Telepizza before the penultimate opportunity

Fabián Martín, who won the world’s best pizza chef award at the turn of the century, met the Telepizza team. They sought his advice and explored the possibility that he might be a counselor. They asked him what the company’s main risk was. His answer: “Your competitor will be frozen pizzas from supermarkets, not McDonald’s.” Martín remembers that speech: “They laughed at me.” No one could have foreseen it at the time. twenty years later Home delivery companies of all kinds of food would flood the entire planet.

On November 13, 1996, Telepizza went public.. Founded by brothers Leopoldo and Eduardo Fernández Pujals in 1988 as the first store on Calle Cochabamba, Madrid, the company has become an overnight success story. It was the beginning of the moment. Like any innovation, delivering pizzas home was a success. At current exchange rates, the stock jumped from 0.67 euros to 9.92 euros in two years before falling. Professor Pablo Fernández from Iese estimates that the value created in the year and a half before the correction was 1,936 million euros. The first shareholder at the time, Leopoldo Fernández, decided to sell the remaining shares of the company at the end of the last century and – he was president of Jazztel – devoted himself to telecommunications, horse breeding and the fight for human rights in Cuba.

Since then, Telepizza’s history has been filled with strategic and shareholding ups and downs. Prominent families and investors have passed through its shareholders. Pedro Ballvé – head of the Campofrío food group at the time – bought Pujals’ participation, along with brothers Aldo and José Carlos Olcese. In 2007, Telepizza left the exchange after deciding to launch an exclusion offer.. Value: 715 million. More mutual funds are entering the company. Among them are some of the most recognized on the international scene such as KKR and Parmira. Shareholders, who owed close to 300 million and took advantage of the good moment in the markets, decided to go public in April 2016 under the chairmanship of Pablo Juántegui. Shares fell 20% on the day of the IPO. From 800 million capital to now 640 million Three years later, with the impetus of KKR and the support of funds controlled by the March, Abelló and Safra families, they decided to delist the company again. with preliminary opposition from controversy and other funds. KKR owns more than 80% of the company.

And business strategy? It didn’t work. The company is partnered with Pizza Hut’s owner Yum! The pandemic finished the strategy. The debt is over 400 million and even ICO approves a Santander bank loan. Telepizza is actually in the hands of the international funds holding these bonds: Oak Hill Advisors, LP, Blantyre Capital Limited, HIG Capital, LL., Fortress Investment Group LLC and Treo AM. A real alphabet soup.

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Since March 2021 and already under the executive chairmanship Jacobo Caller, company embarks on numerous rebuilds. has been renamed Food Delivery BrandsTelepizza is under the umbrella of Pizza Hut, Apache (Ireland) and Jeno’s (Colombia). Business in America was reorganized and it was decided to restructure debt rated Caa2, the maximum speculative rating, by Moody’s at a 50% cut (currently about 240 million) and dilute bondholders back to shareholders. KKR, your participation. It is yet to be seen what the debt interest will look like, which is currently 6.25%. The creditors have agreed not to charge interest on the primary debt until October of this year until the financial restructuring is complete. While awaiting the release of final figures from last year, revenues rose 10% and ebitda, the results before interest on debt, repayments, provisions and interest were positive.

“What will the pizza concept and product be in order to coexist with the competition in the industry? We have to keep redefining the product. Not everything can be focused on marketing,” Fabián Martín replies. They recall from Telepizza that the company continues to lead the industry in Spain with 34.5 million pizzas sold in 2022. Everything will depend on the dough and ingredients.