The State Industrial Participation Company (SEPI) has exceeded 7% of Telefónica’s capital after already investing 1,617 million euros, as reported this Wednesday to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). In this way, with its 7.079% the State advances in its plan to reach the 10% that was set in December, in response to the landing of the Saudi STC with up to 9.9% of the capital.
The Government has not wanted to take risks and has reinforced its presence in Telefónica’s capital to 7.079% of the total capital, compared to the 6.169% that had been made public until yesterday.
The reason was to prevent this Wednesday any of the directors participating in the Telefónica board of directors from questioning the legitimacy of the SEPI being able to place a representative on said management body. He has achieved it. The board of directors of Telefónica to Carlos Ocaña Orbis proprietary director. The decision has been made unanimously by its 15 members, who have also decided that Ocaña Orbis will occupy the position of member of the Delegated Commission and the Audit and Control Commission.
To this end, the council has accepted the resignation of Carmen García de Andrés, who has made her position available for “personal reasons and in order to contribute to the orderly renewal process of the council.”
The Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, defended this Wednesday the suitability of the chosen candidate. “What I look at is the candidate’s resume and he has a differentiating element which is that he has held positions of responsibility in both the public and private sectors. And I believe this fact is very relevant for the position that he is going to represent and I am sure that he will do so with the maximum guarantees,” said Body.
The minister has also confirmed that Sepi will continue to advance in the objective of reaching 10% of Telefónica’s capital to “give continuity to a stable investment and to continue advancing in offering a medium-term strategic vision of the company.” In this way, the State advances in its plan to reach the 10% that was set in December, in response to the landing of the Saudi STC with 4.9% of the capital directly owned in shares and another 5% in derivatives that executed would give him 9.9% of the capital and make him the majority partner of the company.
Despite this, the Arab company has not expressed interest in having a representative on the Telefónica board, and has limited its interest in the company to an investment spirit. Since this investment became known, sources close to Telefónica have argued about the need to exceed 6.6% of its capital to appoint a director.
The amount is the result of dividing the company’s total capital, 24.4 billion euros, among the 15 members of the board. The argument has been reiterated from various sources close to Telefónica in recent months, despite the fact that it contradicts the reality of the composition of the management body.
Specifically, two of the main shareholders of Telefónica Criteria and BBVA each have one representative on the board, Isidre Fainé representing the Catalan investment group and who currently owns 6% of the company’s capital; and José María Abril, representing the Basque bank that owns 4.8% of the capital.
Once his entry into the council is approved, Ocaña becomes the direct and uninterrupted link to the Government at Telefónica. Since 2012, he held the position of deputy to the general director of Real Madrid, his main occupation. He began his career as deputy director of the economic office of the President of the Government between 2004 and 2008, at that time with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Later he was general director of Miguel Sebastián’s cabinet at the Ministry of Industry between 2008 and 2011.
He has served on the boards of directors of public companies such as Paradores or Redes.es and has been an advisor in private companies, among which his current position on the digital transformation committee of Prisa stands out, which he joined in 2021. Ocaña was co-author with to Pedro Sánchez from the book The new Spanish economic diplomacy, published in 2014.
SEPI has been continuously acquiring shares. The last package, some 52 million titles, was purchased at an average of 3.973 euros per unit, above the previous purchases that were paid at 3.9378 euros. In both cases, the SEPI carried out the operations with money from the Treasury, as specified in a document sent to the US stock market regulator. The latest package has required a disbursement of around 208 million euros.
Since it started its purchases, the State has already acquired 407 million shares, with a market value of 1,742 million euros, that is, about 125 million euros more than the amount disbursed so far. The acquisitions remain at a continuous pace: on March 25 it rose 3%, it reached 5% on April 15, eleven days later (April 26) it had 6.17% and another eleven days later it reached 7.079 %. And they will continue, as confirmed this Wednesday by the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, who in statements to journalists has assured that they will maintain the objective of reaching 10% to “continue advancing in the construction of a stable position of the State in Telefónica giving a boost the strategic vision of the company,” he assured.
