New investment platform Three Hills Capital Partners has made an investment in nylon fibre producer shortly after closing a EUR100 million debut fund at the hard cap.
This latest preferred equity investment of EUR22 million has been made into Aquafil, the market leading European producer of nylon fibres for textile flooring and apparel, enabling the CEO Giulio Bonazzi to buy out the existing minority shareholders. This is a third investment for Three Hills Capital which has already committed approximately EUR30 million to burger chain Byron (October 2013) and Italian software company Dedalus (December 2013). Finanziaria Trentina, an Italian private equity firm, will invest an additional EUR8 million in Aquafil alongside Three Hills Capital. Natixis provided senior financing to the deal.
Aquafil produces c. 130,000 tons of nylon fibres and polymers each year for use in textile flooring and apparel. With a presence on three continents and 15 manufacturing plants, it employs more than 2400 people in the UK, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, the United States, Thailand and China. The company recently acquired the carpet yarn processing division of Scottish company W&J Knox and expects to generate revenues of c. EUR500 million in 2014. This month, Aquafil won the prestigious German Sustainability Award for Resource Efficiency.
Giulio Bonazzi, CEO of Aquafil, says: “After 5 years of successful partnership with our previous minority partners, we saw the opportunity to consolidate the shareholding of the company through a structured financing solution. We believe Aquafil is well placed to benefit from the continuous consolidation process in its market, where the company has seen its market share consistently increase over recent years. We are also delighted to continue working with Mauro and his team whom we knew well at Hutton Collins and with whom we are now delighted to work at their new venture Three Hills Capital.”
Mauro Moretti, founder of Three Hills Capital, says: “Over the last seven years, the Three Hills Capital team has successfully worked with a range of entrepreneurial businesses. This investment in Aquafil marks the third deployment of capital from our debut fund, which closed in October.
“We have been close to Aquafil for the last five years. They represent perfectly what Three Hills Capital is looking for in the businesses that it backs – a group of highly skilled professionals that have built a market leading position in their niche thanks to a focused and innovative approach to the manufacturing process. We are looking to support established European mid-market companies with growth aspirations that can benefit from our tailor made approach to financing.”
Mauro Moretti, says: “Unlike many credit funds, we are a team with private equity and corporate experience, which we apply to the businesses that we back alongside tailor made financing solutions. This sets us apart in an increasingly crowded credit funding market.”
Targeting investments of EUR15 million to EUR50 million, Three Hills Capital’s fund provides preferred capital for businesses that are seeking flexible alternatives to the traditional debt and equity financing models. Three Hills Capital Partners was founded in November 2013 by Mauro Moretti, a former Partner at Hutton Collins
which he joined in 2008 from BC Partners. The team includes, in the role of partners, Leks de Boer, a former member of the investment team of Hutton Collins and Michele Prencipe, who also worked at Hutton Collins as well as Clessidra.
