Private equity company Azzurra Capital has entered into an agreement to acquire a stake in Pasfin, the holding company that controls Italian-headquartered tissue, airlaid, and MG paper products manufacturer Lucart.
It has been signed by Azzurra Capital and members of the Pasquini family – who founded Lucart in 1953 – and marks the private equity company’s entry into the Lucart Group’s holding company.
Lucart has published an annual sustainability report since 2004 and has received Platinum level rating for Ecovadis, which the company said places it in the top 1% of world companies for ESG performance that was achieved in 2023 and confirmed for 2024.
The Pasquini family, which today holds 100% of the capital, will remain actively involved in the company’s operational management, which is separated across the AfH, consumer, and business sectors.
With a paper production capacity of 400,000tpy, Lucart has 10 production plants: five in Italy, one in France, one in Hungary, two in Spain and one in the UK, as well as two logistics hubs and a sales company in Germany.
Turnover for 2023 was €765m, up 6.7% compared to 2022, while EBITDA for the period was over €130m.
Stefano Marsaglia, Founder and Chief Executive of Azzurra Capital, said: “We are extremely honoured to have become a partner of the Pasquini family.
“In recent months we have developed an excellent relationship with the family and fully share the objectives and strategies to create further value and growth for the group.”
Massimo Pasquini, Chief Executive of Lucart, added: “With Azzura Capital, we developed a complete harmony of business outlooks and on the company’s potentials and mode of growth.
“The Lucart Group’s excellent results allow us to look to the future with great optimism, and we are confident that this operation will be strategic in achieving even more ambitious growth and profitability targets, relying on the know-how we have acquired in over 70 years of history, our ability to innovate in the production of high-quality ecological tissue papers, and our leadership position in the European AfH tissue market.”
