BC Partners buys 78.7% stake in Gruppo Coin from PAI

11 May '11

3 min read

Financière Tintoretto S.A., a company controlled by the funds managed by PAI Partners (“PAI”), has entered into a binding agreement with Icon S.r.l., (“Icon”), a newly incorporated company controlled by funds advised by BC Partners (“BC Partners”), for the sale of the entire stake held in Giorgione Investimenti S.p.A (“Giorgione”), which in turn controls 69.3% of Gruppo Coin S.p.A. (“Gruppo Coin”) share capital (the “Transaction”).

The Transaction values the Giorgione stake in Gruppo Coin at € 644,572,337.50, which corresponds to a price of € 6.50 per each share of Gruppo Coin.

As part of the Transaction, Giorgione has also agreed to acquire at closing, the Gruppo Coin shares held by the Gruppo Coin management team, representing 2.1% of the outstanding Gruppo Coin share capital and the Gruppo Coin shares owned by Dicembre 2007 S.p.A., representing in aggregate 7.3 %, subject to closing of the Transaction.

The Transaction is subject to antitrust authorities approval and availability of the funds already committed by banks to fund the Transaction; closing is expected to take place by the end of June. After closing, Icon, through Giorgione, will launch a mandatory tender offer on all the remaining outstanding shares of Gruppo Coin at a price of € 6.50 per share.

Management will co-invest in Icon alongside BC Partners.

Shortly after acquisition of Gruppo Coin of 2005, Stefano Beraldo was appointed CEO and proceeded to the repositioning of the OVS format, implementing a new concession based model in the Coin department store network and reinforcing the group's management team.

Gruppo Coin also acquired four Italian chains to consolidate its leadership in the Italian apparel retail market. The most significant acquisition was of UPIM in January 2010 which has delivered significant synergies to date and will continue to contribute to improving the operating performance of the group. For the year ended 31 January 2011, Gruppo Coin reported sales of €1,736m, up 38% compared to the previous year.

Stefano Beraldo, CEO of Gruppo Coin, said:
“I am pleased to welcome BC Partners as the majority shareholder in Gruppo Coin. Their international network, strong track record and expertise in the retail sector will be invaluable as we continue our growth and expansion. I would also like to thank PAI for their support over the past 6 years.”

Raffaele R Vitale, Partner at PAI added:
“PAI is very pleased to have actively supported Stefano Beraldo and the whole management team in their efforts to grow Gruppo Coin over the last 6 years, with Gruppo Coin becoming the undisputed leader in Italy in apparel retail. The company has grown significantly during very difficult times through the introduction of a new format for OVS, a concession based model for Coin and a number of very successful acquisitions the most significant of which was UPIM. I wanted to thank Stefano Beraldo and his whole team for all the hard work over the years and wish them and their new partners BC Partners all the best.”

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