Last year, Spanish administrations subsidized more than 500 million euros to energy companies in which foreign states participated, according to an analysis of global data on public aid published by the Ministry of Finance. 87.5% of this amount came from European funds and most of the aid went to Iberdrola, Naturgy, EdP, Repsol, Cepsa and Endesa, which have foreign public capital through companies in the sector or sovereign funds .
The analysis of the large subsidies granted in Spain in 2023 (the almost 1,700 companies that received at least one million euros in subsidies) shows that 100 companies in sectors such as energy, automobiles, training, “telecommunications”, technology or transport received more subsidies. half of last year’s largest aid package.
In full distribution of funds from the Recovery Plan, energy companies absorbed 20% of the largest subsidies in 2023, with more than 1,500 million. And a third of that money went to companies with foreign governments participating. Of these 500.9 million, 437 million, or 87.5%, corresponded to funds from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).
The data should not be surprising if we take into account that all large companies in this sector have, to a greater or lesser extent, foreign state shareholders present in their capital, through specific companies or through sovereign funds. In a country without public electricity since the privatization of Endesa almost three decades ago, the government put this idea on the table in August 2021, at the dawn of the energy crisis, when Vice President Teresa Ribera suggested that a state-owned company manage the hydroelectric dams as their concessions expire, but ended up abandoning them. Then, the question periodically returned to public debate without much resonance. In September, the PSOE and the PP rejected in Congress a non-legal proposal by Sumar to create a public commercial entity to manage these concessions.
At the head of the distribution of these 500.9 million in subsidies to energy companies with participation of foreign states is the largest Spanish company in this sector, Iberdrola, which last year received 121.6 million in aid . The largest shareholder of the Basque multinational (although it is not present on its board of directors) is the Emirate of Qatar. It has a package of 8.694% which, according to various media, this absolutist petromonarchy would consider extending to 10% or more. Another important shareholder of Iberdrola (also without presence in the management) is the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (3.116%), one of the largest in the world, through Norges Bank.
At the end of last year, Iberdrola signed an alliance with Masdar, the state-owned company of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, to co-invest 15 billion in offshore wind and green hydrogen in Germany, in the United Kingdom and the United States. A few weeks ago, Masdar signed the purchase of the renewable energy platform Saeta Yield, from the Canadian fund Brookfield, for nearly 1.3 billion. And last July it signed another agreement with Endesa to co-invest in a portfolio of photovoltaic and battery projects of up to 2,500 megawatts, valued at 1.7 billion.
Next comes Naturgy, which received 79.10 million in aid in 2023. In the largest Spanish gas company, third company in the electricity sector, the Algerian state giant Sonatrach holds 3.85%, the result of an arbitration on the price of gas resolved against the Spanish company in 2010. The former Gas Natural has two of its main shareholders, the GIP and CVC funds (in alliance with the March family), who have long sought to sell their 40% because they believe their investment cycle is exhausted. Naturgy was the subject of negotiations this year for the entry into its capital of Taqa, the national electricity company of the Emirates. The move has raised concerns in Algeria, a major gas supplier to Spain. The operation was to be structured through a joint public takeover bid (OPA) with Criteria Caixa, the investment arm of the La Caixa Foundation, but it was ultimately abandoned in June.
Given the uncertainty as to the future of this 40% of Naturgy’s capital, speculation has been made on an entry by the Société nationale de participation nationaux (SEPI) into its capital, like that carried out in Telefónica after the entry of the Saudi company. STC, in a move Sumar has openly called for.
As the CEO of Criteria Caixa, Ángel Simón, said a few days ago in an interview with La Vanguardia, the replacement of the funds that want to leave Naturgy “is a complex issue”: it is a “business strategic for the country, for the government.” , the one of today and the one that could come, and also for reference and historical partners like us. But we will find the solution.
The third energy company with public participation that received the most aid in 2023, with 66.2 million, is the Portuguese company EdP, in which the Portuguese state had to sell its last package of shares in 2013 due to the Troika’s request for rescue. In the shareholding of this company, which is the fourth Spanish electricity distributor and one of the five dominant operators in the sector, the Chinese public company Trois Gorges (21.08%), alongside a large Spanish fortune, the Masaveu family. (6.8%), and again, Norwegian Norges Bank (5%).
Next comes, with 60.7 million in subsidies in 2023, Repsol, the largest Spanish oil company, the fifth electricity operator and the energy company most affected by the extraordinary tax on the sector which has just been lowered due to the refusal of Junts and the PNV. to extend it. “Fortunately, the problem is resolved,” CEO Josu Jon Imaz said Thursday. The oil company, whose privatization was completed by the government of José María Aznar in 1997, currently has only two significant shareholders: investment giant Blackrock (6.2%) and Norges Bank (5%). This year, Repsol began negotiations with the Saudi state giant Aramco to allow it access to its renewable energy subsidiary, valued at around 6 billion euros.
And after Repsol, with 60.5 million in additional public aid in 2023, comes the second Spanish oil company, Cepsa, recently renamed Moeve to illustrate its green shift. The historic company had also conditioned a few days ago its multi-million dollar investment in the so-called Andalusian Hydrogen Valley (with million-dollar public subsidies) on the future of this tax. The main shareholder of Moeve (63%) is the emirate of Abu Dhabi through Mubadala, which distributed in 2021 and 2022 dividends of 1.4 billion from Cepsa with its partner, the Carlyle fund, taking advantage of record profits from the oil company and after the sale of half of its Exploration-Production assets.
Mubadala also holds a small stake in Enagás, owner of the gas pipeline network, now focused on the development of green hydrogen, and which received 18.3 million in public aid in 2023, according to Treasury data. Enagás is one of the few energy companies in which the Spanish state is present, with 5% of the capital via SEPI. The public holding company is the only shareholder whose political rights are not limited in the gas operator.
Another notable name is Endesa. The former public electricity company privatized in 1997, together with its parent company, the Italian parastatal electricity company Enel, received 58.3 million euros in public aid from the Spanish administration last year .
The list of energy companies with foreign state capital that received public subsidies of one million dollars in 2023 is completed by the Reganosa regasification plant (17.9 million), owned by the Xunta de Galicia (59.64 %) and Sonatrach (11.76%); the Norwegian national electricity company Statkraft (12.355 million) and the French company Engie (2.42 million).
Basquevolt received an additional 27.67 million in subsidies, a public-private initiative promoted by the Basque government in which Iberdrola, CIE Automotive and Enagás also participate; and the Biscay Marine Energy Platform, owned by the Basque Energy Agency (75%) and the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE), with 2.63 million.
