SEPI´s Board of Directors authorizes the sale of 8.5% of Red Eléctrica´s capital
29 September 2005 |
The Board of Directors of the state-owned holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI) agreed, in the extraordinary meeting which it celebrated yesterday, to sell 11,497,950 shares it owns in Red Eléctrica de España, S.A. (REE), and which represent 8.5% of this company´s capital. The procedure chosen for carrying out this sale has been the ´Bought Deal´. Once the sale has been completed, SEPI will maintain its presence in the shareholding structure of the electricity company, with a 20% stake.
The Board also agreed to award this sale to UBS, since it submitted the best financial offer among the different financial entities, and which were ranked for the deal by the Board itself on July 22nd, 2005. As a result of the financial offer selected, the sale price for each of the shares is, before fees, of 23.05 Euros, which represents a total amount of 265,027,747.5 Euros.
On July 29th, 2005 the Council of Ministers authorized SEPI to sell shares equivalent to 5% of the capital of Red Eléctrica, while the authorization regarding the remaining 3.5% was already given on May 21st, 1999, since this percentage was the ´green-shoe´ call option which was not implemented in the Initial Public Offering of shares (IPO) carried out on July of that year.
The procedure for the sale of the 8.5% has also the favorable report by the Consejo Consultivo de Privatizaciones (Consultative Board of Privatizations), which was submitted on July of this year, and which highlights that the deal meets the principles of publicity, transparency and competition. The company Analistas Financieros Internacionales has taken part in the sale process as SEPI´s advisor.
This sale, through which SEPI sells part of its stake in Red Eléctrica, was announced by Mr. Enrique Martínez Robles, the Chairman of this state-owned holding company, in his appearances before the Congress and the Senate Budgetary Commission and the Economy and Treasury Commission, in October 2004 and in February 2005, respectively. As a result of the Electricity Industry Act (Ley del Sector Eléctrico), SEPI is committed to keep at least a 10% stake in the capital of Red Eléctrica.