Inveready / Stellum / Kutxabank take majority stake in Uvesco

PAI Partners signed an agreement in December 2025 to sell its entire holding in Uvesco to a consortium of Basque institutional investors, led by chief executive Ángel Jareño, who reinvested alongside other managers and stayed at the head of the company. The consortium also included the founding families already holding minority stakes, the regional bank Kutxabank through its investment vehicle Indar, and the Basque private equity firms Inveready and Stellum. Funds controlled by Hayfin and Strategic Value Partners provided 465 million euros of acquisition financing. Completion was expected in the first quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval. Uvesco runs supermarkets under the BM Supermercados and Super Amara names, on a proximity model: stores of modest size placed within walking distance in towns and city districts, rather than hypermarkets on the outskirts. Its proposition rests on fresh produce, with butchers, fishmongers and bakers working in store, and on supply from producers in the regions where it trades. It operated 344 stores across the Basque Country, Cantabria, Navarra, La Rioja and Madrid, carried more than 15,000 product lines, employed 7,000 people and served its online orders from four distribution centres. It generated revenue of €1–10bn. That model competes against the discounters on a different footing. It cannot match their prices, but a shopper buying fresh food several times a week values proximity and quality over the weekly trolley, and local sourcing is difficult for a national chain to replicate store by store. PAI Partners had acquired a majority stake in April 2022, and during its ownership Uvesco opened 50 stores and bought the Madrid chain Hiber, taking it beyond its northern base. The incoming shareholders presented the transaction as keeping the company independent and Basque-owned while continuing that expansion.

It is worth noting that the fund PAI Partners took control of Uvesco through an LBO in 2021.