GROUP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Ariston Group is a global leader in sustainable thermal comfort that offers a unique, extensive range of solutions for climate comfort, water heating and air handling, as well as components and burners. Listed on Euronext Milan since November 2021, in 2024 the group reported over 2.6-billion-euro revenues, with over 10,000 employees, direct presence in 40 countries in 5 continents, 28 production sites and 28 research and development centers. The group demonstrates its commitment to sustainability through the development of renewable and high efficiency solutions, such as heat pumps, water heating heat pumps, hybrids, domestic ventilation, air handling and solar thermal systems. The group also stands out for its continuous investment in technological innovation, digitalization, and advanced connectivity solutions. The group operates under global strategic brands Ariston, Elco and Wolf, and brands such as Calorex, NTI, HTP, Atag, Brink, Chromagen, Racold, as well as Thermowatt and Ecoflam in the components and burners business.
 

The role, reporting to the Chief Business Development Officer, as individual contributor, will be responsible for feeding the M&A pipeline, assessing, selecting and executing end-to-end all the business development initiatives (acquisitions, joint-ventures, strategic partnerships, divestures) at Group level.

Job Responsibilities: 

• M&A pipeline: propose and screen potential inorganic growth options across the many geographies and product lines in which the Group is active, consistently with the Group’s strategy.
• M&A ecosystem: nurture and expand the network of advisors to promote new M&A opportunities; collaborate with colleagues on inorganic proposals and make effective use of other sources (e.g. exhibitions) to develop the pipeline.
• M&A stage gating: execute the necessary quantitative and qualitative analyses to assess the merit and the value creation of each inorganic opportunity; analyses include: fact-based view of the opportunity, strategic rationales, organizational assessment, synergies, integration approach, business plan, investment returns (IRR, NPV, PB), etc., and shall be agreed with the relevant business sponsor of the initiative and executed involving any relevant colleagues (e.g. controller, buyer, country manager, etc.)
• Decision support: develop the presentations and the memos necessary for internal decision-making – Group leadership level - throughout the M&A lifecycle (early approval, non-binding offer, binding offer, signing).
• Due diligence: coordinate the standard due diligence efforts (tax, legal, financial, environmental, business, IT), involving the relevant internal experts and external advisors; summarize the outcomes of the due diligence highlighting the important risks.
• Contracts: coordinate legal advisors and internal legal team on the drafting and negotiation of the relevant contracts, bridging the results of the due diligences and bringing a pragmatic and business-oriented perspective in the negotiations.
• Closing: coordinate the Closing process (signatures, payments, resolutions, press-release, etc.) involving the relevant teams (legal, treasury, investor relations, etc.).
• Post-closing: manage the post-closing activities (price adjustments, inventory count, …) in cooperation with the relevant teams, and/or the signing-to-closing process.

Qualifications & Skills: 

• Master’s Degree in Engineering or Business Administration with at least 5 years’ professional experience in M&A or Strategy roles.
• Strong financial skillset is a must: ability to read financial statements, build robust business plans and cash flow analyses, calculate investment returns and run sensitivity analyses.
• Strong M&A skillset: deal design, negotiation skills, ability to effectively interact with counter-parts and to solve conflicts, knowledge of M&A contractual aspects.
• Business acumen, interpersonal effectiveness, teamwork, strong analytical and communication skills, rigor and accuracy together with problem solving attitude complete the profile.
• High proficiency in English is a must; a second foreign language (e.g. German, Spanish) is a plus.
• Availability for business travel.

Location: Milan (s/w 2 days per week)

We are committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all people, by offering a work environment accessible, welcoming and inclusive in compliance with legal obligations.