UDINE. Armònia – leading Italian private equity operator – and the founder and current minority shareholder of Gsa, Alessandro Pedone, have sold control of Gruppo Servizi Associated spa (Gsa), a leader in fire prevention, to Eurizon which operates through the two funds of alternative investment (AIF), Eurizon Iteᴙ (closed reserved AIF, dedicated to institutional investors) and Eurizon Iteᴙ Eltif (closed non-reserved AIF, dedicated to retail investors).
With this operation, which will be completed once the authorizations from the competent authorities have been obtained, Armònia will conclude the first sale of the fund under management “Armònia Italy Fund”.
The controlling stake in Gsa was acquired by Armònia at the beginning of 2018 when the Company recorded a turnover of around 70 million euros
Under the leadership of Alessandro Pedone and with the support of the Armònia investment team, the company completed two acquisitions in Italy and France and developed fire prevention activities in the company’s historical intervention sectors and motorway infrastructures during the investment period. .
In the three years of investment, Gsa’s turnover has doubled, Ebitda has almost tripled and to date the company boasts an order book of over 300 million euros.
The transaction will be completed at an enterprise value of approximately 250 million euros: the Eurizon Iteᴙ funds will take over the majority, while both Armònia (with approximately 12%) and Alessandro Pedone (with approximately 18%) will reinvest in Gsa with the prospect to be able to benefit from a further phase of growth of the company.
A part of the capital will be reserved for the management of Gsa.
Alessandro Grimaldi, CEO of Armònia, commented: “The returns of the operation demonstrate the success of the investment strategy on which Armònia has focused its business, preferring an industrial approach to operations and support for the entrepreneur in creating value and represent an important result for the team and for the investors.
Finally, we are happy to have reinvested alongside Iter and Alessandro Pedone to support a new phase of development that will further consolidate the value of the company on a national and international level “.
Alessandro Pedone, CEO of Gsa, commented: “I am proud of the development path made in recent years with Armonia and enthusiastic about the one set for the future.
We have built a solid business model and I believe that Iter, also strengthened by the experience of engineer Vito Gamberale, is the right partner to further accelerate our focus on infrastructures and project our growth beyond Italy ”.
Armonia operated with a team made up of funding partners Alessandro Grimaldi and Francesco Chiappetta, partner Dario Cenci and investment director Stefano Manghi.