21 Invest continues disposals

21 Invest has sold its remaining interest in Italian healthcare company Techosp and reduced its stake in listed reprographics company Servicepoint Solutions. The returns from the two investments were 56 per cent and 55.5 per cent, respectively. 21 Invest

has made a number of disposals recently as it focuses its energies on investing its first third party fund, which closed on EURO323 million this summer.

The Techosp investment has been sold to ABN AMRO Ventures, which now holds a 15 per cent stake in the company. Techosp provides private healthcare in Italy with group sales of EURO188 million in 2001. The company started with one hospital, the Istituto Clinico Humanitas in Milan, and has acquired four other private hospitals.

21 Invest invested EURO5.6 million in the business in October 1999. In August last year the investor sold part of its stake to Banca Popolare di Bergamo for EURO5.6 million. The deal with ABN AMRO Ventures returned an additional EURO9.7 million. The shareholders are now Techint (Rocca family) 67.2 per cent, Reale Mutua Assicurazioni 9.5 per cent, Centrobanca (the investment bank arm of Banca Popolare di Bergamo) six per cent, Cidifin (Bracco family) 2.3 per cent and ABN AMRO Ventures BV 15 per cent.

21 Invest has also sold four million of its shares in Grupo Picking Pack, known as Servicepoint Solutions, since June 2002. It has reduced its holding in the listed Spanish company from 5.9 per cent to 2.9 per cent.

Under 21 Invest’s ownership the company has grown from a small Spanish office products company to an international reprographics business with sales of over EURO350 million. Andrea Bonomi, group chairman, said:

“The investment in Grupo Picking Pack is a fine example of a 21 Invest buy-and-build strategy, taking a small Southern European company and turning it into an international player.”

Servicepoint Solutions mainly serves architects, engineers and the construction sector, offering services through managed facilities and reprographic networks across Europe and the US. 21 Invest’s investment of EURO31 million has returned EURO38 million already and the investor continues to hold a 2.9 per cent interest in the company.