New move in the chess game that is being followed at Telefónica after the emergence of Saudi Arabia in the capital last year. Criteria Caixa, the holding company that manages the business assets of the La Caixa Foundation, reached a 5.007% stake in Telefónica’s capital this Monday. Until now, Criteria Caixa – chaired by Isidro Fainé and whose CEO is Ángel Simón – had only a direct 2.69% stake in the telecommunications operator. The investment in share purchases made in recent days was for an amount of about 550 million euros.
This 5% share of Criteria Caixa is added to the 2.51% that the CaixaBank bank still maintains, which in turn is also owned by Criteria and the State through FROB. Precisely, the State on this occasion through the SEPI declared a 3% stake in the operator although its intention is to reach 10%.
Last year, Saudi Arabia, through the state company Saudi Telecom, took 4.9% of Telefónica’s shares, although it maintains another 5% through a system of stock market derivatives waiting for the Spanish Government to allow it to reach the 9.9%. This movement by a foreign state on the operator is what activated a process to guarantee that Telefónica was controlled by Spanish shareholders.
In a statement, Criteria Caixa stated that “its main objective is to provide the telecommunications operator” with “greater shareholder stability.” The sum of Criteria (5%), BBVA (4.8%), SEPI (3%) and CaixaBank (2.5%) gives a majority of 15.3% of the operator’s capital in the hands of Spanish shareholders. According to Criteria, the operator is “an essential company for both the country and the sector internationally, with the greatest shareholder stability.”
The holding company recalled that at the next general meeting of Telefónica shareholders – scheduled for this Friday, April 12 – the renewal of the president of Criteria Caixa, Isidro Fainé, will be voted on. But he will become a proprietary director of Criteria, instead of a representative of CaixaBank, as he was until now. Fainé is vice president of the operator. Telefónica sources did not comment on the latest shareholding change, although no appointment is expected at next Friday’s meeting.
According to La Caixa’s holding company, “the operation is in line with Criteria Caixa’s investment policy, characterized by efficient and prudent management of its portfolio, focused on companies with an attractive dividend policy.” Criteria Caixa, which is the first investment holding company in Spain, highlighted that “its participation in Telefónica is strategic and long-term.”
In fact, La Caixa’s relationship with Telefónica dates back to 1987, when the then savings bank invested for the first time in the operator by acquiring 2.5% of its capital, Criteria recalled yesterday. In 1996, it already reached 5%, which was diluted to 3.6% due to the various capital increases. In 2004, the share again recovered above 5%. Subsequently, the stake became part of the perimeter of the Criteria Caixa holding company, within the framework of the corporate reorganization, and then returned to the financial entity once it became the CaixaBank bank, where today it continues with the aforementioned 2.5%.
Criteria Caixa assured yesterday that “the relationship with Telefónica transcends the strictly shareholder level, and both companies maintain a historical commitment to education through technology and innovation as vehicles of social transformation.
