Cassiopea Partners advises F2i and Marguerite
on the acquisition of MC-link S.p.A.
Cassiopea Partners is pleased to announce that acted as exclusive financial advisor to F2i Fondi Italiani per le Infrastrutture Sgr S.p.A. (“F2i”) and Marguerite Infrastructure Italy Sàrl (“Marguerite”) for the acquisition of 93.79% of the sharecapital of MC-link S.p.A (“MC-link” or the “Company”) at a price of euro 15.60 per share, implying an equity value of euro 50.5 million for 100% of the Company (the “Transaction”).
MC-link is an Italian ICT services operator with legal seat in Trento and headquartered in Rome. The Company recorded in 2016 a turnover of app. euro 43.5 million with an EBITDA of euro 9.1 million and a net debt of euro 17.5 million. MC-link is listed on the Italian AIM – Alternative Investment Market since 22th February 2013.
The major infrastructure assets of MC-link include an extensive fiber-optic network of app. 2,200 km, 7 MAN (Metropolitan Area Networks) and four data centers, two of them in Rome, one in Milan and one in Trento.
F2i, established in January 2007, is the management company (“Società di Gestione del Risparmio” or “SGR”) that set up the largest Italian closed-end investment fund: Fondo Italiano per le Infrastrutture – F2i, dedicated to investments in the infrastructure sector.
Marguerite is controlled by “The 2020 European Fund for Energy, Climate Change and Infrastructure”, a Luxembourg investment fund established by 6 European public financial institutions (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, European Investment Bank, Instituto de Crédito Oficial, KfW and PKO Bank Polski) and by the European Commission in order to support capital intensive businesses in the 28 countries of European Union.
F2i and Marguerite will combine MC-link with Infracom Italia S.p.A. and other small-medium size operators in a single entity in order to create a national player with strong managerial skills and know-how, financial solidity and adequate levels of efficiency and quality for the market of corporate web-access and cloud services.
The completion of the Transaction triggered a mandatory tender offer for the purchase of the remaining shares held by the market.