Ambienta acquires majority stake in Officine Maccaferri Umwelttechnik

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR SpA (“Ambi­enta”), one of Europe’s largest and leading asset mana­gers focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity, is acqui­ring a majo­rity stake in Offi­cine Macca­ferri S.p.A. (“Macca­ferri” or “the Group”) from current share­hol­ders Carlyle Global Credit, Stellex Capi­tal Manage­ment and Man GLG. Toge­ther with the senior manage­ment team, Ambi­enta holds a majo­rity stake in the company. The tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted in the second quar­ter of 2024.

Offi­cine Macca­ferri, foun­ded in 1879 and based in Bolo­gna, Italy, is a provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons and a major player in the design and deve­lo­p­ment of solu­ti­ons in the fields of envi­ron­men­tal, civil and geotech­ni­cal engi­nee­ring. Offi­cine Macca­ferri is active in more than 130 count­ries, with produc­tion sites on four conti­nents and around 3,000 employees who realize over 10,000 projects every year. With a turno­ver of over 600 million euros, the company stands for tech­ni­cal excel­lence, relia­bi­lity and ecolo­gi­cal sustaina­bi­lity. Macca­ferri products repre­sent a low-CO2 and envi­ron­men­tally friendly alter­na­tive in the field of buil­ding mate­ri­als. With a focus on envi­ron­men­tally friendly solu­ti­ons, the Group is aiming for growth above the market average. This acqui­si­tion ther­e­fore contri­bu­tes to both resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion as part of Ambienta’s envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ment (EIA).

The global infra­struc­ture market has a volume of 12 tril­lion euros and is respon­si­ble for five percent of global CO2 emis­si­ons, with buil­ding mate­ri­als accoun­ting for the majo­rity. The market is expe­ri­en­cing conti­nuous growth driven by seve­ral funda­men­tal factors, inclu­ding the growing share of the urban popu­la­tion, the need for new infra­struc­ture in deve­lo­ping count­ries, the moder­niza­tion of infra­struc­ture in deve­lo­ped count­ries and the incre­asing impact of climate-rela­­ted hazards. Against this back­drop, Macca­ferri plays a key role as a diffe­ren­tia­ted provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons with a compre­hen­sive product range that impro­ves the envi­ron­men­tal foot­print by 30 to 90 percent compared to other products in the indus­try. Accor­ding to preli­mi­nary esti­ma­tes, the Group is helping to save mate­ri­als equi­va­lent to the weight of around 700,000 SUVs and reduce emis­si­ons equi­va­lent to the CO2 sequestra­tion of around 2 million trees.

The busi­ness model is also charac­te­ri­zed by its sales approach: on the one hand, direct sales with highly quali­fied specia­lists and, on the other hand, local sales via the world­wide branches.

In a highly frag­men­ted market, Offi­cine Macca­ferri stands out as one of the most respec­ted play­ers and is well posi­tio­ned to conti­nue to grow both orga­ni­cally and through stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons globally. Ambi­enta will support the company in conso­li­da­ting its posi­tion as a leading inde­pen­dent provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons for the protec­tion of people and nature and in streng­thening its presence in the Asia-Paci­­fic region and North America.

Mauro Roversi(photo © ambi­enta), Private Equity Part­ner, Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer and Foun­ding Part­ner of Ambi­enta, said: “We are proud to invest in Offi­cine Macca­ferri, a flag­ship company in the field of green buil­ding solu­ti­ons. It is a unique oppor­tu­nity to take advan­tage of the expec­ted high demand for dura­ble and envi­ron­men­tally friendly solu­ti­ons for infra­struc­ture projects.”

Sergio Iasi, CEO of Macca­ferri, said: “We look forward to working with Ambi­enta to drive Maccaferri’s new phase of growth and deve­lo­p­ment by further conso­li­da­ting our inter­na­tio­nal presence and unique posi­tion. The manage­ment team, which has successfully stee­red the company’s growth to date, is fully behind the part­ner­ship and is inves­t­ing signi­fi­cantly in the tran­sac­tion. Ambienta’s approach and focus on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity is highly aligned with our core values and we see the company as an ideal part­ner to support Maccaferri’s future growth.”

Consul­tant from Ambienta
Bain (Commer­cial), KPMG (Finan­cial, ESG and Tax), Alix­Part­ners (Opera­ti­ons), PwC (M&A and Debt Advi­sory), Clif­ford Chance (Legal) and FRM (Tax and Structuring).

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity inves­tor specia­li­zing in private equity, public markets and private credit. From Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges assets of more than 3 billion euros. The focus is on invest­ments in private and listed compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services improve resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion. Ambi­enta has made 69 private equity invest­ments to date. In the public equity sector, Ambi­enta has laun­ched one of the world’s largest abso­lute return funds fully focu­sed on envi­ron­men­tal sustaina­bi­lity and mana­ges a whole range of other sustainable invest­ment products from low-risk multi-asset funds to long-only equity funds. Ambi­enta has also recently laun­ched a private credit stra­tegy, which — as with the other asset clas­ses — focu­ses on envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.
www.ambientasgr.com