Columna Capital and Giovanni Campus announce a new partnership with pan-European BPO insurance provider MSA Group and recovery management and back-office group Acclaims. Columna Capital’s investment values business in excess of Euro 120 million. Giovanni Campus and two key managers will significantly reinvest in the Group. Multi Serass Group is a leading full-service provider of Business Process Outsourcing to the Italian claims market and Acclaims, a leader in recoveries management and a back-office activities specialist. 

Multi Serass group (MSA Group) is a full-service software provider to the insurance industry. As the market leader in the Italian Claims Management sector, it provides clients with a series of additional services, including Portfolio Management and Network Management.

The MSA Group, founded in 1979 and headquartered in Milan, is the result of a successful story of expansion through the entire Claims Management value chain and beyond. The MSA Group manages both domestic and international claims across Italy and internationally, through offices located in Italy, France and Spain.

In 2011 Giovanni Campus established Acclaims, a separate business, focused on recoveries and back-office activities -claims First Notice of Loss (FNOL), recall, documents collection, audits and legal protection claims management, both for insurance groups and for the automotive market.

Mr Campus will continue as Chief Executive Officer of the new Group, ensuring full entrepreneurial and management continuity. At the same time, the two top managers, Fabio Piras and Alessandro Sebastiani, will reinvest in the new Group alongside Mr Campus, with the title of General Manager of MSA and CEO of Acclaims respectively.

Columna will enter the MSA Group and Acclaims shareholding structure with a significant stake and in full support of the existing management team led by the entrepreneur Giovanni Campus. Columna will contribute to the Group's development plan due to its proven track record in supporting the growth of exceptional companies in partnership with management. 

The MSA Group operates through 4 companies:

• MSA - Multi Serass is the Italian motor claims third-party administrator (TPA) leader, providing a full-service Claims Management offering

• N4C coordinates a network of claims experts, including loss adjusters, doctors, investigators and appraisal experts, providing both on-site and digital appraisal support

• RipArte is an insurtech dedicated to body shops network, with over 350 affiliated body repair shops in Italy

• Legalade is a legal firm specialised in insurance litigation covering the entire Italian Country

MSA Group’s leading position is supported by best-in-class proprietary technology, which enables process industrialisation and execution excellence. The Group manages over 100,000 claims per annum, serving a large and robust portfolio of clients, which includes 30+ insurance groups and large fleet managers.

The future growth strategy will be based on further expansion of services offered (including ASP/SaaS IT Claims Management solutions), driving consolidation of the Italian, French and Spanish TPA markets and building a strong presence in other European countries. 

Closing is expected by the end of April.

Giovanni Campus commented: "The partnership established with Columna Capital represents the beginning of a new chapter in MSA’s history, which, in full continuity, will further strengthen the Group to allow it to exploit significant business opportunities in the European Insurance Business Process Outsourcing market. I appreciate the strong entrepreneurial culture of Columna Capital, the deep respect for the history and values of the MSA Group and the potential synergies with its other investments in adjacent markets. These are the fundamental factors that have inspired our partnership. Columna represents the ideal partner to support the next phase of development and the expected consolidation of the market in the coming years, which are the foundations for the continued success of the new MSA Group”.

Andrea Frecchiami, Partner of Columna Capital, commented: "Over the last few years, Giovanni and his team have built MSA Group to be the leading tech-enabled full-service provider in the Italian claims management landscape. We are delighted to be working with the new MSA Group and we will leverage on our industry expertise and long-standing track record of supporting our portfolio companies in their expansion to further accelerate the Group’s growth in Italy and selected European countries”.  

Columna Capital was founded in 2009 and is a buy-and-build specialist, which typically invests €25-50 million in lower mid-market buyout and growth investments across France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Columna is sector-agnostic but focuses on industries where it has a strong DNA and the ability to add operational value-add including: (i) animal health, (ii) healthcare, (iii) business & consumer services, (iv) insurance services, (v) agri-food and (vi) technology. More information on Columna Capital can be found at: https://www.columnacapital.com/

MSA Group was assisted by Carlo Dawan, now head of Alantra’s investment banking division, as financial advisor, by Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici as legal advisor, by BCG for market and business vendor due diligence and by EY and Pirola for accounting, financial and tax due diligence. Columna Capital was assisted by LMS as legal advisor, by PwC for financial due diligence, by PwC TLS for tax due diligence, by Advant NCTM for deal structuring support and by Marsh for the W&I policy. Banca Ifis and Banco BPM, assisted by Simmons & Simmons, handled the financing of the acquisition as Co-Lead Arrangers, while Columna Capital was advised by LMS on the financing contractual aspects.