The Barcelona-based corporate finance firm Anquor, one of the two heirs of the historic mergers and acquisitions consultancy Eurohold, closed its first full year last year with a total of seven company acquisitions, explains Pascal Vieilledent, founder and head of the company.

These transactions include the sale of the Catalan transport and logistics company Coral Transports & Stocks to the Belgian group H. Essers and the acquisition of the Leonese laboratory Dransanvi by the French company EA Pharma.

Following Anquor’s incorporation into the international network Global M&A Partners in 2020, last year the firm was involved in its first transaction outside Spain, which consisted of the sale of the Portuguese company Gasodata to the French company TSG.

“If we do ten operations this year, it would be satisfactory”, ventures Vieilledent, whose partner in the consultancy firm is Josep Maria Piqueras. Coming from the former Eurohold, Piqueras was previously a senior executive of the pharmaceutical group Kern.

This year, Anquor has advised the French group Edify in its landing as the new first shareholder of the Catalan company Agromillora, one of the world leaders in the production of fruit trees and olive trees.

“We want to carry out more selective operations with an international vocation”, says Anquor’s CEO, who mentions health and pharmacy, transport and logistics, distribution, and wines and spirits as priority sectors for the consultancy firm.

With offices in Barcelona and Madrid, the firm has a team of 17 people. “The key is to have a matrix organisation and to incorporate people who come from the industry”, says Vieilledent, who cites the cases of Emilia Martínez, ex-manager of Pzifer, and Alvaro Bailo, ex-executive of Juvé & Camps.

The other consultancy firm to emerge from the Eurohold spin-off is You are Capital, a corporate finance firm headed by Jean-François Alandry, also based in Barcelona. Alandry and Vieilledent were partners in Eurohold for thirty years.

Article originally published in Expansión ed. 4 July 2022