FCC shareholder Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation seeks higher offer from Carlos Slim - report (translated)
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is asking Carlos Slim to increase its EUR 7.6 per share offer for the Spanish construction and infrastructures group Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), El Confidencial reported.
The Gates' Foundation claims that the offer price should be in line with the debt-related agreements with the Spanish bank Bankia and refinancing agreements signed between FCC shareholder Esther Koplowitz and BBVA, the unsourced Spanish-language report said.
Carlos Slim has presented an offer via his vehicle Control Empresarial de Capitales valued at EUR 1.529bn. At the time of launch, the offer represented a premium above FCC's stock market value of 15%. Since then, FCC stock has retained the price set by Slim, the report noted. Inversora Carso holds a majority of FCC, which helps protect the offer against a possible rival bid.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation holds 6% of FCC, after acquiring 7,638.198 shares at EUR 14.87 per share or EUR 113.5m in total. Selling to Slim's offer will result in capital losses of EUR 55m, the report said.
FCC shareholder Esther Koplowitz signed last February a contract with Bankia and BBVA for refinancing the debt resulting from its participation in FCC. This agreement, whose origin dates back to April 2011, involves a guarantee from Slim over payment commitments that Koplowitz has contracted with the two financial institutions. The loans amounted to EUR 843.5m, backed by an underlying 58.4 million shares, equivalent to 15.4% of capital. Bankia and BBVA have put options to sell the 15.4% stake at EUR 9 per share.
Both Bankia and BBVA have linked the mortgage on this stake to a put option that allows them to liquidate their asset position from 2020. Slim would be forced to buy the securities with the particularity that the price fixed for eventual transaction is EUR 9 per share, almost 20% above the amount offered in the takeover bid.