The restaurant chain L’Osteria is sold to an investor. The investment company McWin is acquiring around two-thirds of the shares in the company headquartered in Munich, both sides announced on Tuesday. The chain, which offers Italian food in the middle price segment, is valued at around 400 million euros in the transaction.
The L’Osteria founders Klaus Rader and Friedemann Findeis remain involved as minority shareholders. 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 sale will accelerate the expansion of the restaurant chain both in Germany and in other existing and new markets, it said. Founded in Nuremberg in 1999, L’Osteria has since expanded significantly – first in Germany, then in Austria and other countries. The group operates 157 restaurants in eight European countries, including 131 in Germany, and employs more than 6,000 people. There was no information on the price of the majority stake.
Potential for market-leading restaurant group in Europe
“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 and launched a fund worth 525 million euros in August.
The stake in L’Osteria brings the total number of restaurants in McWin’s portfolio to over 1,500. McWin acquired a majority stake in Burger King Germany at the end of 2021 and is also involved in the Dean & David chain and manufacturers of alternative protein products.
The investor’s expertise should now benefit L’Osteria. The company 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 within five years. Total sales in 2022 were around 390 million euros – 51 percent more than in 2019.
