Private equity firms CVC and Alchemy, which control Deoleo, are a step from granting Coricelli exclusivity, Spanish news site The Objective reported on Tuesday, citing sources close to the deal. A signing is planned for September, El Economista reported on Aug. 27.

Deoleo owns Bertolli, Carbonell, Carapelli, Koipe and Hojiblanca, and sells almost three-quarters of its oil outside Spain, with the United States its largest market. Bertolli, sold under a perpetual, exclusive licence from Japan's Mizkan, generates 41 per cent of group revenue, The Objective and Merca2 reported.

The Coricelli offer, lodged on Aug. 15 through the family's Seville-domiciled holding company Farmers Elite Global, came after KPMG, which is running the sale with William Blair, had told the group it was out of the process, Europa Press reported, citing Italian daily ItaliaOggi and sources familiar with the deal.

The rival bids are from Dcoop, the Andalusian cooperative group, at about €470mn, and Acesur, the Seville bottler that already owns 5 per cent of Deoleo SA, at €460mn, according to Europa Press. None of the three bidders has confirmed the figures.

"MORE SPANISH THAN ITALIAN"

The prospect of Spain's biggest olive oil brands passing to an Italian family has drawn in the government, which would prefer for the company to stay under Spanish ownership.

"The government's position would be favourable to the potential acquirer being a Spanish entity, within the current legal framework and in compliance with market conditions," agriculture ministry sources told Europa Press and EFE Agro on Aug. 26 and 27, adding that olive growers' interests should be "strictly" respected.

The ministry's leverage is limited, however, because Spain's foreign investment screening rules target buyers from outside the European Union, Merca2 reported.

Lorenzo Coricelli, president of Farmers Elite Global, which has owned Aceites Abasa in Baena, Córdoba, since 2001, rejected the idea that his family is an outsider.

"I have been in Spain since 2001 and I already feel more Spanish than Italian; I have lived here longer than there," he told El Economista in an interview published on Aug. 25. "We would love to keep the whole business, from origin to bottling."

Spain's cooperatives, which grow much of the country's olives but sell little of the oil under their own brands, also see a deal for Deoleo as a chance to move up the value chain while keeping teh company in Spanish hands.

Buying the company "would allow us to increase our bottling, so that cooperative olive growers would be the protagonists of this important company", Dcoop president Antonio Luque told trade publication Mercacei on Aug. 31.

"Spain cannot settle for being the world leader in production. It must also aspire to lead in marketing, in brands and in the relationship with the consumer," Jaime Martínez-Conradi, director general of the regional federation Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de Andalucía, wrote on its website.

A Deoleo purchasing strategy "linked to a non-cooperative model, could be harmful to the interests of the whole olive-oil sector", he wrote, and public authorities "should not remain indifferent".

A Dcoop win would face regulatory questions of its own. The cooperative owns half of Pompeian, which has about 20 per cent of the U.S. olive oil market, while Deoleo's Bertolli has about 14 per cent, Merca2 reported, citing experts consulted by Cinco Días, who said U.S. regulators would scrutinise such a combination.

Dcoop sources told The Objective its proposal "contemplates alternatives for the different scenarios", including competition problems.

PROFIT AFTER YEARS OF LOSSES

CVC bought 48 per cent of Deoleo in 2014 for €220mn, Vozpópuli reported.

The company went on to lose more than €600mn over the following five years, according to Merca2, and Alchemy came in during a 2020 restructuring that converted its debt into equity.

The two funds decided to sell once the surge in olive oil prices had returned Deoleo to profit, Vozpópuli reported.

That recovery has continued even as prices have fallen back. Deoleo's revenue fell 17.6 per cent in 2025 to €821mn as it passed lower raw material costs on to consumers, but EBITDA rose 50 per cent to €50mn, the company said in February.

In the first half of 2026 EBITDA rose a further 51.5 per cent to €32.9mn, it reported on July 29.

Deoleo makes no private-label oil, and its 2025 operating margin was 7.1 per cent against 0.3 per cent at Dcoop, Merca2 reported. Its 2025 accounts put the fair value of its brands at €504mn, Merca2 said, almost exactly Coricelli's price.

The €500mn is an enterprise value, covering about €100mn of financial debt and a €65mn Italian tax contingency at the Carapelli subsidiary, Merca2 reported.

Deoleo confirmed the sale process to securities regulator CNMV on Aug. 19, saying Ole Investments, the CVC vehicle, and two Alchemy funds were "analysing possible strategic alternatives", including "the possible sale of all or part of the assets and businesses of the Deoleo group". Ole Investments holds 51 per cent of listed Deoleo SA and the Alchemy funds 41 per cent of operating subsidiary Deoleo Holding, the filing said.

Deoleo SA shares jumped 24 per cent that day but have since given up most of the gain, falling 6.4 per cent on Aug. 28, the day after the ministry's position was reported. They closed at €0.380 on Tuesday, valuing the listed company at €190mn, according to exchange operator BME.

CHEAP OIL, NEW COMPETITION

Whoever buys Deoleo will take on a market where prices have collapsed and new suppliers are muscling in.

Spanish extra-virgin olive oil at origin was quoted at €3.50 ($4.06) a kilogram in the week of Aug. 17, 61 per cent below the €9.03 peak of January 2024, according to European Commission price data accessed via Cropli.

Raw material is 70 to 80 per cent of a bottler's industrial cost, Alberto Grimelli, editor of Italian trade publication TeatroNaturale, wrote on Aug. 27.

Spain's 2025/26 crop closed at 1.3mn tonnes, 9 per cent below the previous season, the agriculture ministry's sector roundtable concluded on July 7. The sector expects a larger harvest this coming season after good spring flowering, and the first official estimate is due in early October.

In the United States, the main competition has come from North Africa.

Tunisia shipped 75,000 tonnes of olive oil in the first half of 2026, overtaking Italy and closing on Spain's 67,900 tonnes, according to U.S. Census Bureau data accessed via Cropli.

Tunisian oil landed at $4.06 a kilogram, against $5.36 for Spanish and $6.74 for Italian oil.

Spain itself has sharply increased imports of Tunisian oil this year, according to Eurostat data accessed via Cropli, and Spanish growers blame those shipments for the low price at origin.

"Imports are used to create a scenario of greater commercial pressure that ends up translating into falls in prices at origin with no logic in the reality of the market," José Gilabert, president of the traditional-grove growers' association OliveA, told Diario Córdoba on July 30, three weeks before the sale became public.

Exclusivity would bar CVC and Alchemy from talking to other bidders while Coricelli carries out due diligence, typically for 30 to 90 days, The Objective reported. Dcoop and Acesur will stay in the process until the end, it said.

Any sale would need approval from Spain's competition watchdog CNMC and U.S. federal regulators, Merca2 reported.