Intermoney | ACS (Buy, PO €63) announced last Friday after the market closed that it had reached an agreement with French company Vinci to dissolve their joint venture for the development of renewable energy capacity. This JV arose from the French company’s purchase of ACS’s Cobra industrial services business for around €5 billion, announced in 2021. Friday’s agreement specifies a final payment by Vinci of around €300 million, which, according to ACS, will not have a significant impact on the Group’s accounts.
Assessment: The joint venture in renewables between Vinci and ACS was a highly highlighted aspect at the time of the sale of Cobra, which had begun to promote renewable capacity at that time, setting targets of over 20,000 MW to be developed in the future. Since then, there have been no major developments in terms of news or impact on the results of this activity. At the same time, ACS has been focusing its interest on new activities such as data centres and the promotion of private construction projects in the US in high-value sectors such as technology and pharmaceuticals, both of which are quite far removed from renewables. Since the sale of Cobra, ACS’s share price has tripled, so it is clear that the new strategy has been backed by the market. For all these reasons, we believe that a separation of the interests of ACS and Vinci is consistent.
