• Transactions

AUCTUS Capital Acquisition and Financing of the Italian Italpresse Group

The Company

Italpresse Group ("Italpresse"), headquartered in Brescia, Northern Italy, is a leading global manufacturer of die casting machines (die casting, gravity die casting and low pressure die casting solutions) as well as automatic casting cells for various end markets and also offers corresponding services. At the transaction date, the company was part of a larger family-run group of companies, but was already largely independent in legal and organisational terms.

The Transaction

Against the background of a fundamental interest in selling Italpresse, the owners at the time held selective talks with potential buyers without conducting a broad structured process (and accordingly without a fully prepared information basis) and ultimately reached an agreement in principle with the Munich-based private equity fund Auctus Capital Partners ("AUCTUS") to take over the company. 

However, the final implementation and structuring of the transaction was, in addition to the usual due diligence strands, also subject in particular to the joint development of a resilient business plan and the establishment of a suitable acquisition and corporate financing structure. 

Based on a financing plan developed during the process and a target financing structure derived from it, a multi-layered financing concept consisting of a bank-club deal with several Italian banks, a guarantee tranche by a Swiss insurance company and mezzanine financing by a French private debt fund was ultimately implemented.

Scope of Mandate

ARGONAS advised and supported AUCTUS and Italpresse as exclusive corporate finance advisor on all aspects of the transaction (including financial planning, structuring and implementation of the financing concept).

Christian Berkhoff

Managing Partner/Co-Founder

Christian Berkhoff is Managing Partner at ARGONAS und has more than 20 years of experience in Corporate Finance Advisory und Investment Banking. 

At ARGONAS, Christian leads M&A and financing projects across a broad spectrum of industries, sectors and company situations. Christian’s focus areas are businesses in the Industrial & Automotive and Business Services space as well as complex financing solutions and M&A situations. 

Selected transaction references comprise inter alia the sale of the Siemens subsidiary Symeo to US-listed Analog Devices, the sale of Tecno Plast to Swedish Indutrade Group in the context of a succession solution, the carve-out and sale of a business segment for the international Auria Solutions Group as well as multiple financing and M&A projects for Feuer powertrain. 

Prior to co-founding ARGONAS, Christian inter alia worked for J.P. Morgan in London and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Frankfurt, where he predominantly advised multinational corporations and large midmarket companies on structured debt and hybrid capital solutions.

Christian holds a degree in business administration from Goethe-University Frankfurt and a Masters in Finance degree from London Business School.