Thanks also to the collaboration with the Invest In Tuscany sector of Tuscany Region and its office dedicated to monitoring investments, Toscana24 – Il Sole24Ore, has recently focused on M&A operations towards our region. According to Toscana24 article, Tuscany registred record-breaking M&A operations in 2017, covering most of the region’s manufacturing sectors, from mechanics to fashion, from paper to sailing, from ICT to agribusiness, from lighting to pharmaceuticals, from bathroom furniture to energy. And, of course, with the tourist industry, always effervescent in a region that maintains great image and appeal.
Among the operations completed in 2017 those of Targetti, Perini Navi, Navionics, Devon&Devon, Amedei, Dr Vranjes, Metallarte, Bassilichi, Rifle, Esaote, Infogroup, Copaim, Terme di Saturnia and – above all – Tagetik, the company founded by Pierluigi Pierallini which has the Dutch giant Wolters Kluwer announced on 7 March 2017 that he had paid 300 million euros to acquire the company from Lucca (57 million revenues in 2016) which allows him to expand the portfolio of the corporate tax and accounting segment.
Among the buyers with high-profile names there are also the American giant Garmin who acquired Navionics, a Viareggio company leader in nautical charts and applications for sailors (16.9 million turnover in 2015 and over 350 employees); the German group Koerber, owner in Tuscany of the leading paper mechanics company Fabio Perini, who last June acquired another company in the sector, the Porcari Mtc; from China, the consortium – composed among others of Yf Capital, a Chinese private equity fund co-founded by Jack Ma of the Alibaba group – arrived, which last December acquired 100% of Esaote (270 million turnover 2016), a leading diagnostic imaging company with plants in Florence and Genoa.
At the Invest In Tuscany Office of the Region of Tuscany, coordinated by Filippo Giabbani, the M&A operations carried out in 2017 are considered a brilliant result. “We are not particularly amazed about mergers and acquisitions because it has become the main vehicle of investment in advanced countries – explains Giabbani – what we are pleased about is that we are in contrast to Italian trend: Tuscany remains an appetite and attractive region from the point of view of investment “.