{"id":17317,"date":"2026-05-05T15:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17317\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:32:10","slug":"spain-columna-capital-acquires-majority-stake-in-evidenze-group-from-buenavista-equity-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/17317\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain: Columna Capital acquires majority stake in Evidenze Group from Buenavista Equity Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"

Columna Capital<\/a> has acquired a majority stake in Evidenze Group<\/a>, a Spain\u2011based full\u2011service CRO, from Buenavista Equity Partners<\/a>. The UK\u2011based pan\u2011European lower mid\u2011market investor is partnering with Evidenze co\u2011founders Pedro Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> and Albert Gallart<\/a>, who retain a significant minority interest. Sources familiar with the deal indicate an enterprise value above \u20ac100m.<\/p>\n

The investment aligns with Columna\u2019s strategy of backing founder\u2011led companies positioned for pan\u2011European expansion in resilient, high\u2011growth sectors. The European CRO market -estimated at \u20ac8bn and growing around 5% annually \u2013 is benefiting from strong underlying drivers. As Columna partner Michael Tose<\/a> put it, \u201cThis sector presents clear long\u2011term tailwinds that will allow it to develop in the next five years, including growing pharma outsourcing, biotech expansion, and increasing demand for data and digital capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evidenze was formed in 2020 through the integration of four pharma\u2011services businesses with Buenavista\u2019s support. It now operates as a single diversified platform across Spain, Germany, Italy and Portugal, with three core business lines: Clinical Research Services (68% of revenue), Scientific Services (27%), and Digital Health (5%). The company generated \u20ac40m in net revenue in 2025, serves more than 270 clients, and employs around 400 professionals. Since formation, it has completed six acquisitions and built a partner network across 11 additional European markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe back businesses with the potential to become European leaders, and Evidenze has all the ingredients for that,\u201d said Tose.<\/p>\n

Columna plans to accelerate Evidenze\u2019s growth through both organic expansion and further M&A, leveraging the management team\u2019s strong integration track record. Managing director Jaime Bachs Lobo<\/a> described the deal as \u201ca significant milestone for Columna in Spain and a reinforcement of our healthcare franchise in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tose added that \u201cEvidenze\u2019s differentiated competitive positioning, strong client focus, deep technological and data capabilities \u2013 as well as strong organic growth, profitability and proven M&A capabilities \u2013 put the company on track to become the pharma services leader in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buenavista\u2019s Enrique Centelles<\/a> expressed pride in the firm\u2019s work with Evidenze over the years and believes the company is well positioned for its next phase of growth, noting that \u201cEvidenze has become a benchmark in the pharmaceutical sector\u2026 We are confident that, in this new phase alongside Columna, the company will continue its successful trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Financial terms were not disclosed. Columna was advised by P\u00e9rez\u2011Llorca, Marlborough Partners, Deloitte, Candesic, Dr Rainel S\u00e1nchez de la Rosa, Dechert and PwC, with debt financing from Capza. Evidenze and its shareholders were advised by Evercore, KPMG, LEK and DLA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Columna Capital has acquired a majority stake in Evidenze Group, a Spain\u2011based full\u2011service CRO, from Buenavista Equity Partners.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9664,9665,9666,9667,9668,9669,9670,9671,9672,9673,9674,9675,9676,8073,9677,9678,9679,9680,9681,9682,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-17317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-albert-gallart","9":"tag-buenavista-equity-partners","10":"tag-candesic","11":"tag-capza","12":"tag-columna-capital","13":"tag-dechert","14":"tag-deloitte","15":"tag-dla","16":"tag-dr-rainel-sanchez-de-la-rosa","17":"tag-enrique-centelles","18":"tag-evercore","19":"tag-evidenze","20":"tag-jaime-bachs-lobo","21":"tag-kpmg","22":"tag-lek","23":"tag-marlborough-partners","24":"tag-michael-tose","25":"tag-pedro-hernandez","26":"tag-perez-llorca","27":"tag-pwc","28":"tag-spain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}