Cassiopea Partners advises an Investors’ Club on the acquisition of Step S.p.A.
Cassiopea Partners is pleased to announce that acted as financial advisor to an investors’ club (the “Investors’ Club”) led by five promoters, namely Stefano Miccinelli, Stefano Trentino, Marco Forasassi Torresani, Renato Peroni and Cristiano Portas (together the “Promoters”), for the acquisition of the 45% of the share capital of Step S.p.A. (“Step” or the “Company”). With a 55% stake, the previous managers-shareholders, Fabrizio Crespi Morbio, Gregorio Cicogna Mozzoni and Paolo Faina will remain in charge of the company.
Step is a leading company in Italy in e-procurement for the banking sector and other sectors such as insurance and telecommunications. Step manages, through its web-based platform, over 28,000 destination points (bank branches, insurance agencies, shops) to which it distributes materials and equipment for the operation of branches and agencies. Step has also developed other complementary services such as the supply of software and hardware for digital transformation (for example, for digital signature), maintenance services and on-site communication services. In 2017, Step generated €58m in revenues with an EBITDA of € 6.2m.
Stefano Miccinelli commented on the conclusion of the operation: “I am very happy to have organized a consortium for this investment. Step is a great company and is managed by an excellent management team. I believe that Step, with a well-balanced growth plan and further acquisitions, can expand its leadership from e-procurement to the provision of IT and digital services to the Italian banking and insurance world. I am convinced that between Promoters and manager-shareholders we have formed a cohesive partnership with very complementary experiences that will allow Step to achieve the ambitious growth objectives that we have set ourselves”.
Fabrizio Crespi Morbio comments: “With Stefano Miccinelli and the other Promoters we immediately shared the strategic development lines of Step. We are very encouraged to jointly undertake this new phase of development focused on growth, both for internal and external lines, in the field of services related to Digital Transformation and high added-value logistic services to retail points “.