Taqa meets with criteria to explore a second buying attempt at Naturgy

Taqa, from the United Arab Emirates, has contacted the largest shareholder of Naturgy Energy Group to reactivate an offer for a participation in the Spanish public services company, valued at 24,000 million euros, according to sources consulted by Bloomberg. This new attempt is known at the gates of the General Meeting of Shareholders that will meet tomorrow to vote the Self-OPA about 10% of the company’s capital with the aim of providing liquidity to the company on the stock market.

Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidipresident of the main electric company of the EAU, He traveled to Spain and met with an Executive from Criteriacaixa to discuss a possible agreementaccording to people, who asked not to be named because the conversations are private. Alsuwaidi is also Minister of Investments of the EAU.

Criteria, which has 26.7% of Naturgy, indicated that it is open to conversations provided two demands are met: that Taqa does not intend to have a majority participation and that there are no diplomatic conflicts with Algeriawhere Naturgy has wide businesses, said one of the people. Criteria will not accept an agreement that becomes a minority shareholder, according to one of the people.

The deliberations are ongoing and there is no certainty that Taqa and Critoira are going to proceed with a transaction, people said, asking not to be identified when discussing confidential information. Taqa, Criteria and Naturgy declined to comment.

Last year, Criteria and Taqa tried to join forces to buy a group of shareholders from Naturgy. The conversations failed largely due to disagreements about who would control the company.

Taqa and conversations with CVC

So far, Taqa had had conversations with CVC to try to resume the operation and this new movement could offer a second chance to the Emirati company, which never just left completely.

Naturgy has been fighting for several years with a very complex shareholding structurewith four different groups that have at least 15% of the participations each, but with different objectives. This has been a ballast for the performance of the shares, since the company has lost liquidity, but it has also limited the capacity of the management to invest and do business.

The situation has also raised the concern of the Spanish government, which considers Naturgy a strategic company and has the capacity to block any operation. The Government has already expressed support for the purchase of a participation by Taqa, according to Bloomberg In February.

Naturgy owns two large gas pipelines that transport Algeria’s fuel to Spain, although one of them has not been used for imports for several years. Sonatrach, the Algerian state company of Gas, has a 4.1% participation in Naturgy. Spain had a diplomatic touch with Algeria in the past, but has resumed its relations. United Arab Emirates and Algeria also maintain a tense diplomatic relationship.

Criteria, consulted by electionomista.esHe didn’t want to comment.