TunnelbauTech: Ambienta subsidiary Officine Maccaferri acquires CPT

Milan/London/Paris/Munich — Ambi­enta SGR S.p.A. (“Ambi­enta”), a leading Euro­pean invest­ment mana­ger pionee­ring sustainable envi­ron­men­tal invest­ments in private and public markets, announ­ces that its port­fo­lio company Offi­cine Macca­ferri S.p.A. (“Macca­ferri” or the “Group”), a leading global provi­der of envi­ron­men­tal engi­nee­ring solu­ti­ons, with a busi­ness presence in over 130 count­ries, has acqui­red CPT Group (“CPT”), an Italian company specia­li­zed in advan­ced mecha­ni­zed tunnell­ing tech­no­lo­gies and robo­tic prefa­bri­ca­tion systems for under­ground infrastructure.

CPT was foun­ded over 30 years ago and is based in Nova Mila­nese (Italy). The company supplies major cons­truc­tion compa­nies world­wide in the fields of tunnel cons­truc­tion and infra­struc­ture. Its product range includes robot-assis­­ted prefa­bri­ca­tion systems (Robo­fac­tory), produc­ti­vity moni­to­ring soft­ware for tunnel boring machi­nes (TBM) and ecolo­gi­cally desi­gned spacers. As a pioneer in the appli­ca­tion of Indus­try 4.0 prin­ci­ples to the prefa­bri­ca­tion of tunnel boring machine (TBM) segments, CPT has helped to drive auto­ma­tion on under­ground cons­truc­tion sites. Its tech­no­lo­gies have alre­ady been successfully used by Macca­ferri for the instal­la­tion of its semi-auto­­ma­­tic steel ribs. CPT opera­tes in Europe, South East Asia and Austra­lia and is known for making the cons­truc­tion of tunnel linings in geolo­gi­cally complex envi­ron­ments more resource effi­ci­ent, safer and faster. 

With this acqui­si­tion, Offi­cine Macca­ferri will become one of the worl­d’s largest indus­trial compa­nies able to offer a fully inte­gra­ted plat­form for tunnel cons­truc­tion, inclu­ding both tradi­tio­nal systems (steel ribs, fibers, seals) and mecha­ni­cal solu­ti­ons (Robo­fac­tory, TBMs, digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies). The merged group will serve a growing addressa­ble market of EUR 1 billion and further conso­li­date Macca­fer­ri’s trans­for­ma­tion into a tech­no­logy leader in sustainable infrastructure. 

This tran­sac­tion is another mile­stone in Macca­fer­ri’s growth trajec­tory under Ambi­en­ta’s owner­ship. Since Ambi­en­ta’s entry at the begin­ning of 2024, the Group has pursued a targe­ted M&A stra­tegy while conti­nuing to grow orga­ni­cally and advan­cing its ESG commitment. 

The global tunnell­ing market is expe­ri­en­cing strong struc­tu­ral growth driven by incre­asing urba­niza­tion, climate-resi­­li­ent infra­struc­ture invest­ments and the comple­xity of modern under­ground projects. Mecha­ni­zed tunnell­ing is beco­ming incre­asingly important due to its speed, safety and adap­ta­bi­lity to complex envi­ron­ments. At the same time, tradi­tio­nal excava­tion methods remain an important and widely used solu­tion in tunnel cons­truc­tion and remain an essen­tial part of Macca­fer­ri’s exper­tise and value propo­si­tion. In this context, the inte­gra­tion of CPT will allow Macca­ferri to expand its range of tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons to operate in high-growth regi­ons and meet the incre­asing demand of the global tunnel­ing market for dura­ble and envi­ron­men­tally friendly under­ground infrastructures. 

CPT’s tech­no­logy is directly aligned with Ambi­en­ta’s envi­ron­men­tal impact assess­ment (EIA). The Robo­fac­tory plat­form enables auto­ma­ted 24-hour produc­tion that signi­fi­cantly increa­ses produc­ti­vity while redu­cing envi­ron­men­tal impact — redu­cing the use of release oil by 25 percent and the number of concrete defects by 30 percent. These inno­va­tions contri­bute to safer cons­truc­tion sites, lower mate­rial consump­tion and better tracea­bi­lity of opera­ti­ons.

Andrea Ventu­rini, Private Equity Part­ner of Ambi­enta, said: “This acqui­si­tion demons­tra­tes Offi­cine Macca­fer­ri’s ambi­tion to become the global plat­form for tech­ni­cal solu­ti­ons for climate change adapt­a­tion. With CPT, the Group streng­thens its ability to deve­lop new busi­nesses, inte­grate cutting-edge tech­no­lo­gies and act as a conso­li­da­tor in highly specia­li­zed indus­trial niches. This is a further step towards buil­ding a diver­si­fied and resi­li­ent leader in all key infra­struc­ture markets.”

Stefano Susani, CEO of Offi­cine Macca­ferri, added: “The inte­gra­tion of CPT provi­des us with a unique oppor­tu­nity to grow our tunnell­ing busi­ness into a global leader in mecha­ni­zed and tradi­tio­nal solu­ti­ons comple­men­ted by advan­ced indus­trial robo­tic auto­ma­tion. We see signi­fi­cant poten­tial to create long-term value by offe­ring major custo­mers world­wide an inte­gra­ted plat­form that supports the most complex and stra­te­gic under­ground infra­struc­ture projects through inno­va­tion, relia­bi­lity and sustainability.”

Klaus Pini, co-foun­­der of CPT, said: “Joining Offi­cine Macca­ferri is a natu­ral evolu­tion for CPT. We share the same indus­trial values, the same long-term vision and the same commit­ment to tech­ni­cal excel­lence. This part­ner­ship will allow us to acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment of our tech­no­lo­gies and provide even grea­ter added value to our custo­mers and the tunnel­ing indus­try worldwide.”

About Ambi­enta

Ambi­enta is a Euro­pean invest­ment mana­ger foun­ded in 2007 and a pioneer in sustainable invest­ments in private equity, public markets and private credit. With offices in Milan, London, Paris and Munich, Ambi­enta mana­ges over €4 billion in assets and is supported by a growing global inves­tor base. The company invests in compa­nies that are driven by envi­ron­men­tal mega­trends and whose products or services contri­bute to impro­ving resource effi­ci­ency or redu­cing pollu­tion. Using a science-based approach, Ambi­enta iden­ti­fies pioneers in the real economy — compa­nies that gene­rate strong finan­cial returns while having a measura­ble posi­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact. 

As an indus­try pioneer, Ambi­enta was one of the first signa­to­ries to the United Nati­ons Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (UN PRI) in 2012. In 2019, the company recei­ved certi­fi­ca­tion as a B Corpo­ra­tion — a seal of appr­oval for compa­nies that meet the highest stan­dards in terms of social and envi­ron­men­tal impact, trans­pa­rency and respon­si­bi­lity. In 2020, Ambi­enta joined the Insti­tu­tio­nal Inves­tors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), a leading Euro­pean initia­tive of insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors for climate protec­tion. In 2023, Ambi­enta set another exam­ple and became one of the few asset mana­gers to become an indus­try role model by commit­ting to the Science Based Targets Initia­tive (SBTi), which defi­nes science-based climate targets for compa­nies. www.ambientasgr.com