Link Securities | The Spanish train manufacturer is beginning the countdown to complete the change of majority shareholder that began at the end of 2022, after the British fund Trilantic notified its intention to divest its majority stake, according to a report published today by the digital newspaper elEconomista.es. The company’s CEO, Gonzalo Urquijo, acknowledged yesterday in a meeting with analysts that the management’s timetable envisages completing the transaction in early December, once the various procedures necessary for its completion have been finalised.
These include the receipt in mid-October of an independent report commissioned by the Board of Directors to assess the sale of the 29.8% stake held by Trilantic, which, unless everything changes, will fall into the hands of the Basque consortium formed by the steel company Sidenor, the regional public fund Finkatuz and the banking foundations BBK and Vital.
Initially, these parties had offered a fixed consideration of €4.15 per share and a variable consideration of €0.85, bringing the agreement to €5 per share. The ‘bonus’ was conditional on the fulfilment of a series of financial variables, but the current state of its accounts does not suggest that this will happen.
Consequently, Trilantic and the purchasing consortium have agreed to modify the purchase price, which will be set at €4.25 per share, according to the CEO. This figure is in line with the amount communicated by SEPI (the State Company for Industrial Investments) to the market when it agreed to acquire a stake in the Madrid-based company for €45 million and a further €30 million through a convertible loan. Sources at the public holding company merely confirmed at the time that the price to be paid was the same as that paid by the other partners, but they did not confirm the renegotiation of the acquisition price, which now stands at €156.7 million, €4.7 million more than initially proposed.
