Wise Equity-backed Innovery buys NB Service

Innovery, which is backed by Wise Equity, has acquired NB Service, an Italian system integrator in the cybersecurity market. No financial terms were disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE

Milan, 3rd September 2020 – Wise Equity portfolio company, Innovery, leading system integrator in the Italian cybersecurity market, completed the acquisition of 100% of the share capital of NB Service Srl, an Italian system integrator based in Turin and focused on cyber security as well as network and data communications mainly for large corporations. Founded in 1993, NB Service has been one of the first firms to offer optical fiber networks.

Through this transaction, Innovery is further strengthening its know-how on the market segments where NB Service operates, while also acquiring new competences in Internetworking and connected data center.

Following the transaction, Innovery could better cover the North-West regions in Italy and have access to new customers mainly represented by blue chip companies.

NB Service, on the other side, will have the chance to speed up the penetration of new market segments, to benefit of the Innovery know how on defining and implementing technology solutions and to deploy its offering to a broader parterre of domestic and international customers.

Davide Bocchino, founder and CEO of NB Service, will keep serving as Managing Director of the company.
Paolo Gambarini, Founding Partner at Wise Equity, who followed the transaction together with Marco Mancuso, Investment Manager, said: “Innovery keeps moving along its development journey through a new strategic acquisition that aims at making the Group even more complete on a technologies and products standpoint. We believe Innovery has outstanding room for growth in Italy and abroad”.

Gianvittorio Abate, CEO of Innovery, said: “We are glad to include NB Service within the Group. Over the time, NB Service reached a very strong positioning within the network, network security and cyber security segments, thanks to the progressive development of a comprehensive offering that only few players on the market can match. Sharing the respective know-how and experiences will enrich the whole Group skills set and offering, thus resulting in an even more compelling value preposition for the customers”.

Davide Bocchino, Managing Director at NB Service, said: “We are extremely happy to become part of Innovery, a young as well as dynamic firm, that has at its core professionalism and focus on technology innovation. These are fundamental requirements in our industry and perfectly match NB Service philosophy. I am confident that joining forces will be beneficial for the group growth in terms of both financials and know-how”

Innovery Advisors:
Legal: Simmons & Simmons (Alessandro Bonazzi, Cettina Merlino, Ida Montanaro).
Financial and tax: Spada Partners (Guido Sazbon, Antonio Zecca, Bernardo Porcellini, Francesco De Buglio);

NB Service Advisors:
M&A: Nash Advisory (Giorgio Ramotti, Federico Giuliato, Simone Giarratana)
Financial and tax: Studio Scarabosio Lanteri (Filippo Lanteri)

Legal: R Legal Studio Legale (Luca Raponi)

Innovery
Innovery (www.innovery.net), with offices located in Italy, Spain and Mexico, is an international System Integrator that offers extremely diversified services to its customers. It focuses on vertical tasks with high technological complexity and has a long history in cyber security along with other sectors and specializations in the ICT environment. Established in 2000 by Gianvittorio Abate, the company boasts to have customers in the most important industries, financial institutions, telecommunication operators, Public administrations offices, but also companies in the Gaming sectors as well as national and international services.

In the last three years, the company’s revenues have almost doubled, reaching a turnover above 36 M? in 2019. The workforce more than doubled up to more than 330 employees.

Wise Equity
Wise Equity (www.wisesgr.com) specializes in managing closed‐end Private Equity funds that invest in small and medium sized companies with a focus on Italy. The funds managed by Wise Equity typically invest through leveraged buyouts and development capital and target companies that are leaders in their niche markets. The two primary objectives are to increase a company’s critical mass through “build‐up” transactions in order to enhance competitiveness and profitability, and to foster international development.

Wise Equity currently has three funds under management: (i) Wisequity III, with committed capital of over Euro 180 million and one investment remaining in its portfolio – NTC– after having completed disinvestments in Eidos Media, Kijan, Primat, Biolchim, Alpitour, Colcom Group and Controls; (ii) Wisequity IV, with committed capital of Euro 215 million, deployed 92% of its capital in eight companies: Corob, Imprima, Tapì, Tatuus Racing, Aleph, Trime, Innovery and Waycap; (iii) Wisequity V, which was raised in July 2019 with a capital commitment of Euro 260 million and currently has two portfolio companies: Fimotec and Vittoria.

NB Service Srl
N.B. Service was founded in 1983 to promote networking and data communication products and solutions on the market. One of the first companies in Italy to offer Fiber Optic Networks to the private market, since then it has been offering to its customers a wide and articulated range of solutions and products that spans from cabling infrastructures up to the implementation of corporate networks based on the integration of different collaboration platforms.

The positioning of N.B. Service on the telecommunications market is the result of a careful commercial and distribution policy, aimed at identifying the real needs of the customer and at designing and offering the most technologically reliable and cutting-edge solutions.

Flexibility, constant commitment and competitiveness, combined with the timeliness and quality of service, have been some of our winning weapons for thirty years: all this by putting the satisfaction and safeguarding of customer investments in the foreground.