Undo group sets course for wind power and advances in Puglia (Sole24ore)

The latest move in Puglia in a deal that marks the group’s debut in the wind power sector and in the region where it has the strongest presence after Marche with six photovoltaic power plants (and another will be acquired soon). Thus, with the addition of the two new plants, the Lazio-based Undo group, active in renewable energy and precision electronics, will come to develop a total energy output that could ideally light a town of 13,000 inhabitants.

This is no small achievement for a company founded in 2008 in Tivoli, with a capital of 4800 euros, thanks to the resourcefulness of three newly graduated childhood friends, Umberto Deodati, Daniele Pistoia and Giuseppe Monaco, who decided not to follow the family business and invest in renewable energy. “We started,” Deodati told Il Sole 24 Ore in the offices of Undo’s new 10,000-square-meter headquarters in Guidonia, Italy, “by acquiring the first plants between Rome, Tivoli and Guidonia, and now the group, which is divided into three different holding companies (Madre, Ancora and Undustriae), is headed by 44 power plants owned in central and southern Italy, which will become 55 in the first six months of 2020 and range from Milan to Ragusa.

In short, an important growth made possible also by the support Undo found on the bank funding side where, backing the company’s consolidation path, was the cooperative banking group Iccrea, with its corporate arm Iccrea BancaImpresa. “In 2013,” Deodati continues, “we carried out the first structured transaction with Iccrea to acquire photovoltaic plants, and since then the bank has continued to support us with its financial expertise and has so far supported a total of 8.3 million euros worth of projects.

The last two transactions carried out in axis with the banking group chaired by Giuseppe Maino and directed by Mauro Pastore date back to last summer: the first one of 2.2 million euros, was put on track in Ragusa for the acquisition of two companies and the consequent installation of two rooftop plants for a project that produces about 1.1 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity annually (equivalent to the annual consumption of about 400 households). The second, however, two €4 million minibonds issued by one of the subsidiaries (Madre Holding): with the bonds, subscribed by Iccrea BancaImpresa, Zenit Sgr and Banca Popolare del Lazio and listed on ExtraMot Pro-the segment of Borsa Italiana dedicated to the listing of bonds of small and medium-sized companies-they raised resources to double the group’s power output to 20 small megawatts.