The announcement of the transfer of Ferrovial from its headquarters to the Netherlands has become part of the political debate. Unidas Podemos has announced this Thursday that it will register a bill in Congress in the coming days to force companies that take their production or their fiscal headquarters outside of Spain to return the public aid and subsidies obtained during the 10 years prior to the decision to leave the country, also paying interest on late payment.
In statements collected by the Europa Press agency, the spokesman for Unidas Podemos in Congress, Pablo Echenique, has stressed that the public “saved” Ferrovial with public money during the pandemic through the ERTE mechanism. “It is just one example of the multiple public aid that this multinational has received over the last decades,” Echenique pointed out.
“If now they want to leave the country that helped them grow and that supported their economic activity at the worst times to pay less taxes, at least they should return the aid,” emphasized the purple spokesman, who added that “anyone who self-proclaimed patriot will agree with this approach”.
Along these lines, the Minister of Social Rights and the 2030 Agenda and Secretary General of United We Can, Ione Belarre, has also spoken, who has said that “there is nothing more unpatriotic than taking advantage of public aid when things go wrong”, so that “When you do well, go to a tax haven to avoid paying taxes.”
Echenique has also outlined another measure: excluding Ferrovial from public contracts for having fled to the Netherlands. “If Ferrovial goes to the Netherlands to pay less taxes, then let the Netherlands and not Spain give them public works contracts,” said the spokesperson, in this case in a tweet.
Likewise, the parliamentary group has also underlined the need for Spain to lead efforts within the European Union to standardize tax rates throughout the continent, and especially corporate tax, to put an end to tax dumping between states member.
The company justified this move in that it is an international firm with most of its business outside of Spain. Specifically, 82% of the income of 2022 was generated outside the country and 90% of its value on the stock market comes from abroad. However, this decision has not gone down well with the coalition government, which has urged the company to rethink its idea and maintain its registered office in Spain.
The first vice president and minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño, came to have a conversation with the executive president of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino, to express his rejection of the change of headquarters. “This is a company that owes everything to Spain,” they remarked from the Department headed by Calviño.
For her part, the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, criticized the company’s decision, which in her opinion is to pay less taxes.
In this context, Díaz asked Ferrovial to reconsider its decision and commit to Spain at a time of need. In addition, he asked the Ministry of Economy to adopt “the measures that are necessary” so that the transfer does not materialize.
The transfer of the company chaired by Rafael del Pino to the Netherlands is subject to the fact that the holders of no more than 2.57% of the company’s capital oppose this operation, which would also allow it to make the leap to the US stock market. .
Among the conditions established by the board of directors for the approval of this operation is that the shareholders who are against this transfer may avail themselves of their right of separation.
This right consists of the shareholder leaving the capital due to their disagreement with the agreements adopted at the meeting in exchange for fair consideration, which is normally the company’s listing price, in this case 26.7 euros per share.
