“We did not have this agreement on the dismantling of Abertis and the distribution of assets. on the place. We have made a long-term project and hope that it will last a lifetime. ” This is how ACS President Florentino Perez explained the agreement he recently signed with Atlantia Group to share the capital of Abertis, the concessionaire of Spain’s main highway. It was March 2018.
“Then life is as it is,” the Real Madrid president explained at a news conference, where the Benetton family-controlled company and a construction company announced an agreement that would put an end to the race to control abortion.
Prior to that, the highway concessionaire was under the umbrella of Criteria, Caixabank’s Business Investment Division. So ACS and Atlantia have been claiming control of Abertis for weeks. They put more than 16,000 and 18,000 million euros on the table, respectively. Until they came to the conclusion that it is better to share a cake than to fight for it.
“Time made us think this alliance was better than anything else,” Florentino Perez concluded four years ago in the spring. Time has passed and now this alliance is no longer the best deal for both multinational companies.
In general, what ACS and Atlantia agreed on was to share control of Abertis through a joint venture. The Italian group secured 50% plus one share of this company and was therefore able to consolidate Abertis results on its balance sheet. In return, he had to write off the debt. The remaining 50% minus one share remained in the hands of ACS, but not directly, but through a subsidiary, the German Hochtief.
ACS is now trying to gain full control of Abertis, but not in a solo operation, but in three ways, with funds from GIP and Brookfield. Among the three, they are analyzing the acquisition of Atlantia. In this case, unlike what happened with Abert, they are considering the distribution of assets, according to information provided by the American agency Bloomberg this Wednesday.
The construction team does not allow the operation as something closed, but talks about it as an option in the analysis phase. “On the news (…) of ACS ‘possible interest in Atlanta, we can confirm that ACS has an exclusive agreement with two major international investment funds (GIP and Brookfield) to acquire ACS. “Part of it, without making a decision in this regard,” he assured the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
Thus, the construction company will be interested in both Abertis and Latin American assets. The company does not provide additional information in this regard and, for the time being, is restricting its public communication by referring to the head of the Spanish stock market.
Atlanta is controlled by the Benetton family, which owns more than 30% of the capital through the holding company Edizione. With this percentage of control, if the bidder wanted to buy a 100% stake, it must have the consent of the family that owns the textile network. Today, the value of the Atlanta Stock Exchange exceeds 16,000 million euros, but among other reasons, it adds 30,000 million in debt because it combines the debt of Abertis.
From the start, the Benettons did not seem to be leaning towards a sale deal. Rather, they make their own offer to increase control over the company. And they are not alone in going, but hand in hand with investment giant Blackstone, especially real estate. “It is in talks with Blackstone Group as a possible partner, but no agreement has been reached yet,” the company told the Italian Stock Exchange.
Both ACS and Atlantia are starting to show their cards in corporate operations, which could become one of the biggest acquisitions of 2022.
Abertis is the axis on which this transaction revolves and the side that ACS cares about. The company currently operates highways in dozens of countries. Home Spain. Last year, the government abolished tax on the Catalan section of AP-7, which became free, in exchange for the state paying bert 1,000 million to Abertis.
But Abertis is not Atlanta’s only business leg. The Italian company also manages Rome airports in Fiumicino and Chiampino; And the French from Nice, Cannes, and Saint-Tropez. Infrastructures that, a priori, do not fit into the business model of a Florentino Perez construction company.
During these four years of the alliance between Benetton and ACS, the Italian company is also smaller when it comes to the road business. By mid-2021, the sale of its subsidiary Austostrade per l’Italia (ASPI) to the public unit Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), valued at more than € 9,000 million, was completed. A subsidiary for which ACS also received an offer.
It was not a voluntary operation, but was forced as a result of the Viaduct collapse in Genoa in August 2018, during which dozens of people were killed and questioned the construction model and its maintenance.
On May 6, ACS convened its annual shareholders’ meeting, so it is expected that there will be progress this month on where Atlantia’s corporate operations are heading. In addition, the company has cash, as the construction company has just brought in $ 5,000 million to sell its industrial business, Cobra, to Da Vinci. Atlanta will not be the only topic to be discussed at the meeting, as shareholders will also have to vote for the election of Juan Santamaria as CEO, who will be second only to Florentino Perez.
Source: El Diario
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