CIR Group


CIR Group is an Italian holding company listed on the stock exchange which is 46% controlled by COFIDE of the De Benedetti family. The company was founded in 1976, when Carlo De Benedetti acquired the company Concerie Italiane Riunite, a Turin based tanning company, from its historic owner the Bocca family and transformed it into an industrial holding company. The company was then renamed Compagnie Industriali Riunite. Chief Executive of CIR for almost twenty years, Rodolfo De Benedetti is now Executive Chairman of the company. Monica Mondardini is Chief Executive.
Today CIR heads an industrial group active in three main sectors: media, automotive components, healthcare. In 2016 the CIR group reported revenues of 2.6 billion euro and a net income of 34 million euro. The group has more than 14 thousand employees.

The Group

In the media sector CIR controls GEDI, the publishing company listed on the Italian stock exchange, which owns the daily newspapers la Repubblica and La Stampa, the weekly magazine L’Espresso plus other magazines, 14 local newspapers, three national radio stations, a digital division and an advertising concessionaire. The group is a shareholder with a 30% interest in the network operator Persidera. In 2016 GEDI reported revenues of 585.5 million euro.
In automotive components it is present with the subsidiary SOGEFI, one of the main operators worldwide in three business sectors: filtration, air and cooling and suspension components. Founded in Mantua in 1980, SOGEFI today supplies the most important car manufacturers worldwide and operates in 23 countries in four continents with 41 production plants. SOGEFI’s history includes numerous acquisitions, particularly in Europe and South America, the most recent of which was that of Mark IV Systèmes Moteurs, completed at the end of July 2011. Sogefi’s revenues for 2016 were almost 1.6 billion, all-time high for the group.
KOS, which is controlled by CIR with the F2i Healthcare fund also having an interest, operates in the care-home sector. Established in 2002 with the name Holding Sanità e Servizi, KOS is active in the management of care homes and rehabilitation centres. The company also supplies and manages diagnostic and therapeutic medical technology through its subsidiary Medipass. The KOS group is one of the main Italian operators in this field with 78 facilities under management in the centre and north of Italy. In 2011 the group launched a joint venture in India in the medical technology sector and in 2012 took over management of technologies in two important cancer hospitals in the United Kingdom. KOS employs some 5,000 people and has an annual turnover of approximately 460 million euro.
The CIR group is active in various investment initiatives such as the venture capital fund CIR Ventures, has a series of interests in the private equity sector and a portfolio of non-performing loans.

Principal Shareholdings

The Board of Directors of CIR, appointed on April 28, 2017, consists of eleven directors, six of whom are independent. The current Board will remain in office until the approval of the Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2019. The Board has the following Directors: