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12 June 2015 – Expansión
Acciona’s Chairman, José Manuel Entrecanales, says that the Group’s restructuring has been completed and that the company is now looking to re-launch itself.
The construction and services group Acciona, which held its annual general shareholders’ meeting yesterday, expects to take a decision regarding the future of its energy and real estate activities before the end of the year. It is exploring the option of listing some or all of its business on the stock market in 2016, according to José Manuel Entrecanales, who spoke at the end of yesterday’s meeting. His comments come just a few weeks after Acciona announced that it is considering adopting the Socimi format for its real estate division. Socimis have operating assets that generate yields, and whereby often promise high dividends.
New partners
As an alternative to the real estate listing, or in parallel to it, Entrecanales is also considering ushering in a new shareholder. The Group has already gone down that route for its renewable assets outside of Spain, for which it has signed a partnership with KKR.
Regarding renewables, Entrecanales confirmed that the group is now analysing several alternatives to the ones it was initially considering. The option of publicly listing its overseas renewable assets on the US stock exchange, once KKR acquired 33% of those assets, has been parked for the time being. Now, it is analysing the possibility of listing all of its assets, including the Spanish ones, and even doing so on the Spanish stock market.
Entrecanales said that the options for going public in the USA or Europe are well matched at the moment. He also indicated that the new proposal has been made in conjunction with KKR.
Entrecanales said to the shareholders that “both the real estate and energy activities may be susceptible to independent access to the equity markets”, although he said that the process is being subjected to internal review.
Transmediterránea and Bestinver
As for the future of the Transmediterránea subsidiary, the Chairman of Acciona said that the outlook is now “optimistic” after the restructuring that has been undertaken and that, as a result, the group has decided to “defer any corporate transactions involving sales, mergers or the entry of new shareholders, at least until the results clearly reflect the true value of the company”
Regarding the other subsidiary, Bestinver, which suffered from the “sudden” exit of its management team last year, Entrecanales said that it has overcome its “troubles” and that the company now has the management team it needs to “face a bright future”.
As such, Entrecanales envisages a new phase of growth and expansion for the group, after going through what he refers to as a “hard stage” over the last two years, during which time the group “has faced one of the toughest challenges in its history”.
Entrecanales downplayed the latest incident that took place this week, when the company was excluded from the Ibex 35 due to its low trading volumes. “It is not a big deal” said Entrecanales. He has no plans to adopt any special measures to try to return the company to the Ibex, such as for example, undertaking a share split to give more liquidity to the securities.
Original story: Expansión (by Miguel Angel Patiño)
Translation: Carmel Drake