Unigrains and Co-Investors Acquire Italian Bakery Group L’Albero del Pane and Tedesco

Unigrains — together with BNP Paribas BNL Equity Investments, Hydra and Alexa Invest — has acquired L’Albero del Pane and Tedesco, a leading group in Italy in the production and distribution of sweet and savory baked goods, including biscuits, croissants, fresh pastry, traditional leavened products and bread substitutes, owned by the Tedesco family.

Gitti and Partners assisted Unigrains Italia S.p.A. (with a team composed of Francesco Orazi, Alfredo Cicognani and Simone Cordisco), the Italian investment holding company of Europe’s leading agri-food investor, Unigrains S.A. Gitti and Partners' team was led by managing partner Vincenzo Giannantonio and senior associate Giulia Fossati Zunino and composed of associate Alessandro Baronchelli and junior associates Rosanna Forcella and Michelle Leone for M&A aspects, as well as partner Domenico Patruno for banking matters, senior associate Virna Caterina Ferretto for real estate matters, partner Elisa Mapelli and junior associate Francesco Cannavina for labor aspects, partner Laura Sommaruga and senior associate Federico Ianeselli for administrative law aspects, partner Flavio Monfrini and junior associate Jessica Riva for privacy and 231 matters, and partner Marco Blei for IT and IP matters.

PedersoliGattai, with a team led by partner Jean-Daniel Regna-Gladin and composed of senior associate Chiara Guidi and associates Alessandro Pirera and Luigia Romano, assisted BNP Paribas BNL Equity Investments (with a team composed of Lorenzo Langella, Lorenzo Canestri and Francesco Placanica), which — alongside Hydra S.p.A., represented by Filippo Volta, and Alexa Invest S.r.l., represented by Eng. Carmelo Melfi and Luca Pacifico — participated in the transaction together with Unigrains Italia S.p.A. as co-investors.

The sellers, who simultaneously re-invested in the group’s holding company, were assisted on the legal aspects by ADVANT Nctm, with a team led by partners Pietro Zanoni and Alessia Trevisan and composed of managing associate Natali Prodan and associates Eleonora Bellavita and Francesca Gentile.

Notarial activities were handled by Notary Ciro De Vivo and lawyer Mario Lado of Studio Notarile Ciro De Vivo.

Spada Partners (Stefano Marchetti – partner, Pierpasquale Perito – manager, and Rosario Carrabino – associate) acted as financial advisor to Unigrains Italia S.p.A.; Pirola Pennuto Zei & Associati (Gianfranco Buschini – partner, Mara Palacino – partner, Sabrina Ricciardi – associate partner, and Federica D’Amelio – senior associate) as tax advisor; Fortlane Partners (Giovanni Calia – managing director, Philip Lloyd – principal, Manfredi Ricci – senior consultant, Giulia Falchi – consultant, and Filippo Zarattini – associate consultant) as strategic advisor; and Bilma (Andrea Mussi – chairman, Andrea Ferretti – partner, and Daniele Invernizzi – senior consultant) as ESG advisor.

Vitale & Co (Alberto Gennarini – managing partner, Valentina Salari – partner, Ugo Maria Franzini – vice president and Edoardo Ravano – analyst) acted as financial and M&A advisor to the sellers, who were also assisted on tax and accounting matters by Studio Degli Innocenti, with Simone Degli Innocenti.

The banking financing for the transaction was provided by Banco BPM (which acted with a team composed of Alessandro Rocchi, Luca Manenti, Claudio Betti and Francesca Tessitore), assisted by Banco BPM’s Legal Advisory team composed of Antonella Iadarola and Fernando Apa.