Brazil Journal by Geraldo Samor - 03/29/2023
By Equipe de Redação
Posted in March 29, 2023
Ambipar announced tonight that Carlos Piani will be the new chairman of the company – a move by founder Tércio Borlenghi Júnior to strengthen the governance of an increasingly multinational and complex company.
“After taking care of the E in ESG, I will focus more on the G,” said Tércio, who started the company 27 years ago with a landfill operation and waste management for industries in the Ribeirão Preto region.
Tércio – who remains very involved in the day-to-day operations – owns 56% of the company’s capital, which has a market cap of R$2.2 billion. The free float is 44%.
The approach with Piani has been ongoing for about two years, when Ambipar and HPX Corp. – the SPAC whose sponsors were Piani, Rodrigo Xavier, and Bernardo Hees – began discussing a potential strategic combination.
Those discussions culminated in the merger between HPX and Response – Ambipar’s environmental emergency response business.
Piani is being appointed as a board member by the board itself, taking the seat of Yuri Keiserman, the former M&A director of Ambipar who recently became the CEO of Response.
“The deal with HPX worked so well that we decided to strengthen the ties to aim for even higher goals,” said Tércio.
Piani brings the experience of having worked in three industries. He was CEO of Equatorial Energia, where he still serves as chairman, and led PDG Realty. At Kraft Heinz, he was VP of M&A and led the company’s operation in Canada, which is now a relevant market for Response.
As a partner at Vinci Partners, Piani served on the boards of Unidas, Burger King Brazil, and Le Biscuit, all of which are investments of the asset manager.
Since its IPO in 2020, Ambipar has already made more than 40 acquisitions and now has exposure to clients in various sectors and multiple geographies. “This requires an evolution of governance to deal with this greater complexity,” Piani told Brazil Journal.
Tércio said that this year, “we will slow down on M&As, we are only looking at specific and strategic things, and we are focusing more internally.”
