Red Eléctrica, willing to open the capital of Hispasat to other partners

Red Eléctrica, willing to open the capital of Hispasat to other partners

The company owned by the State falls 1.63% on the stock market after the acquisition of almost 1,000 million

   After the objective pursued by the Government that the satellite infrastructure company Hispasat was fully Spanish after an investment of 949 million by Red Eléctrica (REE) was achieved on Tuesday, on Wednesday the company was willing to open in the capital of its new acquisition to partners that contribute "a strategic-technological vision", by geography or added value.

"There are many people with a lot of money who want to buy shares", assured the CEO of REE, Juan Lasala, after participating in the Meeting of the Energy Sector organized by IESE and Deloitte, where he did not rule out opening the capital to partners who provide «other products and other markets ». Of course, he recalled that they own 89% of the company and any share change is subject to the Council of Ministers.

   In addition, he indicated that with the operation, which is expected to be completed in the first half of this year once it obtains authorization from the regulators and the Government, telecommunications will represent around 20% of the group's turnover.

And as for the financing of the purchase, which will be carried out with external debt, Lasala stressed that in no case will "have an impact" on the commitments of REE as a regulated company. "The regulated company will not buy it in any case, it is independent," he said. The acquisition will be financed by external debt and without recourse to the shareholder and, once all the authorizations have been obtained, the transaction will be paid, with Hispasat being included with economic effects from January 1, 2019.

Also, Lasala again assured that no one has forced his company to buy Hispasat . "It's an obligation that we started because we wanted to do it. And after discarding that the purchase is going to imply a template adjustment, he stressed that the operation was closed in economic terms "practically the same" as the initial offer placed on the table.

Fall of actions
The purchase, however, has had a significant impact on the markets. REE shares fell by 1.63% at the end of the day following the announcement of the previous day. The titles of the company directed by Jordi Sevilla were exchanged for 19.55 euros compared to 19.85 on the previous day. So far this week a decrease of 2.3% is noted.

With this operation, the Red Eléctrica group will start to manage a business with revenues in the telecommunications sector in the environment of 330 million euros per year and also plans to maintain the strategic commitments of Hispasat and explore synergies in the fiber business. optics.