Cellularline

Ethica Corporate Finance advised Cellular Group in the business Combination with the SPAC Crescita for the listing on AIM Italia

Ethica Corporate Finance advised the Cellular Group in the process of integration (“Business Combination”) with Crescita S.p.A., Italian SPAC listed on AIM Italia, to be implemented through the merger by incorporation of the Cellular Group. The Cellular Group, founded in 1990, is active on the market mainly with the Cellularline brand. The company is the Italian leader, as well as among the main European operators, in the development and sale of accessories for smartphones and tablets. The 2016 consolidated financial statements show a production value of € 164.5 million and an EBITDA of € 38.4 million. The wide range of products with the Cellularline brand is sold in over 60 countries and about 50% of sales volumes in 2016 were generated abroad. Cellular Italia is now wholly owned by Ginetta, a holding company owned by the founding families of Aleotti and Foglio (“Founders”) and by private equity funds L Catterton, Motion and DVR (“Funds”).

Crescita is a SPAC promoted in March 2017 by Massimo Armanini, Cristian D’Ippolito, Marco Drago, Carlo Moser, Antonio Tazartes and Alberto Toffoletto, through Crescita Holding S.r.l., and DeA Capital S.p.A. and which raised €130 mln mainly from Italian institutional investors. Marco Cagnetta and Christian Aleotti, Co-CEO of the Cellular Group, said: “With the opening of the capital to the market, Cellularline makes a significant step in its development path, characterized by great attention to consumer needs and technological developments in the smartphone and tablet accessory sector. We will use the funds provided by Crescita to strengthen our leadership and expand our international presence, to increase our penetration in both traditional and online distribution channels, for the development of new product ranges, also through acquisition operations, so as to reach a positioning that may be of interest to an increasingly large audience of investors ” Antonio Tazartes, CEO of Crescita, said: “We submit to our investors, less than a year after their listing, an opportunity that we believe respects the objectives stated in fund raising. Cellularline is an excellent Italian company among the main operators in its sector and characterized by an important profitability and high recognition of its brand. We believe that the resources and support that Crescita will provide to Cellularline will contribute to accelerating its development path, even internationally, and that the future of this company will reserve satisfactions to all its members “. The conclusion of the transaction is conditioned, among other things: (i) the approval by the shareholders’ meetings of Crescita, Ginetta and Cellular Italia; (ii) the non-withdrawal by members of Crescita for a total amount of 33% or more.

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