The Basque funeral group Asistea, a subsidiary of Catalana Occidente, has entered Catalonia by acquiring 15% of the shares of Serveis Funeraris de Barcelona (SFB). The stake previously belonged to the municipal company Barcelona de Serveis Municipals (B:SM), which has divested the shares through a public auction process, meaning the Barcelona City Council is no longer a shareholder of the company. SFB will now be a fully private company, as the remaining 85% of the shares were already held by Grupo Mémora. The operation is pending administrative and corporate procedures to be completed.
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Asistea frames this expansion in Catalonia within its strategy to "consolidate a leading funeral group at a national level." The company is the result of the 2018 merger of Funeuskadi and Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.
With a total of 25 funeral homes, five crematories, and 16 service offices, the Catalana Occidente subsidiary previously operated in the Basque Country, Cantabria, and the Community of Madrid. Asistea has a staff of 250 professionals and provides more than 10,000 services per year.