H.I.G. Capital Acquires a Majority Stake in Onis Visa S.p.A.
The Investment will Accelerate the Development and Growth Strategy of the Onis Visa Group, a Leading Provider of Power Generators
MILAN – November 15, 2022 – H.I.G. Capital, a leading global private equity investment firm with $52 billion of equity capital under management, announces the acquisition of a majority stake in Onis Visa S.p.A. (“Onis Visa” or the “Company”), primary operator at European level in the design, assembly and sale of generating sets and motor pumps. The investment of H.I.G. will be in partnership with the Barro family who founded the company over 60 years ago and will retain the current management positions in the company.
Founded in 1960, Onis Visa is today one of the leading industrial groups in its market and is known for its advanced technical and engineering capabilities that allow the Group to offer a wide range of reliable, performing and highly customized solutions.
Over the years, Onis Visa has embarked on an ambitious path of internationalization and constant improvement of its offer. Today, the Group is present in over 100 countries with a complete range of generators from 2 up to 2,500 kVA of power and with a wide range of motor pumps. The strong technical capabilities of the Group have allowed Onis Visa to establish itself as a reference producer for numerous target markets, including industrial, construction, healthcare, agriculture, datacenter, telecommunications and large-scale distribution.
Lorenzo Barro, President, Co-CEO and current shareholder of Onis Visa, commented: “We are very satisfied with the partnership with H.I.G. We are in fact convinced that it is a partner with the perfect characteristics in order to accompany the VISA Group and the entire management team through a further path of growth and strengthening of its skills. The Group pays great attention to the further development of environmentally friendly technologies with the use of innovative systems such as endothermic hydrogen engines and bio-compatible non-fossil fuels, energy storage systems, hybrid solutions and energy efficiency.”
Marco Barro, Co-CEO and current shareholder of Onis Visa, added: “The investment by H.I.G. represents a fundamental step for the future of our Group, and will allow an expansion of the commercial strategy to further expand our presence in international markets, as well as the acquisition of companies with synergic businesses.”
Raffaele Legnani, Managing Director and head of H.I.G. in Italy, added: “Onis Visa has achieved over the years a position in the generators market thanks to the extraordinary attention to the quality and reliability of its products and the undisputed technical skills of the team that allow the Group to offer, in addition to standard products, customized solutions based on the specific requirements of the end customer. We are excited to support the management in the next phase of development, aimed at developing environmentally friendly solutions and aimed at international markets, and we believe we can make a significant contribution to its success, primarily through an acceleration of the strategy of targeted acquisitions that the Group has undertaken in the last years.”
Onis Visa
Onis Visa, based in Fontanelle (TV), has been successfully operating for over 60 years in the design and construction of generating sets and motor pumps. The Group uses a large and modern production structure, with three production sites in Italy and one in Spain for a total of 60,000 square meters of covered area, also the result of the growth strategy through acquisitions successfully launched in recent years with the addition to the Group of the Italian Genmac, Valmec and Cogem and the Spanish Visatec. For more information, please refer to the website www.visa.it.
About H.I.G. Capital
H.I.G. is a leading global alternative assets investment firm with $52 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the USA, as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:
- H.I.G.’s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses.
- H.I.G.’s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance.
- H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices.
- H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.
Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.hig.com.