M&A

Private equity opens Alice Pizza dossier

The well-known chain of pizzerias, with a turnover of over 100 million, is ready for a share reorganisation. Towards the exit of the Taste of Italy fund: appointment of the American advisor Houlihan Lokey

by Carlo Festa

6 September 2025

2' min read

Key points

The story
Funds interest

2' min read

Major M&A movements in the restaurant industry. Private equity funds open the dossier of the Alice Pizza chain, one of the Italian biggies in the sector.

Idea Taste of Italy, an Italian fund specialising in the agri-food sector managed by Dea Capital Alternative Funds Sgr, has in fact decided to explore the sale of the Me&Alice group, the management company of the well-known Alice Pizza brand chain, precisely one of Italy's leading chains, with a turnover in excess of EUR 100 million. A mandate in this direction would be entrusted, according to rumours, to the US investment bank Houlihan Lokey.

The process should start concretely already in the coming weeks with the sending of documentation, including the company's sensitive economic data, to potential buyers, mostly Italian and foreign private equity funds.

The Story

Idea Taste of Italy entered the pizzeria chain as a shareholder in 2019, taking over 70 per cent and leaving the remaining 30 per cent to the Giovannini family.

The birth of the chain dates back to the late 1980s. In fact, the first Alice pizzeria opened in 1989 in Via delle Grazie, in the San Pietro area, right in the centre of Rome. This is where founder Domenico Giovannini works, who starts a project that over the years creates one of the largest Italian chains in the sector. From the first pizzeria, in fact, several others soon followed in northern and central-southern Italy. In 2002, the Alice Pizza brand was officially registered.

In 2012, the development plan was expanded to include franchising. In 2013, the Pizza Academy was founded, the school dedicated to training the group's future pizza makers.

In 2017, Alice flies overseas to open the first pizzeria in the United States, in downtown Philadelphia. In 2023, a partnership with Chef Express, a Cremonini Group company, is finally launched.

In 2019, the Idea Taste of Italy fund will enter the shareholding structure, with which the group will exceed 200 shops, partly direct and partly franchised. At present, the Me&Alice group generates more than EUR 100 million in turnover with an Ebitda of approximately EUR 15 million.

The interest of the funds

In the past, other private equity funds have examined the Alice Pizza dossier. In particular, just a year ago, in 2024, the Italian fund Clessidra was close to negotiating the acquisition of the well-known pizza chain. Now, according to rumours, a more structured process is ready to start, in which private equity funds specialised in the Italian medium-sized business sector will be called to bid.

The shareholding is also in the subsidiary portfolio of Idea Taste of Italy, a fund specialising in foodstuffs that belongs to Dea Capital Alternative Funds Sgr. Last August, the latter Sgr passed under the control of the Green Arrow Capital group, a handover that ended the De Agostini group's 15-year long parenthesis in this type of business.