Industrial Stars of Italy has agreed to merge with LU-VE Group

February 2015 — Industrial Stars of Italy SpA (ISI) and LU-VE Group have signed a binding agreement to merge. As a result of the merger with ISI, LU-VE will become a public company and invest the equity injection in boosting its international growth.

ISI is the second Italian SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) to be listed on the Italian stock exchange. Conceived and engineered by Oaklins’s Italian team, ISI raised around US$60 million via an IPO in July 2013 with the aim to merge with an industrial target company. LU-VE Group was identified as the most suitable profile for the transaction ISI had planned.

Founded in 1985, LU-VE Group is one of the leading European manufacturers of air-cooled units and heat exchangers for the markets of refrigeration, air conditioning and cooling for industrial processes. The company exports 80% of its production, has ten plants, five of them abroad and 12 sales subsidiaries.

Our role in the transaction

Oaklins' team in Italy believes that SPACs has a very promising future in Italy, where the number of listed companies so far have been lower than in other EU countries. Italian family-owned companies have been traditionally hesitant to list on the stock exchange, but this is changing and SPACs can be a very helpful vehicle to accelerate the listing process, reduce its costs and remove some of its uncertainties.