Criteria Caixa acquires 20% of Europastry to boost its growth

Criteria Caixa will enter Europastry, albeit following a different route than initially planned, after the Catalan company ruled out its plans to go public. The investment arm of La Caixa Foundation has reached a preliminary agreement with Europastry through which it will join its capital, acquiring approximately 20% of the Gallés family's frozen bakery dough company, at a cost of 280 million euros, according to market sources.

The incorporation will become effective through a capital increase in the coming weeks. The company has not specified how the distribution of Europastry's capital will be, in which the founding family and the MCH fund, which allied with the company in 2011, have a presence.

The operation was agreed after Europastry was about to go public in October, but finally changed its plans a few days before its debut on the stock market. It was not the first time the company backed down from its IPO, as in June it also halted the same process. The company, which has a 30-year history of activity since its founding in Barcelona, currently operates in 80 countries through 27 manufacturing plants.

According to Criteria, this operation aims to boost the growth of the Catalan company, as well as accelerate its global expansion and reinforce its commitment to innovation, thus strengthening Europastry's long-term strategy to continue boosting its growth.

With a turnover of more than 1,500 million in 2024 and an EBITDA of 237 million euros, Europastry faces a key moment in its growth objectives. To advance in this direction, the Catalan company closed 2024 with a record investment of 124 million euros in R&D and technology.

Criteria's entry is part of the holding's strategy, chaired by Isidro Fainé, to invest in leading companies in diverse sectors, with the aim of expanding its diversification and seeking investment bets with a long-term approach. Thus, the operation is included in the boost of Criteria's private equity portfolio, which is expected to reach a value of 4,000 million euros by 2030.

Within this strategy, the holding company has carried out various operations in recent months, such as entering the owner of Agbar, Veolia Environment, as well as in ACS, Telefónica and Colonial, in addition to Puig, which it entered when it went public in April with a 3.05% stake. Criteria Caixa, which recently returned its registered office to Catalonia along with the La Caixa Foundation, closed 2024 reaching more than 30,300 million euros in gross asset value, 14.5% more than the previous year.