Italy's Reply to press ahead with M&A for further growth
04/07/2018 15:42
MILAN, July 4 (Reuters) - Italy's digital services group
Reply REY.MI intends to grow further through mergers and
acquisitions with a focus on Europe and the U.S., the company's
chairman and co-CEO told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Turin-based group, which had sales of just under 900
million euros last year, bought U.S. digital consultancy Valorem
in April and Germany's CSPI last week. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN1RM0ZZ urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN1TT0DQ
"We will press on with M&A but we want to avoid
transformational deals, acquiring competences focused on our
core business," said chairman and co-CEO Mario Rizzante, whose
family holding company Alika owns just over 45 percent of the
company.
The group looks mainly at Europe and the U.S. and sees in
the latter an "enormous opportunity" but rules out investments
in emerging countries.
"From a point of view of scale and logistics it doesn't make
sense to invest in emerging countries," Tatiana Rizzante,
co-chief executive, said.
(Reporting by Massimo Gaia, writing by Giulia Segreti)
((Giulia.Segreti@tr.com; +39.02.66129416; Reuters Messaging:
giulia.segreti.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))