Clas­si­fi­ca­ti­on of GBC AG to Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal S.p.A.

Com­pa­ny Name:	Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal S.p.A.
ISIN:	IT0005549354
Re­ason for the re­se­arch:	Ma­nage­ment In­ter­view
Re­com­men­da­ti­on:	Buy
Tar­get pri­ce:	2.92 EUR
Tar­get pri­ce on sight of:	31.12.2025
Last ra­ting ch­an­ge:
Ana­lyst:	Mat­thi­as Greif­fen­ber­ger, Cos­min Fil­ker

‚RFLTC aims to reach a mar­ket ca­pi­ta­liza­ti­on of €150 mil­li­on by pur­suing ad­di­tio­nal fund­rai­sing and fo­cu­sing on new ac­qui­si­ti­ons‘

Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal S.p.A., ba­sed in Mi­lan, is an in­dus­tri­al hol­ding com­pa­ny spe­cia­li­zing in the ac­qui­si­ti­on of fa­mi­ly-ow­ned Ita­li­an SMEs. RFLTC tar­gets ma­tu­re busi­nesses with the po­ten­ti­al for si­gni­fi­cant growth and ex­pan­si­on into both do­me­stic and in­ter­na­tio­nal mar­kets.

GBC AG: Can you pro­vi­de a com­pre­hen­si­ve over­view of Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal S.p.A., de­tail­ing its pri­ma­ry ac­ti­vi­ties, mis­si­on, and the fac­tors that make the com­pa­ny uni­que?

Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal S.p.A. (RFLTC) is a lis­ted in­vest­ment hol­ding com­pa­ny with a fo­cus on in­dus­tri­al fa­mi­ly-ow­ned SMEs. Foun­ded in 2020 by Pao­lo Pe­s­cet­to, An­drea Rossot­ti, and the Ba­zo­li Git­ti fa­mi­ly, RFLTC is com­mit­ted to long-term in­vest­ments, ac­qui­ring both qua­li­fied mi­no­ri­ty and ma­jo­ri­ty sta­kes, in­clu­ding th­rough Club Deals.

Our stra­tegy cen­ters on ac­qui­ring sta­kes in com­pa­nies whe­re the Red­Fi­sh team of ex­perts can make a meaningful im­pact th­rough their com­pe­ten­ci­es. We prio­ri­ti­ze op­por­tu­ni­ties whe­re mar­ket dy­na­mics sup­port a build-up stra­tegy th­rough M&A ac­ti­vi­ties.

RFLTC is de­si­gned to pre­ser­ve and ma­xi­mi­ze va­lue, thanks to a lean cost struc­tu­re and a re­mu­ne­ra­ti­on sys­tem lin­ked to the app­re­cia­ti­on of the company’s lis­ted shares (via stock op­ti­on plans) and an in­cen­ti­ve struc­tu­re ba­sed on di­vi­dend dis­tri­bu­ti­on to share­hol­ders.

GBC AG: What are the main cri­te­ria that Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal uses to iden­ti­fy and sel­ect its tar­get com­pa­nies for ac­qui­si­ti­on?

Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal acts as a long-term in­dus­tri­al part­ner for its sub­si­dia­ries, ai­ming to grow its port­fo­lio com­pa­nies wi­t­hout pre­de­ter­mi­ned exit pe­ri­ods. Ca­pi­tal is rai­sed th­rough de­di­ca­ted in­crea­ses, wi­t­hout re­ly­ing on pre-com­mit­ted in­ves­tor funds. This ap­proach al­lows Red­Fi­sh to en­ga­ge in deals with en­tre­pre­neurs who aren’t see­king a ty­pi­cal Pri­va­te Equi­ty in­ves­tor but are in­s­tead loo­king for long-term part­ners. The­se part­ners are com­mit­ted to ac­com­pany­ing the com­pa­ny on a ’safe‘ jour­ney toward an or­ga­nic and in­or­ga­nic growth plan, in­clu­ding cross-bor­der M&A deals.

Our long-term in­vest­ment ho­ri­zon en­ables RFLTC to en­ter new in­vest­ments at at­trac­ti­ve, low ent­ry mul­ti­ples (curr­ent­ly aver­aging 4.96x EV/EBITDA). En­tre­pre­neurs are re­assu­red by the pos­si­bi­li­ty of ge­ne­ra­ting va­lue th­rough a long-term part­ner­ship with RFLTC and its in­dus­tri­al ex­per­ti­se.

We pri­ma­ri­ly tar­get fa­mi­ly-ow­ned SMEs ope­ra­ting in ni­che mar­kets with si­gni­fi­cant busi­ness know-how, whe­re the RFLTC team can le­vera­ge its ex­pe­ri­ence in dri­ving growth th­rough M&A stra­te­gies.

GBC AG: Could you pro­vi­de de­tails on your most re­cent ac­qui­si­ti­ons and ex­plain how the­se ac­qui­si­ti­ons fit into your over­all in­vest­ment stra­tegy?

RFLTC’s la­test ac­qui­si­ti­on is a mi­no­ri­ty sta­ke (15%) in INDUSTRIE POLIECO MPB S.p.A.

Foun­ded in 1977, Po­lie­co Group is a fa­mi­ly-ow­ned com­pa­ny ba­sed in Nor­t­hern Ita­ly and is the lea­ding pro­du­cer in Ita­ly of dou­ble-wall cor­ru­ga­ted po­ly­ethy­le­ne pi­ping sys­tems. Ad­di­tio­nal­ly, the com­pa­ny ma­nu­fac­tures resins for pipe coa­tings and the pack­a­ging sec­tor. In 2023, Po­lie­co Group achie­ved €200 mil­li­on in re­ve­nue, €45 mil­li­on in EBITDA, and main­tai­ned a net fi­nan­cial po­si­ti­on of zero.

The company’s busi­ness mo­del is di­vi­ded into two units:

• Pi­ping Sys­tems (58% of re­ve­nues): Fo­cu­sed on the de­sign and ma­nu­fac­tu­ring of con­duits for elec­tri­cal and te­le­com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons in­stal­la­ti­ons in re­si­den­ti­al buil­dings, along with pi­ping so­lu­ti­ons for se­wa­ge sys­tems (‚Eco­pal‘ sys­tems) and man­ho­le co­vers.

• Resins (42% of re­ve­nues): Spe­cia­li­zes in the pro­duc­tion of resins used for li­ning Oil & Gas pipe­line tu­bes and ad­he­si­ves for va­rious in­dus­tries, in­clu­ding food pack­a­ging, cos­me­tics, and phar­maceu­ti­cals.

This ac­qui­si­ti­on ali­gns per­fect­ly with our stra­tegy due to: (i) the fa­vorable ent­ry mul­ti­ple we nego­tia­ted, (ii) the po­ten­ti­al for pur­suing a cross-bor­der M&A stra­tegy in part­ner­ship with the exis­ting ma­nage­ment, and (iii) the company’s low debt and high cash flow ge­ne­ra­ti­on wi­thin its ni­che mar­ket.

GBC AG: Can you ela­bo­ra­te on the stra­te­gic im­portance and per­for­mance of some of your key port­fo­lio com­pa­nies?

One of the key port­fo­lio com­pa­nies of RFLTC is Mo­vin­ter S.p.A., th­rough which RFLTC is dri­ving an ag­gre­ga­ti­on pro­ject in the rail­way and na­val sec­tors, le­ver­aging its in­dus­tri­al ex­per­ti­se. Mo­vin­ter, a 100% ow­ned com­pa­ny, was ac­qui­red in April 2023 with a tur­no­ver of €22 mil­li­on, spe­cia­li­zing in light car­pen­try pro­duc­tion for rail­way and sub­way car­ri­a­ges.

In No­vem­ber 2023, Mo­vin­ter ac­qui­red Six Ita­lia, a €15 mil­li­on com­pa­ny spe­cia­li­zing in “spe­cial ma­te­ri­als” for the rail­way and na­val in­dus­tries. This was fol­lo­wed by a se­cond ac­qui­si­ti­on in June 2024, when Mo­vin­ter ac­qui­red Sai­ep S.r.l., an­o­ther €15 mil­li­on com­pa­ny spe­cia­li­zing in elec­tric so­lu­ti­ons (cabling) for rail­way trains.

This build-up stra­tegy aims to crea­te a group that can in­tro­du­ce pro­duc­tion and pro­duct syn­er­gies, al­lo­wing Mo­vin­ter to tran­si­ti­on from of­fe­ring a sin­gle pro­duct to pro­vi­ding a com­plex as­sem­bly. This ‚one-stop shop‘ ap­proach po­si­ti­ons Mo­vin­ter as a sin­gle point of cont­act for ma­jor cus­to­mers like Hi­ta­chi and Al­s­tom. With the ac­qui­si­ti­ons of Six Ita­lia S.p.A. and Sai­ep S.r.l., the group is now fo­re­cas­ting an­nu­al con­so­li­da­ted sa­les of over €60 mil­li­on.

GBC AG: What spe­ci­fic stra­te­gies does Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal em­ploy to crea­te va­lue wi­thin its port­fo­lio com­pa­nies?

Our stra­tegy fo­cu­ses on (i) cross-bor­der M&A th­rough an add-on ap­proach, (ii) dri­ving in­ter­na­tio­nal ex­pan­si­on and (iii) pro­vi­ding stra­te­gic con­sul­ting with our in­dus­try ex­perts. We also prio­ri­ti­ze (iv) streng­thening go­ver­nan­ce and ma­nage­ment struc­tures while (v) enhan­cing ESG awa­re­ness across our port­fo­lio com­pa­nies.

GBC AG: What is your ty­pi­cal hol­ding pe­ri­od for in­vest­ments, and how do you ap­proach exits?

RFLTC has de­ve­lo­ped a uni­que in­dus­tri­al hol­ding mo­del that dif­fe­ren­tia­tes it from tra­di­tio­nal pri­va­te equi­ty funds (such as SICAF, ELTIF, SGR, or fi­nan­cial hol­ding com­pa­nies). While RFLTC en­ga­ges in si­mi­lar ac­ti­vi­ties like rai­sing ca­pi­tal and ac­qui­ring com­pa­nies to sup­port their growth, its fo­cus is di­stinct­ly on ac­qui­ring fa­mi­ly-ow­ned SMEs or com­pa­nies un­der­go­ing ge­ne­ra­tio­nal tran­si­ti­ons, par­ti­cu­lar­ly tho­se poi­sed for fur­ther growth and de­ve­lo­p­ment.

What sets RFLTC apart is its hands-on ap­proach to enhan­cing the ope­ra­tio­nal ca­pa­bi­li­ties of its port­fo­lio com­pa­nies. This in­cludes in­te­gra­ting key ro­les such as a CFO with ex­per­ti­se in fi­nan­ce and ban­king, im­ple­men­ting a ro­bust ma­nage­ment con­trol sys­tem, ap­poin­ting a ma­na­ger who re­ports di­rect­ly to ow­ner­ship, brin­ging in an in­ter­na­tio­nal sa­les ex­pert, and es­tab­li­shing an ESG sup­port com­mit­tee that is curr­ent­ly be­ing stan­dar­di­zed across the Group. The­se ro­les are of­ten ab­sent in com­pa­nies of si­mi­lar size, and RFLTC’s abili­ty to pro­vi­de the­se ser­vices adds si­gni­fi­cant va­lue to its subsidiaries—an ap­proach high­ly app­re­cia­ted by en­tre­pre­neurs.

Ad­di­tio­nal­ly, RFLTC di­stin­gu­is­hes its­elf from fi­nan­cial ope­ra­tors th­rough its long-term in­vest­ment ho­ri­zon. Un­li­ke ty­pi­cal fi­nan­cial hol­dings, RFLTC does not rely on Drag-Along clau­ses or pre­de­ter­mi­ned exit stra­te­gies. The com­pa­nies RFLTC ac­qui­res are of­ten se­cond or third-ge­ne­ra­ti­on busi­nesses whe­re the foun­ders‘ le­ga­cy con­ti­nues to be re­le­vant for many ye­ars, alig­ning with RFLTC’s com­mit­ment to long-term growth and sta­bi­li­ty.

GBC AG: Which sec­tors do you con­sider most pro­mi­sing for fu­ture in­vest­ments, and why?

1. MADE IN ITALY: Fa­mi­ly-run Ita­li­an SMEs in the Fa­shion and In­te­ri­or De­sign sec­tors have long been re­co­gni­zed as lea­ders in their ni­che mar­kets. The­se com­pa­nies set them­sel­ves apart th­rough their crea­ti­vi­ty and top-tier pro­duc­tion, re­pre­sen­ting ex­cel­lence in ‚Made in Ita­ly‘ craft­sman­ship.
2. ICT / INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION: Fol­lo­wing our co-in­vest­ment in Ma­tic Mind along­side Fon­do Ita­lia­no d’Investimento, RFLTC re­mains keen­ly in­te­res­ted in the ICT sec­tor and in­dus­tri­al au­to­ma­ti­on. We are par­ti­cu­lar­ly fo­cu­sed on di­gi­tal ope­ra­tors and en­gi­nee­ring com­pa­nies that pos­sess strong com­pe­ti­ti­ve ad­van­ta­ges and de­mons­tra­te si­gni­fi­cant growth po­ten­ti­al.
3. FOOD: The Ita­li­an food in­dus­try re­mains high­ly frag­men­ted, pre­sen­ting op­por­tu­ni­ties for con­so­li­da­ti­on th­rough the ac­qui­si­ti­on of SMEs roo­ted in Italy’s rich food tra­di­ti­on. This sec­tor con­ti­nues to show re­si­li­ent de­mand both do­me­sti­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tio­nal­ly, ma­king it a stra­te­gic area for ag­gre­ga­ti­on pro­jects.

Loo­king ahead, we are deepe­ning our com­mit­ment to Mo­vin­ter, whe­re RFLTC is buil­ding a group of com­pa­nies ac­ti­ve in the Rail­way, Ae­ro­space, and Na­val sec­tors. Our goal is to crea­te pro­duc­tion and pro­duct syn­er­gies across the­se sub­si­dia­ries, lea­ding to si­gni­fi­cant cost sa­vings and enhan­ced ope­ra­tio­nal ef­fi­ci­en­cy.

GBC AG: Whe­re do you see Red­Fi­sh Long­Term Ca­pi­tal in the next 5–10 ye­ars, and what are the key mi­le­sto­nes you aim to achie­ve du­ring this pe­ri­od?

RFLTC aims to reach a mar­ket ca­pi­ta­liza­ti­on of €150 mil­li­on by pur­suing ad­di­tio­nal fund­rai­sing and fo­cu­sing on new ac­qui­si­ti­ons. Our stra­tegy em­pha­si­zes sec­tor di­ver­si­fi­ca­ti­on and a ro­bust add-on po­li­cy for our sub­si­dia­ries.

GBC AG: Thank you for the In­ter­view.

You can down­load the re­se­arch here: http://​www​.more​-ir​.de/​d​/​3​0​6​3​5​.​pdf

Cont­act for ques­ti­ons:
GBC AG
Hal­der­stra­ße 27
86150 Augs­burg
⁰⁸²¹⁄₂₄₁₁₃₃ 0
research@​gbc-​ag.​de
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Of­fen­le­gung mög­li­cher In­ter­es­sens­kon­flik­te nach § 85 WpHG und Art. 20 MAR Beim oben ana­ly­sier­ten Un­ter­neh­men ist fol­gen­der mög­li­cher In­ter­es­sen­kon­flikt ge­ge­ben: (5a,11); Ei­nen Ka­ta­log mög­li­cher In­ter­es­sen­kon­flik­te fin­den Sie un­ter:
https://​www​.gbc​-ag​.de/​d​e​/​O​f​f​e​n​l​e​g​ung
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Com­ple­ti­on Date (Time): 27.08.2024 9:00
First Dis­tri­bu­ti­on Date (Time): 28.08.2024 10:00