Recent weeks have seen a discreet and infrequent trickle of public takeover bids (takeover bids) from foreign investors on listed industrially oriented Spanish companies. The trend not only threatens to delist four relevant companies from the stock market, but also to provoke a large transfer of ownership into foreign hands: Hungarians, French, Americans and Portuguese are fighting over emblematic and promising companies such as Talgo, Opde, Applus and Ercros. A warning for sailors.
The operations are in different phases of completion and total around 3,000 million euros. The most relevant is that of the ITV leader, Applus, valued at nearly 1,200 million by the Anglo-Saxon investment funds that are competing for it. Another fund, in this case the French Antin, is involved in the second takeover bid for the Opde photovoltaic group, valued at 866 million.
The Applus and Opde operations have the profile of the applicants in common. They are the large international investment firms, which now seem to have things clearer after a 2023 marked by increases in interest rates and the difficulty in valuing assets. Now “a certain reactivation is being seen,” explains Cira Cuberes, partner at Bain.
Another great movement, in this case very sensitive for Spanish interests, is the one that occurs around Talgo. A Hungarian consortium led by the Magyar Vagon railway group aims to acquire the large Spanish high-speed train supplier for 619 million euros. The buyers are backed by a Hungarian oil company with assets in Russia, MOL, and the country’s state investment fund, which gives Viktor Orbán’s government the ability to influence.
The foreign offensive is completed by the Portuguese Bondalti, which has formulated a takeover bid of 330 million for Ercros. The board of directors of the Catalan chemical group, unlike the rest of the listed companies, has reported that it was not aware of this interest and has described the approach as “unsolicited.”
The focus is now on the position of the Government, which since the beginning of the pandemic has ample capacity to veto operations in companies that it considers strategic and that exceed 500 million euros in value, which excludes Ercros. The anti-takeover shield was launched at a time when company prices, due to the pandemic, placed them within reach of a takeover. Now the share price has recovered, but foreign interest does not subside.
The reluctance comes mainly from Talgo. The Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, has described the company as strategic, and the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has assured that the Government will oppose the change of ownership. For his part, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, said this Friday that “we will always defend industrial projects that are strategic and jobs,” also remembering that Spain has provided itself with an anti-takeover shield that it reinforced last year. .
The train manufacturer has the Trilantic fund as its first shareholder, through a company in which Spanish shareholders also participate, such as the founding family, the Oriols, or Torreal, Juan Abelló’s family office. All of them support the Hungarian takeover.
Applus does not generate controversy because it has already passed through foreign hands. It previously belonged to the American fund Carlyle, which took it public in 2014, and now its capital is very fragmented. Opde, on the other hand, is controlled by Spanish investors, but the Government has agreed to be bought by Antin, after ensuring that the French fund abandons its claims against Spain in international arbitration courts.
These operations worry the CNMV, but for reasons other than their foreign origin. More and more companies are no longer listed on the stock market, and debuts on the floor have not yet materialized, despite the large number of existing projects. Its president, Rodrigo Buenaventura, says he is more concerned about the lack of releases than about exclusion bids.
