Il Ceo di Ecogest, Valerio Molinari, parla dei programma futuri dell’azienda leader nei servizi ambientali nelle strade e autostrade italiane ed estere.
Lo fa in un’intervista rilasciata a Valentina Caiazzo dell’agenzia di stampa inglese “MergerMarket”, fortemente specializzata nelle dinamiche economiche, finanziarie ed imprenditoriali. Riportiamo a seguire il testo tratto direttamente dal lancio d’agenzia ringraziando sia la giornalista Caiazzo che la redazione.
Ecogest mulls stake sale and midterm IPO to sustain growth – CEO Ecogest, an Italian company active in environment maintenance of roads and highway systems, is evaluating strategic options including a stake sale and a mid-term IPO, CEO Valerio Molinari said. Ecogest is currently willing to open its shareholder base to a strategic or financial investor to back its investment plans as it looks to increase its market share in Italy and abroad, Molinari said. Ecogest also has an informal agreement with an unnamed Milan-based financial advisor to seek potential investors. Even so, its management welcomes further advisory pitches suggesting interesting opportunities and could grant a mandate. A strategic foreign investor, namely a major infrastructure or construction company looking to add on niche expertise in environment highways maintenance and enter Italy, would be particularly welcome. It could helpEcogest to develop its business in new markets, he said. It is looking to raise EUR 3.5m-5m to support its organic growth in the next five years, to be followed by a stock-exchange listing on the AIM segment of BorsaItaliana, possibly by 2020, he said. It could evaluate selling up to a 35% stake,Molinari said, adding that a company valuation will be made by the end of 2016. Ecogest generated EUR 6.3m in revenue last year with an 18%-23% EBITDA margin. It expects to reach a turnover of EUR 10m in 2016 and to double it by 2020, he said. In the first half of 2016 it increased its workforce from 80 to 300 employees, he added.
Last year, the company signed a five-year contract with PwC to certify its balance sheet. The latter has the option to become the financial advisor should the company decide for an IPO. The same option applies to Unicredit. Since the end of 2015, Ecogest has been reworking its governance and legal status to become a joint-stock company. To do so, it has launched a EUR 1.5m capital increase to grow its share capital, it has certified its balance sheet withPwC, created a board of directors and hired a CFO, he said. In early 2016, the company presented its new draft business plans to a number of Italian banks aiming to raise financing of EUR 3.5m, but only gained lukewarm attention. It was eventually granted an overall EUR 1.6m loan partially funded by Unicredit and Banca Popolare di Vicenza.
The company is owned by Molinari (99%) and his wife Michela Nanni (1%) through their TCM family holding. Ecogest looks to open new branches abroad, as it did in Turkey, Romania and Poland, and gain new contracts, especially in Romania and Eastern Europe, the Balkans but also in France and Spain, he said. Its industrial plan until 2018 provides EUR 3m investments. The firm has so far allocated some 50% of such as sum, he said. In 2017, Ecogest aims to consolidate its Italian contracts as it expects procurements from Autostrada Serenissima, Consorzio Autostrade Venete andConsorzio Autostrade Lombarde. Since 2013, the company has decided to no longer bid in tenders for public procurements as it found it very hard to be paid on time, he noted. Established in 1995 by Molinari, Ecogest now operates as a subcontractor for private motorway companies.
It does environment maintenance for 3,000 km of highways in Italy out of a total of 6,000 km, he said, naming Gavio, Atlantia andGruppo Toto among its existing clients. Rome-based Avr, Ravenna-based Intergeos and Venetian Adigest are its Italian competitors, Molinari said.