ESBELT acquired by NETCO GROUP

This bilateral transaction represents the 100% equity buyout of Esbelt by NetCo Group through the Richemon Group International holding structure, fulfilling Ardian's investment thesis of capturing margin expansion via cross-border upstream vertical integration. The acquisition achieves the complete exit of the founding Trius Traserra family (via the Intriu holding) and Italian financial co-investor Lariat, while establishing management continuity by retaining Chief Executive Fede Segura to preserve the target's engineering expertise and local market relationships. From a capital allocation perspective, the transaction converts a historical supplier into an internal production engine for NetCo's distributed MRO network, capturing double-margin pull-through by direct-routing Esbelt's high-margin thermoplastic products through NetCo's 100+ field service stations. The combined group gains immediate geographic scalability, exploiting Esbelt's established operational hubs in Northern Europe and the United States to cross-sell NetCo's broader field engineering services while building market dominance in the Iberian Peninsula. Post-closing integration efforts will focus on executing capital expenditure deployment toward the 16,300 square meter factory expansion in Manlleu, unlocking structural volume growth to satisfy the combined group's international commercial pipeline and optimizing global polymer raw material sourcing.