Milan/Düsseldorf/London — Ambi­enta SGR SpA, one of the largest sustaina­­bi­­lity-focu­­sed private equity inves­tors in Europe, announ­ces that its port­fo­lio company Aroma­ta­Group SRL (“Aromata”) has comple­ted the 100% acqui­si­tion of Indus­trie Prodotti Alimen­tari Manenti (“IPAM”), a market leader in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of ingre­di­ents for the food industry.

The flavor and colo­rants market is worth over €12 billion and is expec­ted to grow at an annual rate of 3–4% over the next five years, under­pin­ned by long-term sustainable growth drivers. Ambi­enta reco­gni­zed the growth poten­tial of natu­ral food ingre­di­ents. Natu­ral raw mate­ri­als repre­sent the stron­gest growth driver in the food indus­try, with global growth of 7% versus zero growth for synthe­tic products. Substi­tu­tion of synthe­tic chemi­cals (from oil or inor­ga­nic chemi­cals) in flavor or colo­rant recipes with natu­ral ingre­di­ents that are orga­nic and pose no health risks is incre­asingly prefer­red by food manu­fac­tu­r­ers and consumers.

As a leading manu­fac­tu­rer of natu­ral flavors and colors for the food indus­try, Aromata is well posi­tio­ned to support the shift to natu­ral, healt­hier foods. Aromata has three produc­tion faci­li­ties in nort­hern Italy and serves over 1,200 custo­mers in 50 count­ries. In 2018, the Group gene­ra­ted appro­xi­m­ately 30 million euros in sales, 5 million euros in EBITDA and contri­bu­ted to avoi­ding 83 tons of pollut­ants. After a successful 2018, Aromata conti­nues to invest to expand its product and appli­ca­tion port­fo­lio: the acqui­si­tion of IPAM marks Aromata’s expan­sion into the adja­cent savory ingre­di­ents market.

IPAM is the Italian leader in the produc­tion and distri­bu­tion of high quality and func­tional ingre­di­ents for the food indus­try, such as bread­crumbs and dough mixes, mari­na­des and flavors. IPAM is based in Zibello Pole­sine, in the heart of the Italian “Food Valley”, and supplies over 300 custo­mers from two produc­tion sites.

The acqui­si­tion of IPAM will enable Aromata to gain a foot­hold in the large and attrac­tive ’savory’ ingre­di­ent market, offer new custo­mers a more exten­sive range of natu­ral flavors and colors, and jointly deve­lop both compa­nies’ natu­ral ingre­di­ent offe­rings. The tran­sac­tion provi­des Aromata with further expan­sion in the ingre­di­ents market to meet incre­asing custo­mer demand.

Hans Udo Wenzel, Presi­dent of Aroma­ta­Group, says: “The acqui­si­tion of IPAM is the first step in Aromata’s stra­te­gic expan­sion plan, enab­ling Aromata to broa­den its product range and streng­then its main compe­ti­tive advan­tage, which is to offer a full range of products to its customers.”

Euge­nio Manenti, foun­der and CEO of IPAM, added, “We are very plea­sed to join Aromata’s buy-and-build project and further expand the group’s leader­ship in natu­ral ingredients.”

Mauro Roversi (photo), Part­ner & Chief Invest­ment Offi­cer at Ambi­enta, commen­ted, “Stra­te­gic acqui­si­ti­ons are key to the growth of our port­fo­lio compa­nies. We welcome the IPAM team to Aromata and look forward to further growing our joint business.”

About Ambi­enta
Ambi­enta is a leading Euro­pean private equity fund based in Milan, Düssel­dorf and London. The focus is on growth invest­ments in indus­trial compa­nies that focus on sustaina­bi­lity trends. With over €1 billion in funds under manage­ment, the world’s largest pool of capi­tal for this stra­tegy, Ambi­enta has made 32 resource effi­ci­ency and envi­ron­men­tal invest­ments across Europe to date. Ambi­enta actively parti­ci­pa­tes in the deve­lo­p­ment of its port­fo­lio compa­nies, provi­ding indus­try and manage­ment exper­tise and global connec­ti­vity. www.ambientasgr.com.