Translated from the original article
Crédit des Alpes and Kohlberg take over Redaelli
The American fund Kohlberg and the banking group Crédit des Alpes are becoming shareholders of the Italian company Redaelli Tecna, holder of a group producing steel ropes, pre-stressing concrete and the steel cord used to strengthen car tyres. The largest share of Redaelli Tecna will be acquired by Kohlberg, which has already secured 95% of the company. The shareholders’ complex sees the leaving of Sopaf, while Fin2000 of the Bocconi University will maintain its share. The London branch of Crédit des Alpes, a group having one of its major seats in Geneva, acted as investment bank for this transaction, together with Vasiliou of New York. The same Crédit des Alpes will join the body of the shareholders. During the next phase, Redaelli’s capital shares shall then be defined as follows: about 65% to Kohlberg, about 30% to Crédit des Alpes and about 5% to Bocconi’s Fin2000.
The value of the transaction was not made known. However, Redaelli Tecna has been recapitalised. In 1998, Redaelli Group totalled a turnover amounting to about 300 billion liras (USD 165 millions). Its main operating seat is located in Gardone Valtrompia, an iron and steel industry centre near Brescia, but the group can also count over a plant in the province of Naples and, abroad, in France and the USA. With a long history behind its back – its foundation dating of 1819 – the group of Brescia is one or the world’s biggest producers in the segments of steel ropes and pre-stressing concrete. Redaelli is also the provider of the cables supporting the “Millennium Wheel”, the giant wheel which will rise in London, just in front of the Big Ben, and of the framework for a major waterworks in Libya. In the past, the Italian group produced the suspension cables for the Storebaelt Bridge, connecting Copenhagen to the Jutland, of the Edinburgh Bridge, and various elements for the Rome and Seville stadiums.