The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, assures that the takeover bid for Talgo by the Hungarian consortium led by the Magyar Vagón group, which in the past had corporate links with Russian companies, enters the geopolitical scene, since TALGO’s movable axle patent is “critical” in areas such as the Baltic countries where the main concern is “military mobility”. “The context is not easy and Talgo has very sensitive material…. “It is a technology that we have to protect,” Puente stressed at a breakfast meeting organised by Europa Press.
The Spanish Council of Ministers must take a decision within at least three months. In addition to the possible veto of the operation, the Spanish government is promoting a counter takeover bid, although so far without much success. “We are waiting for other actors,” said Puente, who pointed out that there could be financial investors and manufacturers interested in Talgo, “even without government sponsorship, but if we had to sponsor it, we would consider that option. We are working on it”, a statement he made in the presence of the heads of Alstom, CAF and Stadler, the largest manufacturers along with Japan’s Hitachi and Germany’s Siemens.
Despite resistance from the government, advisors to the Ganz Mavag consortium continue to work on the prospectus for the five euro per share takeover bid (Talgo closed yesterday at €4.1).
The consortium has already provided guarantees from a Hungarian entity for the €620 million and has submitted to the National Securities Market (CNMV) the authorisation requests to be received from seven other jurisdictions, including Serbia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
