Grupo Fuertes bets on poultry: submits a €300 million bid for Uvesa, outbidding MHP
With this transaction, the Murcia-based group aims to enter the broiler meat market in a major way.
Grupo Fuertes, which in 2023–2024 invested over €30 million in PROCAVI, its turkey brand, has taken a strategic step into the poultry meat market by seeking to add broiler meat to its product portfolio. To achieve this objective, it has submitted an acquisition bid for Uvesa, Spain’s second-largest broiler producer (with 161,200 tonnes of chicken slaughtered in 2023), just behind GRUPO VALL COMPANYS, which holds market leadership with 305,000 tonnes of broiler meat slaughtered in 2023.
The financial offer, as reported by ElEconomista.es, amounts to approximately €300 million, including debt, thereby outbidding the acquisition proposal submitted in December 2024 by Ukrainian company MHP, whose initial offer was €200 million excluding debt, according to the same financial newspaper.
This offer represents a key move for Grupo Fuertes, owner of El Pozo Alimentación, which until now has maintained only a marginal presence in the broiler sector but already held market leadership in the turkey sector through its PROCAVI brand and the nearly 400 integrated turkey farms it owns. Should the acquisition be finalised, the Murcia-based business holding GRUPO FUERTES would take control of 15% of the domestic market, positioning itself as the second-largest operator in the Spanish poultry sector, behind only Vall Companys, which leads with over 22% market share following the acquisition of Sada from Nutreco.
Uvesa: an established player in the industry
Headquartered in Tudela (Navarre), Uvesa is one of the leading companies in the Spanish food industry. It employs more than 2,000 workers and has a robust structure that includes hatcheries in Tudela and Burgos, as well as processing plants spread across various autonomous communities. In 2023, Uvesa recorded a turnover of €600 million and a profit of €27 million, positioning itself as a key supplier to retail chains such as Mercadona.
For its part, Grupo Fuertes closed 2023 with a turnover of €2,502 million, representing 7% growth compared with the previous year. Its consolidated profit doubled, reaching €155.4 million, compared with €73 million in the prior financial year.
Impact on market structure
The Spanish poultry market, both for meat and eggs, is undergoing an unprecedented consolidation process. Profit margins have tripled over the past year, driven by stronger demand, a record-breaking 94 million tourists in 2024, a contrary-to-forecast fall in raw material costs, greater efficiency at farm and abattoir level, and the fact that chicken has become the reference protein for Spanish consumers.
Profitability specifically has tripled, rising from an average of €24 per 100 kg over the past five years to €77.1 at the close of September 2024.
This overall context, combined with the realisation that the once-promising market for artificial “meats” has failed to gain traction, has spurred the interest of major domestic and international players in Spanish broiler meat.
Beyond the Uvesa transaction, notable developments in broiler production include the successive investments by Dutch company PLUKON FOOD GROUP in Spain, the acquisition of a 40% stake in PRODUCTOS FLORIDA by Peruvian company TECAVI, and other investments. In the laying hen sector, the standout deal is the purchase of HEVO GROUP, owner of Dagu, Huevos Roig, etc., by Brazilian magnate Ricardo Faria, shareholder of Granja Faria, the largest egg producer in Brazil.
The final decision rests with UVESA’s shareholders
The outcome of this transaction will depend on the decision of Uvesa’s 1,500 shareholders, who will need to evaluate both the Grupo Fuertes offer and the offer from Ukrainian company MHP. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian group, bolstered by significant financial firepower following the acquisition of a 12.6% stake in its shares in September 2024 by the sovereign wealth fund SALIC (Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company) of Saudi Arabia, and with a presence in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the United Kingdom, could revise its proposal upwards to remain competitive.
It remains to be seen whether these higher margins being achieved by integrators will be partially passed on to contract broiler growers, at least to reflect in their settlement payments the cumulative inflation of recent years.
Breaking news:
Official statement from UVESA (21:00 h)
Tudela, 22 January 2025.
In response to the news published regarding Grupo Fuertes’ interest in acquiring the company, GRUPO UVESA wishes to communicate:
- That it has indeed received a non-binding purchase offer from Grupo Fuertes.
That this proposal was made just over one month after Grupo UVESA had received a binding public takeover offer from MHP SE, a transaction directed at all current UVESA shareholders and subject, among other conditions, to reaching a minimum acceptance threshold of 50.01%. - That the Board of Directors will analyse Grupo Fuertes’ offer, seeking, as it must, the greatest benefit for shareholders and always within the framework of its legal and contractual obligations.
- That UVESA, through its Board of Directors, is already working on arranging meetings to present both offers to its shareholders — the true protagonists of this transaction — in order to explain with full transparency the actual price and all other implications of each offer, particularly with regard to the group’s viability proposal and the preservation of jobs. UVESA considers it fundamental to keep deliberations on this important transaction for the group within the bodies established by the articles of association for this purpose.
- That the interest shown by both MHP SE and Grupo Fuertes, for which the company is grateful, clearly reflects the standing of Grupo UVESA within its sector, as well as its capacity to continue generating development and growth opportunities in the short and medium term.