28 Mar 2022
Investcorp, a leading global manager of alternative investment products, today announced that it has sold its majority stake in Agromillora (“the Company”) to the founders of Agromillora and to Edify, the investment holding company controlled by the Despature family. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in Barcelona in 1986, Agromillora is a global provider of advanced plant propagation services to the agricultural industry with a focus on permanent crop producing trees including stone fruit trees, citrus trees, almond and other nut trees, olive trees, berries and vines. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Company pioneered the production and marketing of trees for high-yielding olive orchards with the disruptive technology of high-density planting. Today, the Company provides nurseries and growers worldwide with a complete portfolio of high-density trees through tissue culture propagation laboratories located across five continents and develops proprietary rootstocks for high-density plantation models and products. As growing global food demand raises ever increasing demands on nature’s resources, Agromillora’s activities contribute to increasing the efficiency of food production.
Investcorp invested in Agromillora in December 2016 and has worked closely with its founders and management team to drive growth through international expansion and continuous innovation. This has included supporting Agromillora to strengthen and expand its market position, investing over €30m in growth initiatives across Europe, the US, Latin America, and Australia and ultimately increasing the adoption of high-density plantation models across crops and geographies.
Daniel Lopez-Cruz, Head of European Private Equity at Investcorp, said: “This investment is another example of Investcorp’s strategy of working in partnership with founders and management teams to execute on an ambitious agenda of value creation initiatives. I’m confident that Agromillora will build on these strong foundations to continue on its growth journey.”
Luis Gonzalez, Managing Director at Investcorp’s European Private Equity group, added: “It has been a pleasure to work with the Agromillora team over the past five years to help strengthen the Company’s market leading position. We have witnessed the hard work and passion of the entire team to help grow the business and show true innovation in the agricultural sector and we wish them every future success with their next stage of growth”.
Jordi Mateu, CEO of Agromillora, added: “Investcorp has been a true partner to us over the last five years supporting the development of Agromillora, which is now in great shape for the further opportunities that lie ahead”.
Since 2012, Investcorp has invested €1.7 billion in companies across Europe. The successful sale of Agromillora follows other successful previous investments in other Spanish companies, such as Grupo Esmalglass-Itaca and Fritta, and follows the sale of another portfolio company, Dainese, announced in March 2022.