Nippon Steel has announced the sale of a 7.9% stake in Acerinox, the Spanish stainless steel manufacturer, for 218 million euros. The transaction was completed in a private placement by UBS amongst big investors in a few hours at 10.2 euros per share. The price was 5% below the close on Thursday June 17.
So much paper has penalised the company’s share price and Acerinox started Friday 18th’s session with a volatility auction. This is BME’s automatic mechanism to contain the ups and downs of extreme volatility, before setting prices at around 10 euros, with a 7% fall.
The Japanese steelmaker was until now Acerinox’s second largest shareholder with 15.8%, behind the 19.35% held by Corporación Financiera Alba, the March family’s investment vehicle. The third investor is Daniel Bravo with 4.5%.
Acerinox, which started the year at 8.7 euros per share, now has a stock market value of 2.7 billion euros, which, with earnings per share estimated at 0.81 euros for 2021, represents an estimated PER 21 of 14.5 times. And it maintains a clear buy recommendation from the market consensus, which gives it a 12-month target price above 12 euros per share.
Acerinox has production plants in Spain (Campo de Gibraltar, Ponferrada and Igualada), in the USA (North American Stainless, in Kentucky), in South Africa (Columbus Stainless) and the most recent one, in Malaysia.
