Spain's Criteria, the investment arm of the La Caixa Foundation, plans to increase the value of its portfolio by €13 billion ($13.92 billion) between now and 2030, as part of a five-year plan that also aims to reduce its weight in strategic sectors on a national scale such as banking, energy and telecommunications.

In its 2025-2030 strategic plan, the group says it aims for its portfolio to be worth €40 billion gross by 2030, up from €27 billion in 2023. The weight of strategic sectors will be reduced from 74% today to 55%.

Sectors considered to contribute to diversification--such as pharmaceuticals, technology and retail--will have a weight of 25% in 2030, compared with 13% today.

Criteria group's net debt represented 15% of its gross assets in 2023 and the firm aims to reduce it to 10% in 2030, although it could increase it to 20% depending on market conditions.

Criteria is Caixabank's largest shareholder, with a 31.92% stake. It also owns a 26.7% stake in Spanish gas company Naturgy, for which it had launched a joint acquisition plan with Abu Dhabi's TAQA that was finally abandoned last week.

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

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

The investments in ACS and Puig are part of Criteria's new strategy to increase diversification, a Criteria source told reporters at a press conference.

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

(1 U.S. dollar = 0.9338 euros)

(Reporting by Joan Faus and Jesús Aguado; editing by David Latona and Jan Harvey; Spanish editing by Benjamín Mejías Valencia and Mireia Merino)