McWin Restaurant Fund Takes Majority Stake in L’Osteria

Czech investment firm McWin is set to acquire a majority stake in restaurant business L’Osteria.

In a statement on Tuesday (Jan. 24), McWin said it will purchase a majority stake in the Italian restaurant chain, subject to regulatory approval.

Although McWin did not state the value of its stake, it did say that the deal, which values L’Osteria at nearly 400 million euros ($435.34 million), marks “a significant investment” for the McWin Restaurant Fund, a 525 million euro ($571.39 million) investment vehicle launched last year.

Commenting on the company’s strong presence in the German market, where a large number of its locations can be found, Henry McGovern, founding partner at McWin, said “L’Osteria is the clear market leader in the largest economy in Europe,” adding that “we fundamentally believe that L’Osteria has the potential to become the market-leading casual dining group in Europe.”

As its name suggests, the McWin restaurant fund targets restaurant businesses like L’Osteria, but as McWin Partner Martin Davalos explained to PYMNTS in September, the firm is not opposed to using its new presence in the space to benefit existing portfolio companies.

For example, other McWin funds have focused on FoodTech and the wider food ecosystem.

As Davalos explained, from the food service and restaurant space to emerging technologies in food production, McWin is able to benefit from “tremendous synergies across the whole sector” and leverage its experience in technology to help businesses grow.

Moreover, he added that the firm’s existing portfolio companies in sectors such as food production and food tech could benefit from the “humongous distribution network” the new restaurant fund is assembling.

In Tuesday’s release, McWin said the number of restaurants in its portfolio now stands at over 1,500 across Europe, having added L’Osteria’s 157 restaurants across eight European markets.

Besides the connection to its existing portfolio companies, Davalos said the thing McWin can help businesses with the most is “operational excellence,” and the experience brought by the firm’s team.

He emphasized that for the latest fund, McWin’s experience growing businesses across borders will be “fundamental.” Pointing to the fund’s first investment in a Burger King franchise operator in Poland, he said McWin hopes to grow the brand’s presence in the market by leveraging its past experience with a similar business in Germany.

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