The Council of Ministers has authorized the request of Black rockthe world’s largest investment fund manager, will acquire the manager GIPone of the reference shareholders of Naturgie with 20% of its capital.
GIP was one of the funds, with CVC (owner of another 20%), which attempted to sell its stake in the takeover bid that the United Arab Emirates was going to launch Taqa about Naturgy, even though that company eventually backtracked. Now it will be BlackRock that will have to look for an exit for that stake, an exit it is already looking for. Criteria (the holding company The Box), as announced by OKDIARIO.
The sale of these 40% of the funds is part of the “global solution” agreed between the government and La Caixa, which also includes the taking of 10% of the Phone by criteria or the search for an alternative to the Hungarian takeover Talgo.
According to sources from the Ministry of Economy, this acquisition maintains guarantees on strategic companies, such as Naturgy.
“We have always maintained that our regulations maintain a balance that allows this type of operation to be carried out, thus attracting investment and safeguarding the strategic interests of our country,” the same sources said.
The government is believed to have maintained, in the case of BlackRock, the conditions it imposed on the Australian fund in August 2021. IFM to authorize its entry into the capital of the energy company chaired by Francisco Reyneswhich aimed to protect the public interest of the company by maintaining the headquarters and activity in Spain, ensuring prudent financial management, supporting fundamental investments for the energy transition and maintaining negotiation in Bag and associated transparency obligations.
Specifically, IFM could not support the exclusion of Naturgy from the Spanish stock exchanges for 3 years, unless the trading does not reach a diffusion, frequency or trading volume sufficient for a correct price formation.
It is also assumed that, as in the case of the authorisation granted to IFM, the BlackRock transaction was notified to the European Commissionunder the procedure for cooperation in the control of foreign investments, without any observations having been received, and which obtained a favourable report from the Foreign Investment Board (Jinvex).
Criteria is Naturgy’s main shareholder with 26.7% of the shares, followed by CVC, with 20.7% and GIP (now BlackRock) with 20%, IFM with 15% and Sonatrach with 3.85%.
As part of the shareholder reorganization process in which Naturgy is immersed, the Emirati company Taqa considered the possibility of launching a public purchase offer (OPA) to acquire the stake of the CVC and GIP funds, but ultimately abandoned its purpose, which led it to abandon its objective and left the funds that wish to abandon their shareholding without the best option.
