Morning all, Craig McGlashan here filling in for Nina Lindholm on the Europe Wire from the London newsroom. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed covering PE Hub’s Deal of the Year Awards winners in this week’s US and Europe Wires. This morning we’ve got the sixth and final write-up. This time it’s Ardian picking up the Small-Cap Europe title for its exit from Nutripure to PAI. We then hear from Roberto Quagliuolo, co-head of Italy at Tikehau Capital, who gives his view on a potential M&A rule change in Italy as well as why the country is proving particularly attractive for private equity money. Good sport As the French public gorged on a feast of sporting excellence during the Paris Olympics last year, Ardian was putting the finishing touches to a deal involving a company with which many of the athletes would have been familiar – and that finished first in the race for PE Hub’s Small-Cap Europe Deal of the Year Award. The Paris-headquartered private equity firm agreed in July to sell Nutripure – a digitally native vertical brand focusing on food supplements, sports nutrition and organic super-foods – to compatriot PAI Partners for an enterprise value between €100 million and €150 million. With a customer base of over 200,000, the company based in Deyme, France, has outpaced the broader active nutrition market, proving that its winning formula resonates. “The power of the company is selling good products with ultra-stability, made in France, totally controlled by the company – they buy all raw materials and work closely with CMOs,” Frédéric Queru, managing director at Ardian Growth, told PE Hub. “They also decided to be fabless, in order to focus on R&D, product ideation, marketing or brand management and direct distribution.” Read more on the deal, including EBITDA figures, the sale process and how the Olympics offered a chance to leverage the brand, in the premium version of the Wire. You can read about all the PE Hub Deal of the Year Award winners here. Italian job In yesterday’s Europe Wire we wrote about a potential change to Italy’s M&A rules. I caught up with Roberto Quagliuolo, co-head of Italy at Tikehau Capital, to get his views on what effect any change could have on what is already a strong dealmaking backdrop in the country. Find out more on the premium version of the Wire. That’s a wrap from me. Michael Schoeck will bring you the US Wire later today and Irien Joseph will write to you from London tomorrow. Cheers, Craig Read the full Wire commentary on PE Hub ... | 