The private equity investor Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI), after the deal with Cremonini company, has now put in the target Ponti firm . The Fund is building momentum, identifying commercial opportunities and investing in high-quality proposals. “The fund has contacted us”- said Cesare Ponti, the president of the firm-” and I could reveal that the first meeting will happen within this month’s end”. The company is interested to explore solutions that allow to strengthen growth and, above all, the process to go international more, as it regards distribution channels opportunities. “It will be an exploratory interview” he added- “because we don’t have signed agreement yet. Certainly, the opening for us is possible just under the presence of some important conditions, such as, for example, that one the fund will be in charge to foresees the growth to the foreign countries and distribution channels”. More and more medium-sized companies, leaders in their fields, are deciding to go global, increase their size and open their capital to private equity investors.
Maurizio Tamagnini, chief executive officer of Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI), the Italian Strategic Fund that moves like a Sovereign Wealth Fund, is confident that the Italian private equity market will grow quickly because of its enormous potential. “FSI is like a sovereign wealth fund because it is a patient, long-term investor in the sense that we invest in companies for prolonged periods of time. Moreover we are like a sovereign fund because we only enter sustainable projects” he explained- “We are ideal partners for foreign investors who want to put risk capital to work in Italy and get an interesting return, but who have not done it yet because they don’t know Italy. They can do it through FSI, we are co-investors. That is what happened with Qatar Holding, Kia (Kuwait Investment Authority) and CIC”.
It’s not pretty clear the reason why Ponti should need capital investor, considering it’s a healthy firm. The well known vinegar maker, indeed, has closed its last financial year with elevate rate of profit and very good net capital prospect. The revenues were of about 116 million euros in 2014 ( 114 in the previous year). The MOL index was 11 per cent and net capital is about 60 million euros, adding to them a cash flow of about 7 million euros. Even if we look at Tamagnini declaration, we just find out the business proposal: “We invest only in healthy companies, that is companies that are financially stable, that are medium to large in size at the national level, that have the objective of growing internationally and have a significant impact on the local economy. That is our main mission”.