The Puig family is not unknown to the financial markets, although it has been now, with the IPO of their company, when the heirs of the saga have begun to make headlines. His presence among the large companies of our country is not limited only to his company, Puig Brands, but also are present through different patrimonial companies or family offices in securities such as Inmobiliaria Colonial or Fluidra, among those listed on the Ibex 35; They have significant investments in the real estate world and are active investors in venture capital funds, reserved for high-net-worth clients.
This same Friday Puig starred in what will be (except surprise) the largest IPO in Europe in all of 2024, a year in which the appetite of investors to buy and of companies to move into the public domain seems to have returned given the current conditions that have opened a window of opportunity. With a good reception among those who decided to support his debut, Puig was listed on the stock market at the highest expected price (24.5 euros per share) with a capitalization of more than 13.9 billion euros.. Of them, 72% will remain in the hands of the family, which implies a valuation of 10,000 million euros; and this has led them to sneak into the ranking of the richest in the world overnight. At the beginning of the year, the fortune of the Puig dynasty [con sus cuatro ramas familiares: los Puig Rocha, Puig Guasch, Puig Alsina (hijos de Enrique Puig) y Puig Alsina (hijos de Jos Mara Puig)] was estimated at around 2.3 billion euros, according to the special The richest in Spain 2024 published by EL MUNDO. We must not forget that, in political terms, the Puigs will maintain tight control of the company to which they give their name, since they retain 92.5% of the shares after the placement.
Beyond this, The family is present in the capital of another listed Catalan company, Inmobiliaria Colonial, where it retains a 7.375% stake, which makes them the third largest shareholders of the company. After the Qatar sovereign fund and Carlos Fernández, a Mexican investor, he is president of the Modelo brewing group and founder of Finaccess. In February 2022, the Puigs decided to enter the capital of the real estate company run by Pere Violas, buying 5.3% of the shares through one of its assets, Trudonba XXI, which at that time was in the hands of Exea Ventures and which has now passed to be grouped under the umbrella of Exea Inversiones Inmobiliarias, a company based in Switzerland focused on investing in brick in our country For this reason and also because of the tight control that the Puigs have over the capital of their company, there are those who have found parallels with the story of Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, who controls 51% of the company and who is in charge of Pontegadea, your real estate vehicle. Bridging the gap (the value of Inditex on the stock market alone is today 10 times higher), the investment in Colonial adds additional assets for the Puigs of around 220 million euros.
Within the capital of Colonial they share a shareholding with CriteriaCaixa, the Foundation’s investment holding company, which also has just over 3% of the capital of the firm specialized in renting prime offices in the best areas of Paris, Madrid and Barcelona, in that order. The company chaired by Isidro Fain also wanted to support Puig’s IPO by acquiring 3% of the shares for 425 million euros with his presence.
The largest investment in listed companies for the Puigs is the one they maintain in Fluidra. Manuel Puig Rocha does this with 7% of the pool manufacturer’s capital through his company Schawarzsee 2018 SL, with tax headquarters in Barcelona and which is the third link in a chain of companies he owns and where everything depends on Lyskamm 1861 SL, the first on the list. This percentage of the shares is valued at current prices at around 275 million euros. Puig Rocha is the current vice president of the family company, in addition to being a director at Colonial and also at Fluidra, in a relationship that has already lasted for more than a decade. And the investment has not gone badly for them. Only in the last ten years Fluidra has multiplied its value in the market by seven, up to 4,000 million today, although during the pandemic (and the boom del stay at home) almost doubled this figure.
In addition, the Puigs are the first shareholder of the Galician fashion group Adolfo Dominguez in a very long-lasting relationship. Through the family assets, the family owns 14.8% of its capital, valued at nearly 8 million euros, but it is a story that goes back a long way, specifically, from the beginning of the century. In 2000, the Puigs took control of the Myrurgia perfumery group, which at that time was in charge of developing and manufacturing perfumes for Adolfo Domnguez. As a result of this acquisition, Puig Brands began to market the Galician firm’s fragrances and became a shareholder years later.