The State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) has completed the acquisition of 10% of Telefónica, acquiring the 1.46% of the capital it needed to reach this percentage.
According to the holding company itself in a note, it has acquired 567 million shares of the telephone group at an average price of 4.02 euros per share, that is, for a total of 2,285 million euros. To this volume it will add 541 shares that it already owned.
The movement announced today completes the “orderly purchase” of this percentage, announced in December of last year by the Government. The purchase turns the State into a shareholder counterweight to Saudi Telecom, owned by the Saudi Arabian sovereign fund PIF, which aspires to acquire another 10%.
The SEPI highlights the strategic nature of Telefónica and maintains that the shareholding increase has been carried out “minimizing the impact on the group’s price.”
Telefónica shares closed this Monday at 4.19 euros, bringing its capitalization to 23,590 million euros, 14% above the moment in which the Government announced its desire to become a significant shareholder of the company.
The participation, indicates the SEPI, has a “vocation for permanence” and “provides greater shareholder stability to the company to achieve its objectives”, while “contributing to the protection of its strategic capabilities. The Government has already chosen Carlos Ocaña Orbis as his representative on the board of directors.
