Houlihan Lokey Advises NB Renaissance

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce the acquisition of U-Power Group S.p.A. by NB Renaissance. As part of the transaction, U-Power’s selling shareholder will reinvest a portion of the proceeds in the company, maintaining its current managerial role. The transaction closed on 26 September 2023.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Paruzzaro, Italy, U-Power is a pan-European leader in fashion safety footwear, with No. 1 market share in Europe and a growing workwear division. Safety footwear is developed and produced internally in two R&D centres in Italy and two manufacturing plants in Tunisia and France, while workwear production is outsourced to third-party manufacturers located in the APAC region.

U-Power serves a wide customer base of 8,000+ dealers, mainly small and medium specialised retailers across Italy (50% of sales), France (31%), Spain (7%), Germany (5%), and the UK (2%), thanks to a capillary network of agents spread across the territory.

NB Renaissance was established in 2015 as the spinoff of Intesa Sanpaolo Private Equity, in partnership with Neuberger Berman. NB Renaissance is an investment firm with a focus on international companies based in Italy that trade in resilient sectors with high growth potential. NB Renaissance currently manages more than €2.8 billion in assets, and its portfolio is composed of 13 companies with an aggregate turnover of approximately €3.8 billion and 24,000 employees.

With the acquisition of U-Power, NB Renaissance has the goal to support the growth of the business, expanding into new geographies (especially in the US and German markets) and product categories.

The transaction demonstrates Houlihan Lokey’s strength in the coverage of the Italian market and represents a great example of joint effort across different sectors, having involved the Consumer, Food & Retail team as well as the Security & Safety Solutions practice.