ABAC enters the capital of Recalvi

“I have said for a long time that my intention was to create a financial partner that would allow us to grow as long as it allowed me to continue to run the company.” That’s what Chema Rodriguez, CEO of Recalvi, discovered. ABAC: Spanish investment fund with whom the terms have been agreed in the absence of percentage indication the end with which they will eventually enter society: “But whatever the percentage it may be, it is clear that we will continue to have control – it is implied that over the management -. This is non-negotiable,” Rodriguez says bluntly.

And although ABAC’s normal mode of operation involves acquiring the entire capital of the companies in which it participates, the fact that one of the conditions imposed by the fund on Rodriguez himself is that the distributor will not be able to sell for the next five years. The company suggests that its participation, at least for now, will be a minority. During this period, Chema Rodriguez and his team will continue to lead the company.

In a telephone conversation with AUTOPOS, Rodriguez prefers not to disclose the name of the fund. However, as these media have learned, it was ABAC, a capital company, for example, that bought Metalcaucho in 2015 and then sold it in 2019 for approximately 200 million euros to BBB Industries, its current owner.

During those years, the investment fund managed to professionalize the Spanish company supplying rubber and rubber-metal products, transforming from an individual enterprise Metalcaucho into the multinational corporation it managed to become, with growth doubling its turnover during this period.

The distributor’s discussions with other industry giants were already known – perhaps the closest was the conversation with LKQ, actually acknowledged by Chema Rodriguez – but they did not allow for what was important to Recalvi’s CEO: continue to lead the company. Given the impossibility of reaching an agreement on these terms, chose to refuse the sale in order to choose the arrival of a financial partner with the goal of injecting sufficient capital to continue the growth plan they have set for the next four years – and which they have already set -.

Everything indicates that they are preparing for expansion that will entail the acquisition of other distribution companies in the coming years. They are now, for example, preparing to come to Portugal…

On January 1, they will also complete the final process to consolidate all of the company’s activities under a single CIF. Something that brings everything back to the starting point, because it is a movement aimed at looking into the future through sale… Something that Rodriguez does not categorically deny, but nevertheless places himself within the five-year horizon agreed upon with ABAC. : “Then you never know.”

We will continue to inform.