The Álvarez Mezquíriz family has reached an agreement that resolves one of the most bitter business conflicts between heirs in Spain and that will involve the distribution of the Eulen services group, one of the largest employers in the country, and the Vega Sicilia winery.
The agreement reached between the Álvarez Mezquíriz brothers includes a business restructuring in which each of the two factions is completely separated from the other, allowing a family conflict that has lasted thirteen years to be closed.
The parties have committed to ending the existing judicial processes, which have been hindering the normal development of shareholder meetings for years and which include accusations of accounting alterations and corporate emptying. The distribution of dividends was denied between the disputing parties.
In accordance with the agreement, the president of Eulen, María José Álvarez, will go from controlling 57.57% of the company to almost 97%, after adding 39% in the hands of her brothers Pablo, Emilio, Juan Carlos, Elvira and Marta .
At the same time, the president of Eulen will give her brothers her 15% in the company El Enebro, which is the head of Tempos Vega Sicilia and several food businesses.
The restructuring, the family says in a statement, “determines a strengthening of both business groups and greater dynamization and agility in decision-making that current economic times demands.”
The conflict broke out in 2010, when David Álvarez created El Enebro to distribute part of the family businesses among his children. He kept 51% of the capital and gave 7% to each of his seven children, who totaled 49%. At that time, at 83 years old, the founder stepped away from management.
Shortly after, due to his disagreement with the decisions in the company, he wanted to regain control, but five of the brothers prevented him from doing so at a shareholders meeting that years later the courts would declare void. The family was divided between the five ‘wayward’ brothers and another front formed by the father, María José and a third brother, Jesús David.
In 2013, the five brothers grouped their shares in El Enebro to ensure control of the company, which led to a new confrontation with David Álvarez.
Two years later, in 2015, upon his death, the founder chose María José as his successor, who is the first-born and who at that time assumed her father’s participation in Eulen, which is the company’s largest company. He also distributed his 51% in El Enebro among all. The inheritance provoked another judicial front.
Dedicated to offering services to companies, Eulen is one of the largest employers in Spain, with a workforce in the country of 48,749 workers, only comparable to those of Mercadona, El Corte Inglés, ONCE or Correos. Revenues exceed 1,600 million euros and the aspiration is for them to rise to 2,000 million in 2025.
Of the El Enebro companies, the best known is Tempos Vega Sicilia, which has a winery in Valladolid. It also has Valles de Esla, one of the largest oxen farms in Europe.
