Venpa sells majority share to private equity

French private equity firm Sagard Midcap has acquired a majority share of Italian rental business GV3-Venpa.

As part of the deal, the existing management team – led by CEO Emanuela Pege - and the founding Pege family will reinvest “significantly” in the business.

Financial details have not been disclosed. However, Milan-based private equity firm QCapital confirmed to IRN that it will exit the business following the completion of the Sagard deal in November. QCapital acquired a 42.5% holding in Venpa in 2021 for €15 million.

Venpa’s headquarters in Dolo, Italy.

Sagard, which knows the equipment rental market well through its past holding in Kiloutou, said it had been working on the Venpa deal for two years and aimed to make it the “undisputed national leader in its sector.”

Venpa was founded in 1981 in Dolo, Veneto, and now runs a fleet of over 6,000 machines – dominated by aerial platforms - from 41 branches in the North and centre of Italy. It has 450 employees.

Its revenues have increased from €40 million in 2021 to around €100 million this year, through organic growth and acquisitions, including those of Nolotecnica (2022), Torinoleggi (2023), Minoege (2023) and Loca Top (2024).

In a joint press release, Sagard and Venpa said the deal would help it further consolidate the highly fragmented Italian rental market.

Emanuela Pege, CEO of Venpa, and Michele Massaro, CFO, said; “We are convinced that the support of Sagard MidCap, their experience, and their understanding of our industry provide a real opportunity to take on even greater challenges, accelerate our growth, and thus ensure Venpa’s success and long-term sustainability.”

Antoine Ernoult-Dairaine and Andrea Bertoncello, Partners at Sagard MidCap, added: “After nearly two years of working on this transaction, we have been able to confirm the talent of the management team, the potential for sustained organic growth and the significant market consolidation opportunities, with many small family-owned businesses that may want to join our ambitious project.

“Sagard MidCap indeed intends to make Venpa the undisputed national leader in its sector.”

Sagard MidCap is a French investment fund that provides equity capital to support the development of medium-sized companies. It has 14 professional staff in Paris and Milan and has invested in 46 European industrial service companies.

Its parent firm, Sagard, is a global investor managing $25 billion in North America and Europe.