MAWEEKLY · 7 de enero de 2025

2024 recap in M&A and Private Equity 🛰️🇪🇸

Top transactions of the year in Spain

Happy New Year! 🎉

Below you will find a selection of transactions from the year 2024 in Spain (here the selection made one year ago). Throughout this year, week by week, I have highlighted more than 450. There have been many more. In any case, the ones highlighted throughout the year certainly represent 80% of the announced transactions (excluding real estate and infra) and undoubtedly the most relevant ones in the middle market.

As the goal of this newsletter is to be brief, I have limited myself to selecting 10 transactions that, due to their volume, history, or the players involved, deserve to be highlighted. Others just as interesting have been left out.

On the other hand, and as the objective is not self-promotion, I have not included any of the transactions that we have closed at Albia IMAP this year, but I invite you to visit our website for more information. Of course, as always, I am delighted to chat.

What to expect from M&A in 2025 in Spain? My opinion, here (spoiler: my outlook for 2024 remains the same for 2025).

• Cinven acquired 70% of idealista, the leading real estate online platform in Spain, Italy and Portugal, valuing the company at 2.9 billion euros. Jesús Encinar, founder and President of idealista, will continue to lead the company with his team, as he already did in 2015 after the sale of idealista to the funds managed by Apax and in 2020 after the sale to EQT.1

• Ardian, Alantra, Artá, and Landon have agreed to sell their stake in Monbake to CVC. Monbake Group has consolidated its position as one of the three main producers and distributors of frozen dough at national level. Monbake was created in February 2018, when Ardian bought the companies Berlys and Bellsolá.2

• Carlyle, a leading US-based PE firm, announced an investment in Seidor, a Barcelona-based consultancy with 9,000+ employees and partnerships with tech giants like SAP, Microsoft, and AWS. Separately, Babel Group partnered with Mubadala Capital, which acquired a majority stake. Both deals underscore Spain’s growing IT ecosystem and the global interest from top-tier private equity players. 3

• EQT announced that has agreed to acquire a majority position in Universidad Europea from Permira, who will retain a significant minority stake in the Company. Established in 1996, Universidad Europea is one of the largest and fastest-growing private university networks in Europe. This isn’t the only notable transaction in Spain’s education sector in 2024, with major deals spanning vocational training and private schools. In vocational education, Jacobs Holding has acquired ILERNA, Charme Capital Partners invested in Universae and Charterhouse Capital Partners acquired Metrodora, a Madrid-based group specializing in healthcare training, from Magnum Capital.4

• Gyms are back. Providence Equity Partners has made a strong entry into Spain’s fitness sector with its acquisition of VivaGym, the independent low-cost gym chain in the country. This move, alongside Basic Fit’s acquisition of RSG Group’s Spanish business, signals a major transformation in the low-cost gym industry. VivaGym, with nearly recovered pre-pandemic revenue of €93 million in 2023, is targeting 25% annual growth under Providence’s ownership. After acquiring VivaGym, Providence has executed several add-ons, including the high-profile acquisition of Altafit (MCH). The integration of Altafit makes VivaGym Spain’s second-largest gym operator with 200 locations and 350,000 members, trailing only Basic Fit. 5

• Miura Partners has acquired HealthTech BioActives (HTBA) from US-based PE firm Riverside, marking a significant transaction in the Spanish HealthTech sector. Based in Barcelona, with production facilities in Beniel, Murcia, HTBA specializes in natural ingredients like citrus flavonoids and active vitamin B12, serving pharmaceutical, nutritional, and animal feed markets. This acquisition is particularly noteworthy given the scale of the transaction—estimated at ~€300 million, according to public sources—far exceeding the typical deal size for funds managed by Miura. 6

• JB Capital has led a consortium including GPF, Ion-Ion, Corporación Financiera Guadalmar, and Label Investments to acquire Palacios Alimentación from MCH and Ardian. Palacios Alimentación, a Spanish prepared foods company known for products like chorizo, pizzas, pastries, and pre-cooked tortillas, generates approximately €400 million in annual revenue and operates seven production centers across Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom. 7

• The data center sector has been generating significant buzz for some time, and in 2024, two major transactions demonstrate that it has become a reality. Asterion Industrial Partners sold Nabiax, Spain’s leading data center group, to a fund managed by Aermont. This transaction includes Telefónica’s 20% stake in Nabiax. Asterion established Nabiax in 2019 by acquiring 11 data centers from Telefónica and later expanded the portfolio. In addition to Asterion’s sale of Nabiax, another major operation in the data center sector in 2024 was the acquisition of Adam EcoTech by CVC. At the beginning of the year, Avatel, a Spanish telecommunications operator, sold its data center business to the investment funds Teras Capital and Intermediate Capital Group (ICG).8

• In 2024, Puig solidified its global leadership in beauty and luxury with a majority stake acquisition in Dr. Barbara Sturm (Germany), a high-end skincare brand celebrated for its science-driven formulations. Other investments included Charlotte Tilbury (United Kingdom) and Byredo (Sweden), where Puig expanded its stake These strategic moves, alongside Puig’s landmark IPO—the largest in Europe this year and a historic milestone for Spain—demonstrate the company’s commitment to diversifying its portfolio and dominating the luxury beauty market on a global scale. 9

• Once For All, a European player in supply chain compliance and sustainable sourcing solutions for the construction, engineering and manufacturing industries announced the acquisition of Nalanda Global, a supply chain risk and compliance management software platform in Spain. Nalanda was valued at €300 million. Chicago-based Private Equity firm GTCR acquired UK-based Once For All in 2023 in partnership with CEO David Hornsby. PSG Equity, a growth equity firm that partners with software and technology-enabled services companies, acquired a majority stake in Nalanda in 2021. Another significant transaction in the compliance software sector in 2024 involved CTAIMA, a provider of software and specialized services for contractor management, health & safety, ESG, and compliance. CTAIMA announced its merger with e-coordina, a leading provider of contractor management software and services in Spain. As part of this transaction, Hg, a prominent investor in European and transatlantic software and services businesses, became a strategic investor in the combined company. This investment marks Hg’s first platform investment in Iberia. 10

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I am a Partner at Albia IMAP. IMAP is an International Mergers and Acquisitions Partnership with a 50-year track record, more than 500 M&A professionals worldwide and a presence in 50 countries. IMAP has closed over 2,200 transactions valcued at $130bn in the last 10 years and is consistently ranked in the world’s Top 10 M&A advisors (Refinitiv) for mid-market transactions.