The president of ACS, Florentino Pérez, has ruled out today at the company’s Shareholders’ Meeting that it is among his plans “right now” for the company’s shares to also be listed on the United States stock exchange, as Ferrovial did yesterday with its debut on the Nasdaq. He was thus responding to a question from a shareholder, who recalled the extensive presence that ACS has in the United States.
“These are things that we are not contemplating right now, when we contemplate them we will bring them here (to the meeting),” the businessman has limited himself to saying to the shareholders.
In statements to the press, the CEO of ACS, Juan Santamaría, has acknowledged that he has received requests from shareholders for it to be listed in the United States, but that it is not something that is on the table. In any case, he wanted to make it clear that the listing of ACS in Spain is not something that is under discussion.
The Board has given the green light to a capital increase of a maximum of 634 million euros to cover the payment of the two flexible dividends that it is expected to deliver next July and in February of next year.
To meet future dividends, the company will undertake, in the three months following the holding of the meeting, a first increase of a maximum of 507 million euros (last year it was 450 million) and, in the first quarter of 2025, a second, which will not exceed 127 million euros (compared to 130 million a year ago).
In this way, if these maximum amounts are met, the dividend could be 9.3% higher than that delivered last year, since the proposed increase has gone from 580 to 634 million euros.
For his part, the president of ACS has focused on the new two-year strategic plan in his speech. It expects to achieve revenues of between 43,000 and 48,000 million euros, a recurring net profit of 1,000 million euros and an accumulated cash generation in those three years of 3,300 million euros.
“The future involves investments in the energy transition, sustainable mobility, digitalization and infrastructure related to health, education and biotechnology, and we face these challenges with a privileged position,” defended the president, anticipating business on which it will focus its activity in the coming years.
Another of the businesses that ACS has focused on in the last year has been data centers, with multiple awards in all its subsidiaries around the world.
Specifically, Juan Santamaría has estimated the data centers awarded by its US subsidiary Turner in 2023 at 2.8 billion dollars (2.6 billion euros), and in the first quarter of 2024 it has already accumulated another 2.2 billion (2.04 billion euros).
Likewise, its Australian subsidiary Cimic has won several data center contracts in Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia worth more than 400 million Australian dollars (245 million euros). And in Europe, the group was awarded several of these projects in Germany and the Netherlands.
Regarding Clece, Santamaría also wanted to specify that a decision has not yet been made regarding its sale, which is subject to the three offers that the company has received so far, currently being analyzed.
Regarding Turner’s jump to Europe, the company is already analyzing alliances on the continent, although the manager has ruled out that any of these options are in Spain.
In response to questions from other shareholders, the CEO of ACS, Juan Santamaría, has defended that the possible termination of its contract to operate the SH-288 highway has not yet been decided.
“The asset has performed very well and, driven by success, the Government of Texas has decided to purchase it, but we are still in a six-month negotiation period and it will be evaluated whether to continue with the completion or if it is preferred that we continue with some kind of agreement,” he explained.
