CAPZA, an independent management company and leading player in private investment in European SMEs, has appointed Stefano Zavattaro as head of its Italian branch.
Zavattaro, Partner and Country Manager, will be responsible for CAPZA’s investments in Italian SMEs and will support the transalpine development projects of CAPZA’s French, Spanish and German portfolio companies.
Zavattaro has held various positions throughout his career. After graduating in Economics from Rome’s Sapienza University and specializing in Finance at the London Business School in London, he worked as a manager for the multinational General Electric where he participated in numerous M&A and private equity transactions within the GE Capital division. He was then chosen by the French investor Siparex to launch their Italian private equity activities before becoming head of the Private Equity division of the Crédit Agricole Group. Since 2014, Stefano has been advising international investment houses on their Italian and European projects.
He joins Tommaso Galletta, Associate, in the Milan office where he will further develop the team with new hires.
Present in Spain since 2016, in Germany since 2017 and in Italy since 2019, CAPZA’s strategy relies on regional teams with expert knowledge of their local ecosystem, to support SMEs in their expansion strategy. CAPZA has thus carried out 6 operations in Spain, three operations in Germany and one operation in Italy (a minority investment in Monviso, an Italian bakery products manufacturer) over the last two years.
As a generalist player, CAPZA has built up a great deal of expertise in the Tech, Health and B2B sectors, but will also take advantage of the quality and dynamism of Italy’s exporting SMEs by supporting their international development and external growth. The digitalisation of companies and the integration of ESG principles will be priority investment themes.
Italy represents a particularly important market for the development of the Flex Equity’s expertise, with the aim to support companies with an EBITDA generally between EUR3 and EUR10 million through investments in equity (majority or minority), quasi-equity and mezzanine between EUR12 and EUR50 million. The Private Debt strategy will also be deployed on unit-branch or mezzanine financing within LBOs, with an expected investment capacity of between EUR30 million and EUR100 million per deal.
Christophe Karvelis, Executive Chairman and founder of CAPZA, says: “Italy has a particularly dynamic network of SMEs, driven by innovation. Stefano brings us consolidated know-how in international private equity, but above all a network of entrepreneurs, bankers and leading local experts. Relying on this local presence is key to selecting the best high-potential opportunities.”
Stefano Zavattaro, Head of CAPZA in Italy, says: “CAPZA offers Italian SMEs a range of flexible and diversified financial solutions unique in the Italian market and an exceptional track record in the consolidation of fragmented sectors that characterise the Italian economy.”
