with the sale generating proceeds of around £70m for its 2010 Fund. The transaction also marks a third exit for the £450m vehicle, having generated a 3.6x return on the sale of CloserStill to Inflexion and NVM, as well as a 2.9x return on the IPO of The Gym Group.

Previous funding
Phoenix backed the £30m management buy-in of Edif in February 2011, according to unquote" data, and nine months later injected an additional £12m to support the bolt-on of NDE Global Technical Services.

Vei and Intesa Sanpaolo acquired a €25m stake in Rina in April 2014. At the time, the backers said their investment could rise to as much as €100m through additional capital increases and acquisition finance.

Company
Founded in 1861 and headquartered in Genoa, Rina is an engineering, testing, inspection and certification service.

London-headquartered Edif provides technical inspection, engineering and consultancy services, including vendor inspection, pipe mill surveillance, subsea services, supply change management, drilling and completions, power engineering, asset integrity management, and system and safety engineering services. The business has a headcount of 650 across 20 offices.

People
Phoenix Equity Partners – Tim Dunn (partner).
Edif – Rob Dilworth (CEO).
Rina – Ugo Salerno (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Robert W Baird (corporate finance); Travers Smith (legal); EY (corporate finance); Credo Consulting (commercial due diligence).
Acquirer – Rothschild (corporate finance); Gattai Minoli Agostinelli & Partners (legal); Mayer Brown (legal); PwC (financial due diligence); Boston Consulting Group (management due diligence); LS Advisory (financial due diligence).
Management – Cooley (legal).