Somacis in financial deal with Intesa Sanpaolo

The holding includes the three main business divisions of printed circuit boards (PCB), membrane switch & touch screen products and trading. The SOMACIS Group develops, manufactures and sells, through B2B relationships, high tech printed circuit boards, membrane switches and touch screen products and closed 2007 with revenues of 50million Euro. The majority, an 87% share of this, was through PCB related activities. May 2007 saw the inauguration of a purpose built production plant in Guangdong China. Over and above servicing global customer demands the objective of this new facility will also be aimed at satisfying the local demand of more technologically complex printed circuit boards, all in support of general strategy development defined in Europe. Shortly, work on enlarging the campus in Manfredonia with a further facility will be complete. It is anticipated that this completion will take the Group to the pinnacle of current industry available production technology. The global operational footprint is finally with the production plant in São José dos Campos (SP) Brazil. Chief Executive Officer Attilio Scalmati explaines: “The technologically level of PCBs produced by SOMACIS is the direct result of consolidated know how together with continuous investments in Research and Development. It has secured a place for the group as an exception to the phenomena of delocalization standard production technology to South East Asia, instead, we have become one of the main European players in this sector. In the next few years the challenge of further globalization and taking our service, products and manufacturing know how to the next level of technology is what now awaits us. We will not however face this task alone as we collectively challenge the market with the additional support of our latest financial partner”. The "Fondo Mezzogiorno", a private equity fund with a capital of 100million Euro, is managed by Sanpaolo IMI investments for development of SGR, under the Merchant Banking Management of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, seeks out investment opportunities in SME with elevated business experience and strong growth inclination based in the South of Italy. This is the tenth investment for the "Fondo Mezzogiorno", which was launched in 2003 and has reached 75% of its overall capital. With the completion of this latest step, the Fund intends to join the shareholders and management in the development phase of the SOMACIS Group, by making resources available for the important challenges connected to the medium-term expansion plans of the group. SOMACIS Group was aided by the "Studio Ingraffia, Lucheschi and Associates", Milan, and by "Sida Group", Ancona, whilst the Fund by the "Ughi and Nunziate Legal Office" and "Deloitte Financial Advisory Service".