Italian private equity firm Progressio SGR has sold its majority stake in the Duplomatic group, a Milan-headquartered provider of hydraulic components and systems.
In fewer than four years of Progressio ownership, Duplomatic increased both revenues and EBITDA by approximately 50 per cent each. The enterprise value at closing was EUR69 million.
Progressio acquired a majority (86 per cent) stake in Duplomatic Oleodinamica, the operating holding, in April 2013 from Axa Private Equity (the remaining 14 per cent was held by the management team). At the time of the acquisition, the group also held US company Continental Hydraulics, and had consolidated revenues of EUR44.7 million and EBITDA of EUR6.8 million.
Since 2013, Duplomatic has invested both in improving the quality of its products (more than one in eight staff now works in R&D) and in a bolt-on growth strategy. Today, the group includes seven companies following the acquisitions of Hydrux (2014), OCS (2015), Eurosei (2016), and Tecnologie Industriali (2017), and the incorporation of Duplomatic Hydraulics Shanghai (2015), a wholly owned Chinese company.
In 2016, the group reached (pro-forma, including Tecnologie Industriali) revenues of EUR70 million and EBITDA close to EUR10 million.
Filippo Gaggini, Progressio managing partner, says: “Duplomatic represents everything we look to invest in: Italian excellence, a strong management team, and hidden potential.”
“It’s been a pleasure working with the management team,” says Alessandro d’Arco, investment director at Progressio. “Solid cash generation allowed Duplomatic to self-finance its ambitious R&D and M&A strategies. The managers will without doubt continue this success with the new financial shareholder.”
Duplomatic has been acquired by the Italian private equity firm Alcedo, with a significant stake retained by the principal managers (about 20 per cent).
