M&A advisory
Buy side and Sell side assistance.Financial Due Diligence.Valuation.Buy and Integrate.
Capital Raise
Build-up strategy.Start-up assistance, strategy and support.
Debt Restructuring
Debt review and analysis.Financial assistance to optimum debt structuring.
159Prisma is specialized in M&A and Advisory services in:
Sport
Max assisted Football Clubs and Investors (Private Equities, Debt Providers, HNWI, Multi-Club Ownership) in both Sell side and Buy side operations. He assisted Sport Institutions like FIFA to develop a model for the Harmonization of Financial Statements of Member Associations. Max worked in Media TV Rights Deals related to Ligue 1 (French First Division) and Serie A (Italian First Division). In the retail sector Max assisted several brands including Nike, Adidas and Puma.
Luxury
Max has developed an expertise in the sector in particular related to Retail Operations. He has been part of Professional Faculty at the Master Emilux of Bocconi University and ESSEC Paris where he taught “The Future of Retail” (an analysis of what is going on and how to try to navigate in this new environment for retailers). A list of Clients in the Industry: LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Dior, Kenzo) Kering (Gucci, Bottega Veneta), Versace, Hugo Boss.
Real Estate
Max has advised several investors on Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Logistic deals in Italy, France and USA.
Food&Beverage
Max is an advisor to several start-up and scale-up with focus in F&B delivery, e-commerce, retail distribution, including Restaurants and Bars/Pubs.
Logistic
Max has advised several international players in acquisition and integration deals, including CMA-CGM and CEVA logistics.
Max Catanese
2001-2002 and 2009
Max received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University (Milan – Italy) in 2001. In 2002 completed the Master CEMS (Community of European Management Schools) in International Management at HEC Paris. In 2009 he gained the status of Harvard Business School Alumnus completing the PLD (Program for Leadership Development), an executive education program.
2004-2007
Max joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as an Auditor and then KPMG as a Senior Consultant in Transaction Services. He worked in the offices of Luxembourg, Paris and Madrid.
2008-2016
Max joined Almax, a family owned mannequin manufacturer, as COO in 2008 and became CEO in 2009. Under his tenure, Almax grew from a local Company to a Global player through acquisitions, a new factory in China (greenfield with co-investment of Simest investment Fund, entirely repaid in advance), new showrooms (Milano – Paris – NYC – Mexico City – Toronto) and a JV in the US until the Company was sold to two Private Equity investors in 2016. The Exit has been successful recognizing a great return for the investors. Almax was previously selected for the “Elite” program of Borsa italiana (Italian Stock Exchange) for a potential IPO.
2017-2019
Max was recruited by Palladio, a Private Equity fund, to join New Crazy Colors, an Italian design and window production firm for retailers, to develop the company internationally. After a few months, he was asked to join Autodis Group – PHE, (Automotive French Group with 900m EUR sales, owned by Bain Capital) where he oversaw International M&A. In 18 months in the role, the company closed acquisitions that brought PHE to more than double Sales and reach 2bn in 2019.
2020-2022
He joined again KPMG in the beginning of 2020 in Deal Advisory as Director in Integration & Separation in France. During this period, he was involved in E-commerce, Retail, Pharma, Logistics and Sport Deals.
Present
During his career Max has been involved in several complex deals of M&A across several geographies with deals size going from 100m EUR up to 10bn EUR.
He is supporting numerous Start-ups as advisor and/or investor (Milan Home – Rentopolis – Sportclubby – Orto di Jack – Squareat – Sapori Solari – Rocket) in Real Estate, Sport, E-commerce, Retail and Food&Beverage which resulted in collecting over 30 million EUR from Private and Institutional Investors.