CDP and UNICREDIT finance Barone Ricasoli, Piccini, Ermes, Paololeo and Mastropasqua

The main objectives of the “ Supply Chain Basket Bond” are to finance development plans of companies in strategic supply chains of the Italian economy (starting from the wine sector), support excellence and facilitate their access to the capital market. The financial institutions, UniCredit and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti launched the 200 million euro program in March 2021. The third issuance, 25 million euros (for a total equaling 67 million euros), will finance twelve companies, of which 8 are in the wine sector. The most recent issuance concerns the Tuscan wine companies, Barone Ricasoli, the Chianti Classico brand, and Tenute Piccini, the seventh Italian company for growth in turnover (+ 50%) and in fifth position for growth in exports (+ 58%), Cantine Ermes (Sicily), and the Apulian wineries Paololeo and Mastropasqua International, which have issued six-year mini bonds to accumulate resources in order to finance purchasing new plants and machinery, investments to increase production capacity, promotion and marketing products, as well as new development programs aimed at supporting expanding production activities and growing the companies in Italy and abroad.
The anchor investors of the transaction, Cassa Depositi Prestiti and UniCredit, each subscribed 50% of the total amount, as they had previously done for the first two issuances of the program. Feudi di San Gregorio, Masi Agricola and Pasqua Vigneti & Cantine were the first three wine companies financed, inaugurating the program with the issuance — individually — of seven year long fixed-rate mini bonds, collecting in that case a total of 21 million euros. Furthermore, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, besides and beyond the “Supply Chain Basket Bond”, in May 2021, had signed together with SACE, a 25 million euro bond loan offered by Italian Wine Brands, one of the few Italian companies listed on the stock exchange on the AIM price list. The six year long issuance then amounted to a maximum of 130 million euros.