Status: 01/24/2023 12:52 p.m
The Europe-wide restaurant chain L’Osteria is getting a new majority owner: an investment company backed by two US investors with a growing fast-food empire. A three-digit million amount is flowing into the business.
The investment firm McWin takes over the majority of the restaurant chain L’Osteria. They want to drive the chain’s growth across Europe and are investing together with the L’Osteria founders and the management, according to a statement. Founded in 1999, the L’Osteria chain operates 157 restaurants in eight European countries, including 131 in Germany, and employs more than 6,000 people.
More than 1500 restaurants in total
Nothing was known about the exact amount of the stake. However, the restaurant chain is said to be valued at 400 million euros in the transaction. The amount of the purchase price should have been at least 200 million euros. The deal still has to be approved by the competition authorities and is expected to be completed by the end of March. The L’Osteria founders Klaus Rader and Friedemann Findeis remained involved as minority shareholders, it said.
Behind McWin are the two US investors Henry McGovern and Steve Winegar, who have built up one of the largest European holding companies for fast food. The company, with offices in Great Britain, Poland and Spain, invests in gastronomy and food technology throughout Europe, with holdings including Gail’s Bakery, Burger King Germany and Dean & David. With the entry into L’Osteria, the total number of restaurants in McWin’s portfolio increases to over 1,500.
Money from Abu Dhabi
“We strongly believe that L’Osteria has the potential to become the market-leading restaurant group in Europe,” said McWin co-founder McGovern. The investment company manages assets of more than one billion euros. Last August, she launched a fund worth 525 million euros – in which the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, among others, participated as a donor.
L’Osteria wants to expand to Poland this year and in 2021 had set itself the goal of doubling key figures such as sales, the number of restaurants and employees over the next five years. Sales in 2022 were around 390 million euros. As is usual in system gastronomy, the chain operates some of its locations itself or assigns them to so-called franchisees.