Vigo, Spain-based Nueva Pescanova announced a EUR 283 million (USD 331 million) capital increase, which it said will reduce its leverage to aid growth.
The company said its principle shareholder, ABANCA, will subscribe to EUR 279 million (USD 326 million) of the capital increase. The increase also includes the option for minority shareholders to participate through cash contributions, the company said.
“With this move, the Nueva Pescanova Group will reduce its financial costs and bring its financial leverage ratio below 4x, thereby facilitating its access to the financial markets,” the company said. “The transaction lays the foundations for a new phase of development and investment.”
The additional funding comes in the wake of Nueva Pescanova returning to profitability in FY 2025. The company posted a profit of EUR 1.1 million (USD 1.3 million) for the year as the recovery plan it implemented in 2023 began to bear fruit. On top of reaching profitability for the first time in multiple years, its EBITDA also increased to EUR 71.2 million (USD 83.3 million) in FY 2025, a 56.5 percent increase over the prior year.
The company said that the positive trends have continued in the first part of 2026, which has prompted the capital increase to consolidate that current trajectory and fund new growth projects.
“The capital increase proposal was approved by the Board of Directors of Nueva Pescanova at its meeting on 30 April; it will be submitted for approval at the General Meeting of Shareholders on 20 May and has already been approved by the principal shareholder,” the company said.
Following the increase, and if minority shareholders subscribe to it, ABANCA will continue to hold 98.59 percent of the company’s share capital.
The move is a turnaround compared to ABANCA’s prior plans for Nueva Pescanova. At one point, ABANCA had entered an agreement with Cooke that would have seen the latter company take an 80 percent stake in Nueva Pescanova. That deal ultimately fell through in July 2023, and the company refocused its sales efforts in 2024 and managed to achieve EUR 1.05 billion (USD 1.23 billion) in sales in FY 2025.
