The State pushes Red Eléctrica to buy Hispasat for 949 million

The State pushes Red Eléctrica to buy Hispasat for 949 million

The system manager, with 20% public capital, acquires Abertis the technological firm whose control was key for Spain

  Objective fulfilled Hispasat will be fully Spanish as the Government wanted. Through a bobbin lace, the satellite infrastructure company will be controlled by Red Eléctrica Española (REE), in turn owned by the State. An operation in which the company that manages the entire light transport system, from the power plants to the distribution points, will invest 949 million euros, as reported yesterday to the CNMV.

The semi-public company chaired by Jordi Sevilla since last July has reached an agreement with Abertis to buy 89.6% of the capital that this company had in Hispasat, an operation that has suffered continuous ups and downs in recent years by the last change of government; for the purchase of Abertis, in which ACS and the Italian Atlantia finally participated; and by the ministerial reluctance when evaluating and proposing the acquisition.

  In the minds of both executives was the need to maintain the Spanishness of Hispasat , a strategic society for civil spatial control and defense of the entire territory. In addition, it is the fourth operator in Latin America and the eighth worldwide. However, Jordi Sevilla had not shown too much urgency in carrying out the transaction during the last months. A period in which he had even insisted on several internal forums that would undertake this operation when the Government requested it. But, at the same time, he clarified that he would not do it "at any price". And so it has been. With the tactic of temporary dilation, the value given to Hispasat is now about 1,050 millionof euros, less than the 1,254 million in which ACS quantified that amount; and also to the 1,149 million estimated by the previous president of REE, José Folgado in a pre-agreement with Abertis.

At the same time, the Executive chaired by Pedro Sanchez has saved a hole that could cause a headache in the future if this transaction did not materialize and Hispasat was at the feet of the horses of one or several foreign investment funds that could be launched by the company. Criticism, then, would have reached the doors of an election year.

It will not affect the dividend
Red Eléctrica has clarified to the regulator that it will finance this acquisition with external debt and that, therefore, it will not end up affecting its shareholders. The company is one of the best dividends offered to its partners in the Spanish stock market. Last year, this distribution of benefits was 0.9188 euros per share, 7% above the previous year. For the company, whose titles closed yesterday at 19.8 euros -25% more than a year ago-It will mean a definitive advance in the consolidation as a global operator of strategic infrastructures both in Spain and in the international arena, managing electric transport networks, fiber optic networks and satellites. For its part, Abertis clarifies that this sale is "in line with the sectoral targeting strategy" to be fundamentally a highway operator.

At the end of this road it has arrived after months of vicissitudes by an acquisition that came to run aground, although later it has risen. The first steps to achieve this agreement were forged with Folgado in the presidency of REE, although it never came to fruition.

One of the main problems came at the time when the Italian concession firm Atlantia launched a takeover bid on Abertis . It was in mid-2017. Then the first reluctance arose in the Ministry of Energy, led by Álvaro Nadal, before the possibility of a foreign company controlling Hispasat's satellites, as well as the toll roads that Abertis manages throughout Spain.

In October of that same year, the ACS construction company launched a takeover bid on Abertis. From that moment there was a crossing of negotiations and interests that led to an agreement between both firms to launch a joint takeover that finally came to fruition, in the absence of sharing the assets of the company according to their interests.