Ambienta takes over the majority of Frigoveneta

Ambienta acquires a majority stake in Frigoveneta. With the investment, the private equity operator will join founders Giovanni Degan, Roberto Mambrin and Paolo Dall'Aglio, who will retain a significant stake and an important role in the development of the project.

"This is our first investment in the HVAC+R sector, a market that is clearly driven by environmental trends and on which Ambienta has built strong in-house expertise over time. The transaction is also another example of a primary and proprietary investment, and we are particularly grateful to Giovanni, Roberto and Paolo, as well as to the entire Frigoveneta team, for the trust they have placed in us by choosing Ambienta as a partner to further develop their business," comments Francesco Lodrini, Private Equity Partner of Ambienta.

Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Villa Bartolomea (Verona), Frigoveneta deals with the design, construction and sale of centralised refrigeration systems intended mainly for the large-scale retail trade and refrigeration logistics sectors. With its systems, Frigoveneta encourages the adoption of refrigeration solutions with lower energy consumption and less pollution, contributing, according to Ambienta's Environmental Impact Analysis (EIA), to improving both resource efficiency and pollution control.

Massimiliano Lecchi, Ambienta's private equity principal, points out: "Frigoveneta has developed a distinctive business model, based on its technical know-how, in a market where the gap between supply and demand for technical expertise will continue to widen. We are excited to support the company in its next phase of growth to make it a sustainable model in the industry".

The European commercial refrigeration market is worth an estimated€12 billion and is growing steadily driven by a number of underpinnings such as the increasing demand for fresh and ready-to-eat food, research aimed at reducing energy consumption (a major cost factor in refrigerated storage) and the transition to low-pollutant refrigerants. Ambienta has long identified commercial refrigeration, and the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC+R) sector in general, as a market driven by environmental sustainability. Today, commercial refrigeration accounts for nearly 500 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, or about 1% of total global emissions.