Alantra advises KKR and the Ponti family on the sale of a minority stake in CMC Machinery to Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund

Oct 2021

Sell-side advisory

Milan – Alantra, the global investment banking and asset management specialist, is pleased to announce that it has advised KKR and the Ponti Family on the sale of a minority stake in CMC Machinery (“CMC”) to the Climate Pledge Fund, a corporate venture capital fund launched by Amazon in 2020 and sponsored by Jeff Bezos. CMC will continue to be majority-owned by leading global investment firm KKR, which invested in CMC alongside its founding family in November 2020 through its Global Impact Fund, a transaction in which Alantra also acted as financial advisor.

CMC was founded in 1980 by current President Giuseppe Ponti and the Ponti family, who continue to lead the business. It provides packaging on-demand, logistics, mailing, and graphics services with a primary focus on the e-commerce industry. The business serves customers in over thirty countries and employs over four hundred people through operations in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the UK, and the US, as well as a network of international distributors. CMC is following an extraordinary growth path, launching new, cutting-edge technologies every year and consolidating its position as a trusted partner of large international e-commerce and omni-channel retailing operators.

Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund is a corporate venture capital fund that invests in companies developing sustainable and decarbonizing technologies that can accelerate Amazon’s path to meeting The Climate Pledge. As part of this Pledge, which Amazon co-founded in 2019 to underscore its commitment to building a sustainable business for its customers and the planet, Amazon has committed to reach net-zero carbon across its business by 2040; a full ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement. This dedicated investment program launched in 2020 with an initial $2 billion in funding.

This minority investment from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund will enable CMC to further invest in R&D for sustainability and automation and accelerate the Group’s existing strategy of global expansion.

Pedro Godinho Ramos, Principal in KKR’s EMEA Global Impact team, commented: “The Amazon Climate Pledge Fund’s investment in CMC Machinery is a testament to the vision, engineering and product capabilities of the Ponti family who have developed the best 3D packaging solution in the market over the past forty years. We look forward to working with the world’s most ambitious e-commerce player, alongside CMC Machinery’s founders and management team, during this next phase of global growth as we deliver commercial solutions to seek to mitigate significant societal challenges, aligned with our Global Impact strategy’s objectives.”

Francesco Ponti, CEO and Strategic Business Development Director of CMC Machinery, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Amazon as an investor, alongside our family, management, and KKR. CMC has been a long-standing partner of Amazon as it advances its sustainability agenda, and this investment solidifies our relationship. The additional investment will accelerate our global growth strategy, enabling us to expand our international offering, while remaining firmly rooted in Umbria.”

“We know our customers want right-sized, recyclable packaging that reduces the use of plastic materials. We’re proud to invest in CMC Machinery as their technology will help facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy and support our long-term effort to eliminate additional packaging in the items that we ship,” said Amazon Vice President and Head of Worldwide Sustainability Kara Hurst.

Marcello Rizzo, Managing Partner at Alantra, commented: “We are thrilled to have supported KKR and the Ponti Family on the sale of a minority stake in CMC Group to the Climate Pledge Fund. This landmark transaction is a testament to our successful track record in the industrial automation and machinery sector. “