Private equity and venture capital in Italy

Overview of 2016

In Italy, 2016 was a year of consolidation for the private equity and venture capital market, with the same number of investments completed as in 2015 but with an increase in the total amount invested. The trend is towards an increase in the number and value of early stage deals (seed capital, expansion, venture capital), due to the increasing number of start-up companies raising equity in the market.

Key deals in 2016

Private equity deals

Assisting:

• the US Norican Group, which is owned by Altor Equity Partners in its bid to purchase the LCMS group, with a total turnover of EUR 170 million and operations across Europe, US, Turkey and Thailand
• Ristrutturazioni & Sviluppo (a turnaround specialist) in entering into the EUR 11 million loan facility needed to complete a turnaround transaction
• the Luxembourg fund PMI Nordovest in its EUR 16 million purchase of an Italian business in the tow coupling market

We also regularly act for Fondo Italiano di Investimento (the private equity fund investing public funds).

Venture capital deals

Assisting:

• Movendo Technology S.r.l. and its founders in the EUR 10 million Series A investment round completed by the Dompè family investment vehicle
• the Casa Comi shareholders in the sale of their company to an Italian private equity fund for a consideration of EUR 2.5 million
• Snell Advanced Media (Lloyds Development Capital (LDC), the investment arm of Lloyds Bank) in the acquisition of of Mantrics Srl, a company based in Rome, acting in digital media production (many major movies were created or manipulated using Quantel technology, including Star Wars episode 2 and 3, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Day After Tomorrow, and Sin City)
• NTS S.p.A. and its founders in the EUR 2.5 million Series A investment round completed by a Swiss based venture capital fund
• Xnext S.r.l. in completing its Series B investment round of EUR 600,000