Under the stewardship of FAI, Trasporti Romagna coupled strong organic growth with industry consolidation to become an Italian leader in food transport and logistics
FAI's exit, orchestrated in the context of a buyout by Eurizon Iter Fund, alongside reinvesting minority shareholders Banca Intesa and CEO Simone Romagna, positions
Trasporti Romagna for continued growth and development
Malo & Milan, November 14th, 2022 - Fondo Agroalimentare Italiano successfully completed its third exit with the sale of its stake in Trasporti Romagna. This exit takes place in the context of a buyout by Eurizon Iter Fund alongside reinvesting minority shareholders Banca Intesa and CEO Simone Romagna.
Historically owned by the Romagna family, Trasporti Romagna is a leading Italian fresh, refrigerated and frozen transport & logistics specialist working mainly with mass retail and niche clients in the agri-food sector. Unigrains' initial June 2016 investment, carried over to Fondo Agroalimentare Italiano upon its constitution in June 2018, aimed to support constantly growing demand for food logistics specialists as industrials and retailers increasingly seek to outsource to specialized strategic players.
Beyond accompanying Transporti Romagna's transition from a family business to a fully-fledged corporate through the implementation of institutional processes and several senior recruitments, FAI actively participated in seeking - and reinvesting in - opportunities for market consolidation to reinforce Trasporti Romagna's geographical leadership.
During FAI's tenure, Trasporti Romagna completed three major build-up operations:
- An.Ri Trans, a regional refrigerated food transporter
- Blue City, focused on frozen logistics activities with warehouses in Verona and Trento
- Logistica 2, specialized in the transport of Trentino area fresh fruits
Given the strategic nature of its activity and thanks to the swift implementation of strong health and safety measures, Trasporti Romagna demonstrated resilience through the Covid-19 crisis. Between 2015 and 2022, the company's sales grew from €M 110 to over €M 270.
Aware of the important environmental implications of its activity, Trasporti Romagna reoriented its fleet, investing in a new generation of highly performing vehicles and implemented new route planning techniques to reduce emissions, frozen warehouses recently completed are state of the art on the energy-savings technologies for logistic.
Following this successful phase of growth and consolidation, Trasporti Romagna shareholders received signs of interest from different financial sponsors, notably specialized in infrastructure development and consolidation. The acquisition by Eurizon Iter Fund and reinvesting minority shareholder Banca Intesa is backed by Simone Romagna, Trasporti Romagna's CEO, who has also significantly reinvested and will continue to support the company's growth.
Simone Romagna, CEO of Trasporti Romagna, declared: "I thank the FAI team for their support in our organic and external growth endeavours. Trasporti Romagna has grown and developed from a medium-sized family business to an Italian leader in its sector. Today, with the backing of our new financial sponsor, we begin the next phase in our story."
Francesco Orazi, Director of Fondo Agroalimentare Italiano, added: "It has been a pleasure to participate in the transformation of Trasporti Romagna - the first investment completed by FAI. This exit again demonstrates the pertinence of our approached based on industry consolidation and deep understanding of Italian agri-food market trends."
