Lusiaves Takes Padesa While Founding Families Stay On

Grupo Lusiaves took a majority stake in Spanish poultry group Padesa after Spain’s competition watchdog cleared exclusive Portuguese control. The Leiria group said on 1 October that the buy was complete, with Peruvian agri-food group Grupo Valora taking a minority slice and the Salvadó and Centelles families staying on as shareholders and managers.

The holding size and the closed price were not published, though sale-process talks in December 2025 put a Lusiaves-led bid around €350 million. What the filing does show is who can decide: Spain treated the deal as sole control by the Portuguese parent, even as two other camps remain inside the company.

Spain’s Watchdog Called It Exclusive Control

The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia opened case C/1712/26 on the purchase of Pavo y Derivados, S.A. by Grupo Lusiaves – SGPS, S.A. On 4 September 2026 it authorized exclusive control in September, listing poultry farming, prepared meals, farm-animal feed and wholesale meat among the markets touched by the file.

That legal tag matters more than the press-release language about partners. Exclusive control, in a concentration filing, means the Portuguese parent can determine Padesa’s strategy. Valora’s minority and the families’ remaining shares sit underneath that finding, not beside it as equal votes.

WHAT THE FILING SETTLED

• The buyer: Grupo Lusiaves – SGPS, S.A., the Portuguese parent, is recorded as taking exclusive control of Pavo y Derivados, S.A.
• The date: The CNMC authorized the concentration on 4 September 2026; Lusiaves said the purchase was completed on 30 September and announced it on 1 October.
• The blanks: The exact percentage bought and the cash paid were not disclosed, and December 2025 talks around €350 million remain the only public figure attached to the process.
• The other names: Grupo Valora holds a minority interest, and the Salvadó and Centelles families stay as shareholders and keep day-to-day management.

Lusiaves, a family poultry group founded in 1986 by Avelino Gaspar, is marking four decades in the year it closed the file. Gaspar called Padesa the group’s biggest international step and said the Catalan company shared its view of a single chain from feed to pack.

A Peruvian Group Already Bought Into Spanish Chicken

DC Advisory, which ran the sale for Padesa, said the buyer group started as a Lusiaves-led consortium and later changed shape so Tecavi, Valora’s poultry unit, came in as a minority shareholder. Early process reports had also linked Spanish meat group Vall Companys to a joint run at Padesa. Vall Companys is not on the closed cap table.

Valora was not a tourist in Spanish poultry. Through Tecavi it took 40% of Castellón processor Productos Florida in 2024, then moved to 100%, a change recorded in the Boletín Oficial del Registro Mercantil, with Francisco Javier Ponce Secada of the owner family named president. That platform sits in the same country, in the same protein, and is not part of the Lusiaves group.

The Peru link runs the other way too. Vall Companys holds 40% of Protein Group, Valora’s pork business in Peru, so the Spanish group that dropped out of the Padesa stack still shares a farm business with the minority partner that stayed in. The closed deal therefore pairs a Portuguese majority in Catalonia with a Peruvian shareholder that is building a separate Spanish poultry line of its own.

The Founding Families Sold Control and Kept the Keys

Padesa, founded in 1973 and based in Amposta in Tarragona’s Terres de l’Ebre, had been owned by its founding families. They are now minority shareholders. They also remain, in Lusiaves’ own account, the people running the company. Jordi Salvadó, shareholder and chief executive, framed the Portuguese group as a bankroll for the brand rather than a wipe-out of the local name.

We have found in Grupo Lusiaves the right partner for Padesa’s next phase of growth. The group’s scale and investment capacity will enable us to accelerate projects and take the Aldelís brand further.

Jordi Salvadó, shareholder and CEO of Padesa

Lusiaves said Padesa’s brand identity, management teams, and ties with staff, contract growers, suppliers and local towns stay in place. That is a familiar promise in family-company sales. It is harder to keep once the competition authority has already said one foreign parent holds exclusive control.

The cash lands on one day. After that, the operating question is who decides, and under what rules, when the people who sold control still sit in the plant office. If those rules are thin, the majority and the managers will grind against each other on capital spending, brand investment and which retail contracts get priority.

Oblanca, Then Segoviana, Then a Catalan Giant

Padesa is the third Spanish poultry purchase Lusiaves has closed in under a year. In October 2025 it took a majority of León-based Oblanca, a fresh-chicken, processed-poultry and egg group. Through Oblanca it then bought Madrid distributor Avícola Segoviana in November 2025. Padesa is a different order of size.

THE THREE SPANISH PURCHASES

Oblanca had already been shopping, including a buy of Distribución Frigorífica Segoviana, before Lusiaves arrived. Avícola Segoviana’s job was Madrid reach, not slaughter scale. Padesa brings feed mills, hatching, chicken and turkey growing, slaughter, processing and a retail brand that already sits in Spanish shops.

DC Advisory, advising the sellers, said Lusiaves itself generates more than €900 million of sales. With Padesa added, the Portuguese group puts combined turnover at about €1.5 billion for 2026 and employment at about 9,000 people in Portugal, Spain and France. It called the Padesa close the largest consolidation so far in Iberian poultry.

What the Aldelís Plants Put on Iberian Shelves

Aldelís is the name shoppers see. The group folded its labels into that single brand in 2018. Behind it sits a short-haul farm belt: the company says it runs 350 farms near the Ebro, all within 72 km of production centres in Roquetes and Amposta, and that it tracks birds from hatch and feed through slaughter.

DC Advisory put Padesa’s 2025 result at more than €550 million of sales ($620.1 million) and €70 million of 2025 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. It placed the group among Spain’s five largest chicken producers and as the country’s second-largest turkey operator, with seven plants and 15 subsidiaries.

PADESA’S SPANISH FOOTPRINT

• Terres de l’Ebre: Pavo y Derivados S.A. runs the plants in Amposta and Roquetes that sit at the centre of the farm radius.
• Zaragoza: Unión de Polleros de Aragón and Aves Nobles y Derivados handle birds and prepared products; the latter traces to a 1967 workshop in Zaragoza’s Mercado Arrabal and joined Padesa in 1997.
• Madrid: Kovo, S.A. extends the group into the capital’s trade.
• Mediterranean south: Martín y Santiago in Alicante, Algarra y Ortega in Granada, and Exclusivas Fernández in Almería give the group reach down the coast and into Andalusia.

That map is why Gaspar can talk about Iberian and European poultry meat in the same breath. Lusiaves already had Portugal, a French footprint, and last year’s León-Madrid bolt-ons. Padesa adds Catalonia, Aragon, Madrid and the south, plus turkey, which the Portuguese core did not bring at this scale.

Other European Groups Are Buying Spanish Poultry Too

The Padesa file did not land in a quiet market. DC Advisory pointed to Vall Companys taking Sada’s poultry business from Nutreco and taking control of Andalusian firm Inasur in 2025, and to Ukrainian group MHP buying a majority of Uvesa the same year. Dutch processor Plukon had already been shopping in Spain. Family poultry companies are being folded into fewer groups that can talk to the big retailers as one supplier.

THE COMBINED GROUP LUSIAVES NOW CITES

• People: About 9,000 staff across Portugal, Spain and France after Padesa joins Oblanca and the Portuguese core.
• Sales: About €1.5 billion of turnover projected for 2026, against Lusiaves’ own more than €900 million and Padesa’s more than €550 million.
• Padesa’s chain: Fifteen subsidiaries, seven plants, and 350 farms feeding the Aldelís brand of fresh chicken, turkey and prepared lines.
• Control: CNMC exclusive control for Lusiaves, with Valora as minority and the founding families still managing Amposta.

Salvadó wants that scale to push Aldelís further. Gaspar wants a European poultry group that still talks about local roots. Spain’s watchdog has already written the hierarchy: Lusiaves decides. The Peruvian minority and the Catalan managers remain in the building anyway, which is the part of the close the expansion headline leaves out.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Did Spain’s CNMC Decide on Lusiaves and Padesa?

The CNMC authorized concentration C/1712/26 under article 57.2.a) of Law 15/2007 on 4 September 2026, through an agreement of the Secretary of the Council by delegation, and classified it as an acquisition of exclusive control of Pavo y Derivados, S.A. by Grupo Lusiaves – SGPS, S.A. That first-phase route is used when the file is not sent into a deeper second-phase investigation.

Is Padesa Mainly a Chicken Company or a Turkey Company?

It is both. Deal adviser DC Advisory placed Padesa among Spain’s five largest chicken producers and as the country’s second-largest turkey operator, with processed lines that include burgers, sausages and ready meals sold under Aldelís alongside fresh bird.

When Did Padesa Put All Its Labels Under Aldelís?

The group decided in 2018 to unite its brands under Aldelís. Prepared-product specialist Aves Nobles y Derivados, which started from Miguel Botaya’s 1967 workshop in Zaragoza, had already been brought into Grupo Padesa in 1997, which is how feed, slaughter and recipes sit in one chain.

Who Advised the Sale of Padesa to Lusiaves and Tecavi?

DC Advisory was exclusive financial adviser to Padesa on the sale, with EY as legal adviser to the sellers. Ceca Magán acted as legal adviser to Lusiaves. The buyer side, as closed, is Lusiaves in the majority and Tecavi (Grupo Valora) in the minority.

How Many Plants Does Padesa Run After the Deal?

DC Advisory counted seven production facilities and more than 3,000 employees across 15 subsidiaries. The named operating companies published by Padesa sit in Amposta, Roquetes, Zaragoza, Madrid, Alicante, Granada and Almería, and Lusiaves has said those teams and the Aldelís name remain in place.