Investindustrial, a buy-out firm focused on Italy and Spain, has bought a 40% stake in Ruffino, an Italian wine producer, for €70m ($76m), in a rare instance of a Southern European family-owned company making way for outside investment.

The Folonari family has broken a 100-year tradition of family ownership in allowing Investindustrial to become a shareholder. Marco Folonari, the winery firm's president, said the business needed a partner for financial resources and industrial know-how to help it develop and expand.