The president and first shareholder of Sidenor, José Antonio Jainaga, has purchased the Catalan company Manipulados y Finados Metálicos (MAM) through Mirai, the investment vehicle with which it is forming an ecosystem of industrial companies, especially in Euskadi and in Catalonia.
Created in 1978, MAM is mainly dedicated to manufacturing metal structures such as those that cover cart tolls, safe deposit boxes, parking meters or electricity panels. It employs 220 people and is based in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda. It has a plant in Martorelles and another in Santa Perpètua, and has a presence in France, Italy and Germany.
The company is in a growth phase. According to its latest accounts deposited in the commercial registry, it had a turnover of 36 million euros in 2022, 40% more than in the previous year, and it plans to end 2023 with an additional increase of 30%. Its net profit was 3 million.
The amount of the operation has not been disclosed, but Mirai planned to invest close to 100 million euros in Catalan industrial companies. Apart from MAM, it is studying at least one more acquisition in Catalonia as part of its strategy to buy and integrate complementary companies.
The objective of the industrial conglomerate that Jainaga has been setting up from scratch and outside of Sidenor is to end the year with 16 companies with a combined turnover of 220 million euros and more than 1,000 employees. Their intention is to take over the management of the companies, preferably after taking 100% of the capital.
In 2008 Jainaga already bought the Rectificadora del Vallès company in Catalonia, in Polinyà. Ten years later, through Sidenor, it acquired Capresa and this year, with the Basque Energy Agency, it entered into the development of eight photovoltaic parks in Catalonia after investing 40 million euros.
The Basque businessman is considered a candidate to become the Spanish industrial partner that takes up to 20% of Celsa and complements the shareholding position of the creditor funds in the capital of the steel group. The entry of this Spanish industrial partner was one of the conditions of the Government to accept that the funds were obtained from a company of a strategic nature. Sources around Jainaga indicate that the businessman “follows the operation” of Celsa and is “willing to listen” because “it could be within his perimeter of interest.”
