Spanish electricity group
Endesa to appeal hostile takeover bid
AFP
MADRID
Petroleumworld.com 02 07 06
The Spanish electricity group Endesa said Monday it would ask
the Spanish supreme court to rule on the government's conditional
approval of a hostile takeover bid by Grupo Gas Natural, which
has accepted the state's conditions.
In a statement, Endesa said it considered that the 20 conditions
the government had imposed on the bid and the "low quality"
of Gas Natural's industrial project left the operation "lacking
in industrial logic."
The offer is worth 22.5 billion euros (27 billion dollars).
At the same time, Gas Natural on Monday announced that it had
accepted the Spanish government's conditions, as the "strategic
advantages from the operation are compatible with the obligations
on which the cabinet has conditioned the merger."
At a press conference, Gas Natural chairman Salvador Gabarro said
the initial 21.3-euro-per-share offer for Endesa was "still
adequate" amid speculation the bid might be boosted.
The deal "will create a seamless, global energy group leader
with more than 30 million customers," making it the world's
third largest energy group, Gabarro added.
On Friday, the government approved Gas Natural's planned acquisition
with 20 conditions, covering areas of the merged company's wholesale
and retail gas and electricity business.
Among the conditions, the new group would have to divest 4,300
megawatts of generation capacity and restrict its market share
in gas distribution market to 60 percent.
They cutback the scope of an initial proposal which analysts had
estimated would have created the third-biggest utility group in
the world, and the biggest electricity supplier in Spain and in
Latin America.
EU competition authorities had already cleared the deal.
But the Spanish government's terms were nonetheless widely seen
as being closer to more lenient conditions suggested by energy
sector regulator CNE than those stipulated by the anti-trust court
TDC.
AFP
02 06 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved
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