The private equity fund Rhone Capital enters the capital of Illycaffè. The operation is worth 200 million euros, to increase the Italian coffee brand to 20%: the strategy is to finance the growth of the Trieste brand, especially in the United States where Italian coffee has an iconic position in the collective imagination and therefore offers interesting growth margins. Illy already has 5 outlets and 15 franchises in North America but it is clear that without new resources the retail expansion policy risks being prohibitive.
The news, anticipated by Il Sole 24 Ore, is partly linked to the reorganisation of the upstream holding of the Trieste group: last January the Peninsula Capital fund - which in Italy has invested in the past in Italo, then Azimut, Guala Closures and Kiko - reached an agreement to acquire 23% of the holding from Francesco Illy, one of the brothers who aspires to valorise his stake by exiting the capital. But the entrance to the Peninsula fund is subject to the approval of the other brothers Andrea, Riccardo and Anna, together with their mother Anna Rossi. Precisely Andrea Illy entrusts the ratio of the operation to the agencies, defining Rhone Capital as a "future travel companion", chosen after a selection that began over a year ago - slowed down due to the pandemic - and entrusted to the investment bank Goldman Sachs. A decisive entry for "strategic and non-financial" reasons.
