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Ontario Teachers’ reaches agreement to sell Iberian funeral services company Mémora Group

 · 5 min read
  • Insurance group Grupo Catalana Occidente to acquire Mémora
  • Mémora is a leading funeral group in Spain and Portugal
  • Ontario Teachers’ acquired Mémora in 2017

LONDON, UK - Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’) today agreed to the sale of funeral services company Mémora Group (Mémora) to Grupo Catalana Occidente, a Spanish insurance company, at an enterprise value of approximately €600 million. The purchase is subject to standard regulatory approvals in Spain and Portugal. Ontario Teachers’ acquired Mémora in 2017.

Mémora is recognized as a premier provider for funeral services, funeral parlours, crematoriums and cemetery management in the Iberian Peninsula. The company owns or operates 139 funeral parlours, 39 crematoriums and 18 cemeteries, employs approximately 1,500 professionals, and provides around 50,000 funeral services annually.

Jean-Charles Douin, Senior Managing Director, EMEA, Private Capital, at Ontario Teachers' said: “We are proud to have worked with the Mémora team over the last five years and to have helped it reinforce its position as a leading funeral services company in the Iberian Peninsula. Having delivered on our investment plan for Mémora, we now feel that it is the right time to leave it in good hands. We look forward to watching the business continue to flourish under the stewardship of Grupo Catalana Occidente.”

Francisco Arregui, Managing Director of Grupo Catalana Occidente, said: “This acquisition allows us to become a reference group within the funeral sector, with a presence throughout the national territory as well as in Portugal. Our vocation is to maintain the highest quality service during such difficult moments for families, relying on the human and management quality of the Mémora Group”.

About Ontario Teachers’

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of C$241.6 billion as at December 31, 2021. We invest in more than 50 countries in everything from equities to real estate to infrastructure and venture growth, to deliver retirement income for 333,000 current and retired teachers in Ontario.

With offices in Hong Kong, London, San Francisco, Singapore and Toronto, our more than 350 investment professionals bring deep expertise in industries ranging from agriculture to artificial intelligence. We are a fully funded defined benefit pension plan and have earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.7% since the plan’s founding in 1990. At Ontario Teachers’, we don’t just invest to make a return, we invest to shape a better future for the teachers we serve, the businesses we back, and the world we live in. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.