PRELIOS ENTERS THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY SECTOR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UNICREDIT, WWF AND SOLON THROUGH THE ACQUISITION OF 39% OF OFFICINAE VERDI, ENERGY EFFICIENCY GROUP
Officinæ Verdi strategically strengthens its business with the new partner, leader in real estate services, with the aim to become the leading energy efficiency operator in Italy with projects worth over 150M€ under development in the next three years in real estate, infrastructure, large retail and industry.
Milan, 8 April 2015 – Prelios Group, leader in the sector of real estate asset management and real estate services in Italy and in Europe, focuses on green economy in partnership with UniCredit and WWF, acquiring a 39% stake in Officinæ Verdi, the energy efficiency group established through a joint venture between UniCredit and WWF. The total transaction value is equal to 1.5M€.
Officinæ Verdi (hereinafter OV) is Italy’s leading operator in energy efficiency, with projects worth over 150M€ under development in the next three years. With the entry of the new partner operating in the real estate sector, OV reaches a market value of 3.85M€, which tripled in slightly over 2 years.
OV closed 2014 with a positive result and with consolidated revenues equal to 7.9M€, up 39% against 2013, following to the development a highly innovative business model characterized by premium technical-financial skills, based on green economy and aimed at medium-long term value creation, and to the stipulation of important strategic agreements with Conad and Telecom.
Officinæ Verdi energy efficiency improvement projects are based on an integrated model combining high technical and financial skills. OV approach is innovative, being supported by Mætrics® Advanced, a “smart platform” capable to identify inefficiencies, optimize maintenance and monitor return on investment. After being developed and launched on the market few months ago, Mætrics® allows to manage and measure energy and economic waste 24 hours a day. In a market which in Italy has a potential annual value of 64BLN€ (source Politecnico di Milano), OV estimates that the recoverable potential value, in the Real Estate sector only, is equal to 12MLD/€ per annum.
With the entry of Prelios with a 39% shareholding, UniCredit will hold 26%, WWF Foundation 8.2% and Solon, the industrial partner, 26.8%. Massimo Caputi joins as vice president beside the Chairman Paolo Fiorentino and the company CEO Giovanni Tordi.
“The goal is to focus on energy efficiency as strategic driver for the development of green economy on the Italian and European market, which, according to WWF last estimates, may generate at 2020, at European level, an annual turnover of 300 billion euro and 20 million jobs, about the equivalent value of the Juncker Plan for the relaunch of the European economy – stated Paolo Fiorentino, who holds the offices of Deputy General Manager of UniCredit and Chairman of Officinæ Verdi – Prelios entry in the company ownership structure with an important role will enable us to further speed up our development plans on the market”.
In describing the transaction structured and followed up, in particular, by Raffaella Di Sipio, Head of Business & Corporate Prelios, Massimo Caputi, Executive Vice President of Prelios Group and as of today Vice President of Officinæ Verdi, stated: “We are proud of having successfully completed the transaction in a record time, now allowing us to enter the energy efficiency market. OV is a young company, with high potential, capable to generate operations and investments with an attractive ROI and a high innovative content: energy management is based on highly innovative systems capable to measure performances, to identify energy and economic waste, to cut operating and maintenance costs. This transaction is fully in line with the goal we set in Prelios new Business Plan, being aware of the importance of energy efficiency to create value in the entire real estate pipeline.”
“Officinæ Verdi is currently a real “drive” to innovation and development for the green economy – stated Giovanni Tordi, CEO of Officinæ Verdi, in presenting the business model – we develop and manage operations with advanced financial models and approaches. Our role is also recognized in foreign Countries, where we have become the EEC advisors on Smart Cities projects. We have projects under development for over 150M€ in the next 3 years. We are very committed in the real estate sector, in which both UniCredit and Prelios hold a key market position and OV has already developed an advanced know how in energy management, allowing investors and asset owners to recover value per square meter”.