At a glance
- Family Office Hub reported the purchase on Oct.
- The price is a little over 1.5 times the roughly €40 million of revenue iSMA Controlli is expected to produce, and about 14 times its expected €4.5 million operating profit.
- For family offices that own control stakes in niche industrial businesses, the sale produces a priced comparable.
IMI plc agreed to buy iSMA Controlli S.p.A. for €63 million in cash, acquiring the Italian building-controls maker from B.group, the Seragnoli family office in Bologna, and members of its management team. Family Office Hub reported the purchase on Oct. 8.
The price is a little over 1.5 times the roughly €40 million of revenue iSMA Controlli is expected to produce, and about 14 times its expected €4.5 million operating profit. The company makes controls that regulate heating, ventilation and air conditioning in commercial buildings, built on what the report describes as an open, scalable platform. The transaction was announced rather than completed; the report gives no closing date.
For family offices that own control stakes in niche industrial businesses, the sale produces a priced comparable. A listed strategic buyer is paying cash, and both the seller's hold period and the target's expected revenue are on the record. Offices marking their own industrials can use the 1.5-times-sales and 14-times-profit figures as reference points, though both rest on expected numbers rather than reported results.
B.group backed Controlli in a 2011 management buyout and reorganized the business into iSMA Controlli in 2021, per the report. That makes 2026 a fifteen-year hold with a restructuring in the middle, a duration the report notes a conventional buyout fund could not run.
IMI's announcement names B.group as a selling shareholder without describing its ownership, according to Family Office Hub, which credits Italian financial publication BeBeez with identifying B.group as the Seragnoli family office. The office publishes no accessible website, and its wider portfolio, assets under management and founding year are not public.
The family's larger industrial holding is Coesia, the Bologna group whose website names Isabella Seràgnoli as sole shareholder. Family Office Hub reports 2025 revenue of €2,122 million, more than 8,000 employees and 21 companies. The €63 million exit equals about 3% of Coesia's 2025 turnover.
For family offices that own control stakes in niche industrial businesses, the sale produces a priced comparable.
Reported by the Direct & Co-Investments desk from Family Office Hub. Published . Corrections