SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

The Council of Ministers has authorized the state-owned industrial holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) to sell, through IZAR Construcciones Navales, S.A. en Liquidación, the assets of the shipyard of Gijón to Factorías Juliana, S.A.U.; those of the Seville shipyard to Astilleros de Sevilla, S.A. and the assets of the Sestao shipyard to Construcciones Navales del Norte, S.L.

With this sale the goal set in the Framework Agreement subscribed between SEPI, IZAR and the trade unions on December 16th, 2004, of maintaining the industrial activity in the factories which IZAR has in Sestao, Gijón and Seville is achieved, meeting the requirements set by European Union regulation and preserving the workers´ rights.

In this sense and with the goal of reinforcing the employment guarantees of the workers who have been transferred with the assets in the eventuality that the Buyers´ industrial project were to suffer a crisis, an Agreement has been subscribed with the Metallurgical and Mining Federation of CC.OO. and with the MCA-UGT Federation. This Agreement envisages the commitment on the part of SEPI and IZAR during a 10-year period to provide alternative jobs to the workers who might be affected, as well as palliative and compensating measures in case it were not possible to find jobs for them.

Background

In 2004 the cases opened by the European Commission regarding the non-notified aids received by IZAR between the years 1198 and 2000 were negatively settled, declaring those aids incompatible and imposing on IZAR the obligation of giving them back. These decisions required giving back over 1,200 million Euros. The EC decisions worsened IZAR´s financial position, already deteriorated by the fact that the expectations raised by the plan for the incorporation of this company in 2000 were not realized.

All the subsequent measures adopted in the process for solving the serious crisis which were undergoing the state-owned shipyards had the approval of the European Commission and the acceptance of the trade unions. Such acceptance was expressed in the Framework Agreement dated on December 16th, 2004, whose main goal was to maintain the industrial activity in all IZAR´s military and civil facilities.

With this goal in mind, IZAR´s military activity was focused on a new company, Navantia, which also may carry out a supplementary commercial activity subject to market conditions and limited to 20% of the total turnover. On their part, the commercial factories dedicated to commercial shipbuilding continued being part of IZAR, with SEPI guaranteeing the workers´ rights and the execution of the works in progress. Once IZAR went into liquidation, such as was stipulated in the Framework Agreement, SEPI has carried out the process for selling those factories, with the goal of maintaining their commercial shipbuilding activity.

SEPI´s Board of Directors, in its meeting on last July 18th, 2006 authorized to IZAR´s Liquidation Commission to award the Sestao, Gijón and Seville factories to the bids which had the best evaluation on the part of the independent Assessor for the sale process, among the 8 valid binding offers submitted on February 10th, 2006. Between the first days of August and September the corresponding private sale contracts between IZAR and Factoría Juliana, S.A.U., Astilleros de Sevilla, S.A. and Construcciones Navales del Norte, S.L. were signed, being conditional to receiving the authorization which has been given today.

The Consultative Board of Privatizations, in its report passed on October 2nd, 2006, concludes that in the processes for the sale of the assets of the Gijón, Seville and Sestao factories, owned by IZAR Construcciones Navales en Liquidación, as well as in the award proposal itself, the publicity, transparency and free competence principles have been met.

The company to which was awarded the Sestao factory, Construcciones Navales del Norte, S.L., is made up by Astilleros de Murueta, S.A., Inversora para el Desarrollo de Iniciativas Empresariales, S.L,; Marlon 25, S.L.; Iniciativas Navales del Norte, S.L. and by Naviera del Nervión S.L., all of which combine the experience in shipbuilding with their experience in other industries. CNN takes over 340 workers and aims to build gas-carriers and dredgers. In order to adjust the Sestao¿s workforce to the offer submitted by CNN an early retirement plan will be applied, subject to terms and conditions similar to those included in the commitment given on December 16th, 2004.

Astilleros de Sevilla, S.A. is a company made up by Astilleros de Huelva and Contenemar, S.A., partners of the consortium which won the award of the factory owned by IZAR in Seville, which envisages to focus its industrial activity in building ships for the regular transport of passengers and cargo, besides building other ships for the transport of specialized products. To this, it will rely on the all the workforce currently employed in the factory of Seville.

Factorías Juliana, S.A.U. is the company to which the IZAR¿s factory in Gijón was awarded, and which was constituted for this purpose by Factorías Vulcano, S.L. Its aim is to maintain the activity of the shipyard of Gijón, specializing it in the building of medium-sized ships for transporting chemical products, for which it will use all the workforce currently employed in the shipyard.