Andrea Bonomi’s Investindustrial fund is interested in acquiring a majority stake in Eataly, the chain founded in 2003 by Oscar Farinetti and specialized in the distribution of Italian food and wine excellences. The negotiations, according to rumors, would go on for months to the point that already in the summer, at least on a couple of occasions, it would have come close to signing. However, a series of interruptions and restarts of the talks would have postponed the final squeeze that now appears imminent. Contact from The printsources close to Investindustrial oppose a “no comment” and so does Oscar Farinetti.
Today the majority of Eataly, led by CEO Nicola Farinetti, is in the hands of Eatinvest (58%), the holding company of the founder’s family, which, even after joining the fund, should remain with a significant stake. Clubitaly, the vehicle which entered the capital in 2014 with 20% for 120 million euros (thus evaluating 100% 600 million euros) should also file its shareholding. This is a club deal 43.35% owned by Tamburi Investment Partners, originally flanked by 18 other companies and families such as Lavazza and Branca. Already at the time of Clubitaly’s entry, Eataly imagined a possible landing on the stock market in 2017 which, however, did not arrive, neither then nor later.
In 2014 Eataly was running with revenues of around 330 million euros and an EBITDA (gross operating margin) of around 39 million euros. In the recent presentation that Tamburi made to investors on the occasion of the “Italian sustainability week”, at the beginning of September, we read that in 2021 Eataly would have shown a “better than expected” performance and instead of the 443 million forecast in the budget, the revenues amount to approximately 464 million, with an EBITDA net of extraordinary items of 14.4 million euros. “Most of the US stores performed very well with the reopening of restaurants and the resumption of” traffic “” after the covid while “the results in Europe were more impacted by the slow reopening in most countries, but in line with the budget “. Expectations for 2022 are for “a strong return to the growth path”. For Investindustrial, an investment company with resources of 11 billion euros, the take on Eataly (which opens in Verona in a few days, after landing in Silicon Valley) would represent a step forward in the construction of its own food hub. Already in August it added two important elements in the US: a significant part of the food preparation division of Threehouse Food and the Parker Food Group, specialized in the development and production of special ingredients with high added value. Eataly would now represent a new step forward.