The private equity firm Gala Capital, led by Carlos Tejera, had already owned 30% of Beka Finance since November 2017, when it entered through a capital increase. It is now finalizing the purchase of an additional 44.8% stake currently held by GVC Gaesco. The transaction is pending approval from the CNMV (Spain’s securities market regulator) and comes shortly after Enrique García Palacio joined as CEO of GVC Gaesco.
With this acquisition, Gala Capital and Paulo Santa Marta — current Beka board member and head of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) — will jointly control 74.8% of the company. This stake will be managed through Antracita, which is 66% owned by Gala Capital and 33% by Santa Marta, who brings extensive experience in the financial sector, having held executive positions at Bankia and served as a board member of Iberia.
Carlos Stilianopoulos, current CEO of Beka Finance and former CFO and director of capital markets at Caja Madrid since 1998, owns 14% of the company. Other executives, such as Federico Silva (head of fixed income), hold a 5.6% stake, while an additional group of managers also retains 5.6%.
Gala Capital’s entry a year and a half ago aimed primarily to provide Beka Finance with direct access to financial markets and position it as an investment banking boutique capable of competing with firms like Alantra and Arcano.
GVC Gaesco, controlled by Maria Àngels Vallvé and Joan Hortalà i Arau (Chairman of the Barcelona Stock Exchange), acquired Gaesco’s operational businesses in 2008 for approximately €55 million, after facing significant provisions due to losses related to OTC derivative contracts. Later, in 2013, Bankia sold its brokerage firm Bankia Bolsa to GVC Gaesco for €37 million, which was renamed Beka Finance in 2014.
In 2024, Beka Finance recorded losses of €412,000, while its parent company, GVC Gaesco Beka, suffered losses of €1.477 million. Although it remains a brokerage firm, Beka Finance sold last year to GVC Gaesco its institutional and retail equities business, its analysis department, and its operations and systems areas. It currently focuses on fixed income, corporate finance, and structured finance, having reduced its staff from 65 employees in 2015 to 18 today.
Sources close to GVC Gaesco indicate that its stake in Beka Finance is not strategic, and that the company will focus its efforts on strengthening its own business.
