Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI), the Italian Strategic Fund, has become a joint owner of Kedrion with an overall financial contribution of 150 million euros (75 million euros in capital increase and 75 million euros in a convertible or reimbursable line of credit). The company’s ownership will be divided as follows: 48.8 per cent to the Marcucci family holding company Sestant, 32.6 per cent to Fondo Investitori Associati (Associate Investors’ Fund), and 18.6 per cent to FSI, with the option for Sestant to buy as many shares as needed to regain a majority shareholding. The strategic plan that Kedrion submitted to the new investors foresees an important growth in the coming years, confirming a trend of growth that has always been distinctive in the company’s life, since it was founded in 2001.
In 2011 Kedrion registered sales for 277.3 million euros and an EBIDTA of 66.7 million euros which can be confronted, for example, with revenues of 141.3 million euros and an EBITDA of 30.5 million euros registered in 2005. The company’s acquisitions in Hungary, Germany and in the United States and the strong vertical integration achieved in its plasma collection business have remarkably contributed to the current results and to the important prospects for further growth.
The proportion of overseas activities, which accounted for 47 per cent of revenues in 2011, is expected to grow to over 65 per cent in 2013 also particularly due to United States operations – where Kedrion is already present with a fractionation plant in the State of New York and eight plasma-collection centres – which is expected to contribute to approximately one third of total revenues in 2013. In fact, the business plan foresees a further expansion of the company in the North American market. Furthermore, a strengthening of its activities in Hungary, where, in addition to a production plant, it also owns three plasma-collection centres, and in Germany, where Kedrion owns another three collection centres, is also foreseen. With the financial support from Fondo Strategico Italiano, Kedrion is also planning to make further investments in overseas collection operations and investments in the Italian production plants of Bolognana (Lucca) and Sant’Antimo (Naples) with a view to developing its purification capacity.
"We are particularly proud – stated Paolo Marcucci, President and CEO of Kedrion – of having been singled out by Fondo Strategico Italiano as one of the companies that meet the selection criteria on which the Fund’s work is based. In fact, FSI invests in companies that are strategic for the country and demonstrate that their objectives are to grow in terms of size, improve their efficiency and strengthen their competitive position in national and international markets: goals that, despite being a young company, Kedrion has always proved to pursue".
Kedrion is assisted by Morgan Stanley in its capacity of financial consultant for the transaction. Kedrion and the shareholders Sestant and Investitori Associati are assisted by the legal offices Linklaters, Benazzo Mascherpa, Frau Ruffino Verna and Giliberti Pappalettera Triscornia. The legal offices of Pavesi, Gitti, Verzoni acted as legal consultants for FSI.