The Belgian group Ideal Standard sa, which belongs to the Anchorage Capital and CVC Credit Partners funds, yesterday announced the signing of the agreement for the sale, with effect from tomorrow 1st June, of the production plant of Trichiana in the Municipality of Borgo Valbelluna ( Belluno) and the Ceramica Dolomite brand to the consortium of investors formed by Finint spa, Delfin sarl (the Luxembourg holding company of the entrepreneur Leonardo Del Vecchio, major shareholder of Luxottica-Essilor eyewear group), Luigi Rossi Luciani sapa (holding company of the entrepreneur Luigi Rossi Luciani, chairman and controlling shareholder of Carel Industries spa, world leader in control solutions for air conditioning, refrigeration and heating and in humidification and cooling systems, listed on the Star segment of Euronext Milan) and Za-Fin srl (the holding company of entrepreneur Bruno Zago, main shareholder of the Pro-Gest paper group) (see here the press release of Ideal Standard and here the one of the Veneto Region).
A fundamental and integral part of the agreement is the total occupational protection of the 450 employees. The announcement in fact follows the agreement on the transfer of all workers to the new company reached on 12 May, following the work conducted by the institutional table, set up at the Veneto Lavoro corporate crisis unit, composed not only by the Veneto Region, but also by the Ministry of Economic Development, by the trade union parties, by the ownership of Ideal Standard and by the advisor Sernet.
The chairman of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, commented: “I welcome with satisfaction the news of the agreement that will protect jobs and allow the production of a famous Venetian brand that identifies a quality product with our region to be maintained, the Belluno area and with our mountains: the Dolomites, Unesco Heritage. The Region has always been present in this journey with its Corporate Crisis Unit. The signatures of all the actors involved sign not only an agreement but also a page of workers’ history Veneto ”. And the regional councilor for work, Elena Donazzan, added:” Thanks to the unexceptionable and unexceptionable work of all the parties involved, starting from a complex industrial crisis, we were able to create a new opportunity for productive development of international scope for our territory. With the best wishes for a good job, I also thank the Venetian consortium for having believed in Ceramica Dolomite and its workers. We will continue to follow the developments of this business situation, ensuring all possible and necessary support. The Veneto Region, through our Corporate Crisis Unit, will shortly convene the institutional table in order to take stock of the situation “.
We recall that already in 2018 another former Ideal Standard plant, the one located in the municipality of Roccasecca (Frosinone), had been acquired by Saxa Gres in the context of a conversion project implemented through the creation of a 100% shareholding, Saxa Grestone spa. Just two years earlier, Saxa Gres had restarted its business in September 2016 with the production of thick porcelain stoneware tiles in what was once the former Marazzi Sud factory in Anagni (Frosinone), employing 80 people at the service of an innovative production process. which uses part of the inert material from the San Vittore waste-to-energy plant (see here a previous article by BeBeez).
Ideal Standard sa has been controlled by Anchorage Capital since 2018, through the holding Ceramo sarl, with a share of 80.035%; and by CVC Credit Partners, through CVC Credit Partners Global Enached Loan EUR sarl, for the remaining 19.965%. The funds acquired 100% of the company from Bain Capital, which in turn had acquired Ideal Standard in 2007, as part of a financial restructuring process, which from 2008 to the end of 2020 has developed with the closure of 13 factories, of which 4 starting from 2018, and with further cost cuts that led to savings of 75 million euros from 2018 to 2020. This was recalled in the Fitch Ratings report published on the occasion of the placement of a 350 million euros bond in July 2021, which assigned the issue the preliminary rating B-. On the same occasion, Moody’s assigned the preliminary bond rating B3. Ideal Standard closed 2020 with 760 million euros in revenues.
The Ideal Standard brand was born in 1949, following the spin-off from the American Standard company. In 2007, American Standard then sold the kitchen and bathroom business to Bain Capital for 1.745 billion dollars, based on revenues of 2.4 billions. At the same time, the activities in North America and Asia were sold, respectively, to Sun Capital and the Japanese construction group LIXIL, while the activities in Europe and Latin America were kept within the scope of Ideal Standard.
