Spain's Criteria to increase its portfolio by 13 billion euros by 2030

By Joan Faus

BARCELONA (Reuters) -Spain's Criteria, the investment arm of the La Caixa foundation, plans to boost the value of its portfolio by 13 billion euros ($13.92 billion) by 2030 as part of a five-year plan that also aims to cut its weighting towards nationally strategic sectors like banking, energy and telecoms.

In its 2025-2030 strategic plan, the holding company said it aims for its portfolio to have a gross value of 40 billion euros in 2030, against 27 billion euros in 2023. The weight that strategic sectors have within it will be reduced to 55% from the current 74%, it added.

Sectors deemed to contribute to diversification - such as pharmaceuticals, tech and retail - will have a weight of 25% in 2030 from the current 13%.

"We want our plan to give a decisive push to our industrial and financial investments, and we (will) do it with the goal of increasing our contribution to the country's economic development," Criteria's chairman Isidro Faine said at the plan's presentation in Barcelona.

Holding company Criteria's net debt accounted for 15% of its gross assets in 2023 and the firm aims to reduce it to 10% by 2030, though it could increase it to up to 20% depending on market conditions.

Criteria is the biggest shareholder in lender Caixabank with a 31.92% stake. It also holds a 26.7% stake in Spanish gas firm Naturgy, for which it had launched a joint takeover plan with Abu Dhabi's TAQA that was ultimately dropped last week.

It recently became the second-biggest shareholder in Spanish construction group ACS with a 9.4% stake.

Criteria reportedly plans to raise its stake in telecoms giant Telefonica to around 10%, has said it will become the biggest shareholder in real estate group Colonial with a 16.78% stake, and last month became a shareholder of beauty group Puig with a 3.05% stake.

The investments in ACS and Puig are part of Criteria's new strategy of growing diversification, a Criteria source told reporters at a briefing.

Criteria wants influence in such companies, but it does not plan to be a long-term partner, the source added.

($1 = 0.9338 euros)

(Reporting by Joan Faus and Jesús Aguado; Editing by David Latona and Jan Harvey)