The war for control of Naturgy between the IFM fund and Criteria is strongly revaluing the titles of the Spanish gas company. The company has seen how in the last 3 months its shares have climbed to 28.49 euros compared to the close to 22 at which it was listed in October, when the offer from the Australian fund materialized.
The result of this investment, for the moment, could not be more positive. The new investors have earned an average of 8 million euros per day with their operation in the Spanish. Gone are now some of the statements of its main executive in our country, Jaime Silos, who assured that the offer was very high compared to the evolution of Endesa and Iberdrola’s prices.
The truth is that the predictions about the level of monitoring of the operation -in which they spoke of oversubscription- were not very accurate either, they barely achieved an adhesion of 10.83% compared to 17% to which they initially aspired.
Since then, , but still without claiming representation on the company’s Board of Directors almost three months later. The fund, which was even willing to , has stepped aside and is waiting for the right moment to regain prominence in this operation. The high price of Naturgy’s shares, however, implies added uncertainty since it could become an excellent opportunity for CVC or GIP to consider disinvesting their stake.
CVC maintains an agreement with the Marches to remain in the company until 2025 and GIP, which arrived a year earlier, does not seem to be going to take a step forward either after the photo of Córdoba among the presidents of the fund, Adebayo Ongulesi, the President of Criteria, Isidro Fainé and the President of Naturgy, Francisco Reynés.
The swords are still high, we will see what happens in the next chapters before the shareholders’ meeting.