Lindbergh has acquired 14 businesses since 2023, 13 of them HVAC companies, as it pivots from European logistics to building Italy's first national HVAC maintenance group.
Lindbergh always buys 100% of a company with no earn-outs, paying 4 to 4.5 times EBITDA plus net financial position, with 30 to 40% upfront and the rest over two to four years.
Lindbergh sold its French logistics business to its main competitor in November 2024 after it lost about 2m euros on 9m euros of turnover, even without recouping its investment.
Lindbergh buys Italian HVAC firms to build a national champion
Lindbergh is trying to build Italy's first national HVAC maintenance group in a market nobody has consolidated. Installation and maintenance is worth 12bn euros a year but sits with thousands of small firms whose owners are nearing retirement, which makes them buyable at 4 to 4.5 times EBITDA. Lindbergh reached this point by abandoning a pan-European logistics plan that never made money, selling its French business at a loss to its main competitor.
Takeaways
Italian HVAC is fragmented and ripe for consolidation. The installation and maintenance market is worth 12bn euros a year, split across roughly 12,000 companies and more than 50,000 one-person artisan firms. Owners are 60 to 70 and face a generational succession problem, which makes them willing sellers.
Lindbergh buys 100% and avoids earn-outs. Deals close at 4 to 4.5 times EBITDA plus net financial position, minus severance. Payment runs 30 to 40% upfront with the rest over two to four years, and sellers stay one or two years to train the local manager who takes over.
Hub and spoke builds local monopolies. Lindbergh enters a region by buying a company with some structure doing 4 to 8m euros of turnover, then bolts on smaller firms run by local managers. It avoids Milan and Rome and has become effectively a monopolist in one Adriatic city.
Technicians are the asset Lindbergh buys. Lindbergh buys a company for its customers and its technicians, paying more than 10% above their previous salary. It runs an internal academy, lets technicians keep the van at home, and offers bonuses for selling and travelling. A technician can become a coordinator or a local manager.
Headquarters stays lean, managers grown internally. Lindbergh has never hired experienced managers from other companies, preferring young people who grow into responsibility. The central structure stays deliberately small, in co-founder Michele's phrase "more plumbers, less managers", and net debt to EBITDA sits below 1.5.
US value investors found Lindbergh through X. A Croatian analyst's article on X led Sun Mountain Partners to call and run due diligence in Italy. Today 30 to 40% of the float sits with American investors, who ask about the next twenty or thirty years rather than the next quarter.
The France exit
Lindbergh entered France as a minority shareholder, intending to build a pan-European logistics business funded by its December 2021 listing.
The French operation lost about 2m euros on 9m euros of turnover, twice the size of the Italian business but with no margin.
Lindbergh took the majority and moved strategic functions to Italy, and still could not fix the business.
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On this episode 2
Show 1
At a dinner in July 2024, Michele warned that their biggest French customer, worth a third of turnover, was talking to a competitor.
They sold to that main competitor and closed in November, without recouping the investment.