The president of ACS, Florentino Pérez, has ruled out launching a takeover bid (takeover bid) for Atlantia to compete with Edizione, the industrial arm of the Benettons, and Blackstone. The executive has terminated his exclusivity agreement, announced a little over a month ago to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), with the GIP and Brookfield funds to acquire the Italian concessionaire, ACS’s partner in Abertis.
At the end of the ACS shareholders’ meeting, in statements to journalists, Pérez clarified that in the Atlantia operation, his partner in Abertis, “we have nothing to do with it” and explained that GIP and Brookfield were the ones who contacted to ACS to communicate its intention to acquire the transalpine firm. “They come to see us because we are partners of Abertis and I tell them that I only have an interest in the highways,” said Pérez, whose approach at all times was to undertake a possible operation in a “friendly” manner. “Then it turns out that – the possible offer from GIP and Brookfield – was not friendly,” he warned.
The president of the Spanish group has stressed that “we are not interested in anything from Atlantia, in any case Abertis”, in which ACS has 30%, its subsidiary Hochtief 20% minus one share, and Atlantia 50% more an action. He has also ruled out, in the face of some information, that he has an interest in buying Getlink, the company that manages the Channel Tunnel and in which Atlantia has 15%. Pérez has emphasized that they maintain a fluid relationship with Atlantia “to develop Abertis”.
More than a month ago, the company communicated an exclusivity agreement with Brookfield and GIP to launch a takeover bid (takeover bid) for Atlantia transalpina and keep ACS with the highway business. However, the first shareholder of Atlantia, Edizione, the industrial arm of the Benetton family, counterattacked days later by launching a takeover bid for 100% of the company together with the American management company Blackstone.
Pérez has also announced that the group will acquire the 20% stake minus one share that its German subsidiary Hochtief has in Abertis, so that the parent company will hold 50% minus one share, and, in parallel, is analyzing “various opportunities in the United States of Managed Turnpikes”.
ACS is carrying out “simplification plans for the group’s corporate structure”
ACS is carrying out “simplification plans for the group’s corporate structure”. Hochtief’s acquisition offer for the 21.4% of the Australian Cimic that it did not hold and for which it will undertake an investment of close to 1,500 million Australian dollars (940 million euros) is part of this line. “We are going to fully integrate Cimic into the Hochtief organization and promote its growth in a very attractive market with a great future”, stressed the also president of Real Madrid.
“The following steps -he said- will be aimed at ordering the business between ACS and Hochtief”. “We intend to group our grouping of 50% of Abertis in ACS to concentrate resources on the development of Hochtief companies such as Turner and Cimic, leaders in their respective markets, which allow us to offer better services, be more efficient and have a greater transparency, which will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the value of both companies and consequently on their price”, he explained. The chief executive of ACS has ruled out delisting Hochtief and has opened the door to the fact that if Atlantia puts up for sale the 15.9% it has in the German company “we could buy it”.
Pérez his claim that the parent company acquire Hochtief’s 20% stake in Abertis, a possibility that, however, clashes with the shareholders’ agreement of the Spanish concessionaire between Atlantia, ACS and Hochtief. Specifically, the agreement includes that , something that happens today -has 15.9%-. In any case, ACS and Atlantia are negotiating for the Italian firm to grant a ‘waiver’ to the Spanish one.
Its first strategic objective is the reinvestment of part of the funds generated from the sale to Vinci in the “development and operation of infrastructure concession assets”
With the sale of Industrial Services to Vinci for 5,580 million euros, of which it has already received 4,980 million, ACS has as its first strategic objective the reinvestment of part of the funds generated in this divestment in the “development and operation of concession assets of infrastructures”. “This should allow us to increase the weight of assets with more recurring cash-flow, balancing the sources of fund generation between Construction and Concessions activities, and achieving greater visibility in the group’s future results and dividends,” he assured.
In this regard, Pérez stressed that the company has two growth levers in investment: Abertis for mature projects or brownfield and Iridium for new projects or greenfield. And it will focus on the group’s strategic markets: North America, Australia and Europe, including Spain and Germany. At this time, he stressed, “we are analyzing various opportunities in the United States for managed toll roads, which we hope to be able to announce soon.” In this sense, one of the options is to obtain the concession of some of the highways that the group itself is building.
With the sale of Industrial Services, ACS adapts to “a more demanding sectoral environment, which requires a concentration of resources and efforts in construction activities and concessions”.
ACS will allocate part of the funds from the sale to Vinci to the joint venture with the French company for the development of a portfolio of renewable assets
In addition, ACS will allocate part of the funds from the sale to Vinci to the joint venture with the French company for the development of a portfolio of renewable assets of at least 15 gigawatts (GW) during this decade, for which the Spanish company has a right to collect 600 million euros, at a rate of 40 million per GW built. Similarly, Pérez has confirmed that the company will sell the Industrial Services concessions that remain in its perimeter.
The Chairman of ACS has remarked to the shareholders that the group is proposing a dividend of 2 euros per share for this year, a level that “we hope to maintain in the coming years”, he highlighted. “Our objective is to maintain the levels of profitability and efficiency that guarantee shareholders an adequate return on their investment and that allow us to continue advancing on the path of sustainable growth with the creation of value for the whole of society”, he emphasized.
With the strategic reorientation of the group, with a balanced model of sustainable development, investing in infrastructures, prioritizing the concessions area, while simplifying and improving its corporate and governance structure, Pérez trusts that “capital markets will pick up the fundamental value of our company, and the ACS share recovers the levels prior to the health and geopolitical crisis, which have caused the high volatility and significant devaluation of prices in the last two years”.
Santamaría, CEO
The general meeting of shareholders has approved the appointment as CEO of ACS, a position that had been vacant since April 2021 when Marcelino Fernández Verdes left it. Santamaría currently serves as President and CEO of Cimic and has accumulated 20 years in different responsibilities within the group.
Facebook Comments
Disqus