(Alliance News) - Solid World Group Spa announced Monday that it has signed an agreement to contribute a technology business unit from Formula E Srl, of the Vismunda Srl group, to the group's subsidiary SolidFactory Srl.

The goal of the transaction is to establish a single competitive entity in the global market of solar and intelligent automation and management processes related to industrial manufacturing.

Formula E - a company of the Baccini Group, a holding company with a historical record track record in the industrial and photovoltaic sectors - is based in the province of Treviso and has been operating since 2013 in the Italian market for the production of machinery for the fabrication and metallization of photovoltaic cells, brought to a new level of efficiency and versatility. Formula E, in fiscal year 2022, recorded a production value of about EUR3 million.

SolidFactory, which operates as an industrial contractor, supplying entire turnkey production lines with a view to digital factory and Industry 5.0, will be able - following the completion of the transaction - to provide its customers with the design and installation of entire manufacturing lines of high-efficiency and latest-generation photovoltaic panels, as well as lines for the revamping of used solar panels, with a view to boosting the circular economy and eco-design, key elements of the SolidWorld Group's production policy.

Against an economic value of the business contributed to SolidFactory of EUR970,000, the latter will initially resolve a capital increase from EUR80,000 to EUR110,110 reserved for Formula E, a capital that will subsequently be increased to EUR200,000 at a subsequent meeting of SolidFactory.

The parties as part of the investment agreement have governed a 10-year contract covering SolidFactory's use of patents and know-how owned by Vismunda and Formula E for an annual fee of EUR400.000, as well as a free option to purchase the patents themselves, expiring two years after the completion of the transaction for the transfer of the Formula E business unit to Solidfactory, extendable by an additional two years in the event of partial exercise of the purchase option provided per group of patents within the first two years, for a total amount for the purchase of the patents between EUR8 million and EUR10 million.

Upon completion of the transaction, the company will still retain control of SolidFactory: in fact, Solid World Group will hold 51 percent of the company, Formula E 28 percent, Andrea Maccari 7 percent, Claudio Taffarello 7 percent and Teknos Alliance 7 percent.

Roberto Rizzo, chairman of SolidWorld Group, said, "SolidFactory and Formula E have identified elements of complementarity in their industrial activities, within which they have knowledge and skills that can be profitably developed by generating significant synergies, making use of each other's experience, technologies and proprietary know-how. In light of this, we believe that a business partnership is strategic given the constant process of globalization of markets we are witnessing and given the increasing acceleration of technological innovation."

"Thanks to this transaction, SolidFactory grows by becoming a new technology player that combines mechatronics and automation with the digital and energy sectors," added Andrea Maccari, president of SolidFactory.

"Such a player will be able to have a significant competitive advantage in providing turnkey products necessary for the development of new smart and integrated factories."

SolidWorld trades in the green by 4.2 percent at EUR4.52 per share.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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