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Bill Gates to Increase His Stake in FCC

5/09/2014 – El Confidencial

FCC has started up a €1.35 billion capital increase designed to refinance its overall indebtness of €4.51 billion. The builder hired Santander and Morgan Stanley to issue 100 million new shares. The operation will be supported by world-wide known Bill Gates.

Financial sources indicated that the capital increase will positively impact the current shareholding of FCC as Esther Koplowitz will lose control over her 50.01% stake due to not being able to subscribe to it.

The unusal aspect of the operation is that Banco Santander will be the overall coordinator and not BBVA or Bankia that are the main lenders both of the froup and the family. Also, assistance of JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs is not ruled out for securitization reasons.

It is said that Juan Bejar, vice-presidend and CEO of FCC, will keep a part of the increase for Bill Gates (pictured) who in October 2013 bought a 6% stake at the firm for a total of €113 million. With the new participation, his share could rise up to 10%.

Moreover, the incapacity of Mrs Koplowitz to maintain half of the company, opens the door to the holding to foreign funds which turned their eyes to the builder once the Bill Gates news leaked out to the market.

Therefore, Mr Bejar had to speed the capital increase operation up. The final result will be announced in mid-September when the Koplowitzs will sign an agreement on refinancing of their €1 billion personal debt.

In the first half of the year, FCC lost 52 million, while its ebitda rose by 32% to €380 million. The constructor‘s financial debt marks presently €6.41 billion.

The capital increase puts aside the intention of George Soros to buy a part of Esther Koplowitz‘s debt and grab a bigger stake in FCC.

 

Original article: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: AURA REE