ACS looking for partners to contribute EUR 6bn to counter offer for Abertis - report (translated)
23 JUL 2017
Actividades de Construccion y Servicios [BME:ACS] (ACS) will only present a counter offer for Abertis [BME:ABE] if it finds partners that can contribute at least EUR 6bn to the total EUR 17bn the company would need for the transaction, El Mundoreported, citing sources from the construction company.
Even though the company confirmed on 21 July that it is studying the possibility to bid for Abertis, ACS is still far from presenting a specific proposal, according to the sources consulted by the Spanish-language paper.
ACS Corporate Director General Angel Garcia Lozano, who is leading the transaction, considers the company should not contribute with more than EUR 11bn, a figure that would ensure the company being Abertis main stakeholder. His intention is to find investment funds which could contribute with the remaining EUR 6bn to carry out the transaction, El Mundoexplained.
In fact, it could finally not be necessary to reimburse the complete amount, since the company led by Florentino Perez expects La Caixa to keep being Abertis shareholder (it currently holds a 22% stake), the item pointed.
ACS has paid off a great part of its debt in the last years and wants to study this transaction thoroughly. Therefore the company will probably postpone a final decision to the end of the summer, according to the paper.
Markets already expressed concerns about the effects the transaction could have on ACS and the price of its shares dropped over a 6% after the stock market regulator CNMV requested the company to confirm it was considering to counter offer for Abertis, El Mundo added.
As to other possible bidders, last week airports operator Aena [BME:AENA] made public it had been studying the possibility to present a counter-offer for Abertis, but its main shareholder Enaire finally ruled out this possibility.
In relation to Atlantia's intention to present an offer for Abertis, Spain's Minister of Economy Luis de Guindos declared on 21 July that the government's strategic interest in Abertis does not necessarily mean that the buyer must be a Spanish company.
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