Clarium is an Italian Strategy and Corporate Finance consultancy, helping medium-sized companies to accelerate their development and find growth opportunities. Clarium’s expansive social network, relations with the Trade Industrial Associations and the Unions, as well as their deep knowledge of the Italian industry culture and entrepreneurial mind-set make the company stand out in a crowd of competitors.

 

SMS Group GmbH acquired stake in OMAV – can you tell us a bit about Clarium’s involvement in the transaction?

Clarium’s team, led by Paolo Chiari, was appointed by OMAV to act as global adviser during the transaction. We found that SMS Group was the perfect partner for the OMAV’s industrial development plan. Clarium supported OMAV from the preliminary steps with:

  • Drafting the NDA and non-binding Letter of Intent;
  • Support in the Due diligence activities;
  • OMAV’ group reorganization;
  • Tax rating;
  • OMAV’s evaluation and price negotiation.

Once these were completed, Clarium, along with legal partner Allen&Overy, supported OMAV on drafting, reviewing and negotiating the Investment Agreement between the company and SMS Group, as well as the Shareholders’ Agreements.

 

What made this a successful transaction?  

The transaction was successful mainly because of SMS’s interest in OMAV. SMS’s key goal is to enhance OMAV’s skills in order to be able to use them synergistically in the future. This acquisition is a growth agreement for both companies.

 

What were the key challenges of bringing the transaction to completion?

The biggest challenge was to convince a large industrial investor like SMS to believe in the potential of a medium-sized Italian company. We played a key role in these initial talks and are happy that our input resulted in this successful acquisition.