Acciona expects the IPO to take place this year, market conditions permitting. The perimeter of the new company would include the entire Energy business, excluding the company’s stake in wind turbine manufacturer Nordex. The size and structure of the transaction is yet to be defined, but the free float would at least be 25% of the capital of the new listed company.
The group has reached an agreement with U.S.-based Plug Power to create a 50/50 subsidiary to develop green hydrogen projects in Spain and Portugal, hydrogen produced from renewable electricity. The companies aim to achieve a 20% market share by 2030, thanks to an initially planned €2 Bn investment. Plug Power will be the preferred supplier of electrolyzer technology to the new venture, while Acciona will be the preferred supplier of clean electricity.
Naturgy’s main shareholder, Criteria, insists it will only make its position official about the tender offer for the company by IFM just when the time comes. The government also must express its opinion on the operation. At this moment they are leaning towards vetoing the Australian fund entry in Naturgy to safeguard national interests.
Heathrow Airport Limited is controlled by a consortium led by Ferrovial with a 25% stake, Qatar Investment (20% of the capital), Caisse du Quebec (12.62%) and Singapore’s GIC fund (11.2%). The partners have already activated new urgent lines of financing for a total of 850 million euros. Heathrow wants to increase prices, and the regulatory body (CAA) is receptive to the request. But it wants the dividend cut to shareholders to be extended.
ACS, through its subsidiary Cobra, has been awarded 480 MW in the auction held to assign new licenses for offshore wind power facilities off the coast of the UK. The project will involve an investment of €510 M during the 10 years it will take to develop and build the plant before the wind turbines come into operation for an estimated period of 60 years. ACS has beaten other bids from large electricity companies such as Iberdrola in this auction, the first major British auction of wind farm licenses in more than a decade.
Iberdrola agrees to acquire majority stake in three DP Energy projects on the east, west and south coasts of the country, which will be eligible for the forthcoming offshore auctions in 2025-2030.The company already operates offshore wind farms in UK and German waters, with new developments in the UK, US and France · Including Ireland, Japan, Sweden and Poland, Iberdrola’s offshore wind pipeline now exceeds 30 GW.
Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Bankia, Sabadell and Bankinter posted combined losses of €5.55 Bn last year, with their accounts badly affected by the coronavirus, compared to the more than €13.5 Bn achieved in 2019. These negative figures are mainly due to the great losses suffered by Santander, €8.77 Bn, the first of its history, compared to the €6.51 Bn it earned in 2019. Santander’s losses came after increasing provisions for the covid-19 crisis and assuming an impairment of €12.6 Bn in the value of its subsidiaries in the UK, the US and Poland.
Telefónica and Liberty Global reached an agreement in early May last year to merge their UK businesses and create the market-leading fixed and mobile operator in the country. According to the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the combination of Telefónica subsidiary and Virgin could lead to higher prices for wholesale fiber and mobile services. Thus they announced an investigation into the merger and its possible consequences before giving the go-ahead to the deal.
Global InfraCo, owned by Australian fund IFM Global Infrastructure, has announced a voluntary and partial tender offer for up to 220 million shares in Spanish energy company Naturgy, representing 22.69% of the firm’s share capital. The offer price is €23 per share, which is a premium of 28.9% over the volume weighted average price of Naturgy shares for the last six months and 19.7% over Naturgy’s share price at yesterday close. For Bankinter’s analysis team, the offer is “attractive for minority shareholders”.
Grifols has announced that its anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune globulin has started a clinical trial to test its safety, efficacy and tolerability. This medicine provides a consistent concentration of purified neutralizing antibodies and could be used for both prevention and treatment of the disease. The clinical trial is the latest phase of an initiative that goes back to March when Grifols started work on its anti-SARS-CoV-2 hyperimmune globulin as part of a collaboration with U.S. government agencies.