IDI exemplifies a conservative approach to leverage, a rarity among its private equity peers, by not taking on debt at the holding company level to fund its acquisitions. It also carefully monitors the leverage ratios of its portfolio companies, maintaining their ratios between 2.5x and 3x net debt/EBITDA from 2019 to 2022, although this increased to 4x at the end of 2023, still well below its European private equity-sponsored peers, whose leverage ratios were around 6x during the same period. Note that, even if one of the portfolio companies were to run into difficulty, the holdings are siloed to prevent any impact on the other assets or IDI itself.
The company has a €30 million revolving credit facility and an unused cash facility of €5 million. At the holding company level, IDI maintains a net cash position that exceeded €300 million in 2023, following the disposal of Flex Composite Group. In this regard, IDI has significant firepower to finance new acquisitions. Generally speaking, as part of its investment strategy, IDI maintains a healthy level of liquid assets as a percentage of its total portfolio, averaging around 20% historically (although it represented exceptionally more than 50% in 2023).
