US firm Carlyle to buy majority stakehold in Codorniu for €390m

US equity firm Carlyle has reached a deal with Codorniu Raventós to buy a majority stake in family-owned cava maker for 390 million euros. Expected to go through at the end of the year, Codorniu Raventós said that the deal will help the company to expand into new international markets and grow its footprint in existing ones.

The Codorníu Raventós group, one of the oldest and largest family-owned businesses in the country, ended the first semester of the 2017/2018 fiscal year with profits of 11 million euros, some 61% more than in the same period in the previous year, when the winemaker topped the market in Spain with a turnover of 236 million euros.

According to the cava company, the Carlyle buyout opens up “a clear opportunity” for Codorniu to continue to improve its financial results. Meanwhile, the director of Carlyle in Europe said it was a “great honor” to be part of Codorniu and he hoped his firm would be able to help boost the international profile of the cava maker.

For the Codorníu Raventós group, which has 10 wineries in Spain, Argentina and California, cava production makes up 50% of its business, a segment that grew 3% in the Spanish market in the first semester of the fiscal year. The other half of the business is devoted to wine production, which saw market growth of 7% in the same period.

The CCOO trade union reacted to news of the buyout by calling for the operation to guarantee jobs in the group. The works council and the union have called for an “urgent” meeting with the management so that it can fulfill its “obligation” of informing workers’ representatives about the operation.