The National Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) informed the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) that its stake in the capital of Telefónica has already reached 5%half of the set objective.
SEPI thus achieves the Agreement of the Council of Ministers which orders the purchase of Telefónica shares up to 10%“by minimizing the impact on the price and respecting the communications of significant holdings established in the regulations”, specifies the public holding company in a press release.
“With a permanent vocation, SEPI’s participation brings greater shareholder stability to the company to achieve its objectives and contributes to the protection of the strategic capabilities of a key company in the telecommunications sector and decisive in most industrial capacities and areas of knowledge that affect the essential interests of defense and national security”, concludes the press release from the company chaired by Belén Gualda.
SEPI reaches the 5% threshold in Telefónica just one week later CriteriaCaixa, the investment arm of the La Caixa Banking Foundation, informed the market that it had slightly exceeded this same percentage, with 5.007%.
Thus, the joint participation of CriteriaCaixa and CaixaBank (2.51%) in Telefónica amounts to 7.517%, above the 4.83% held by BBVA and the 4.98% held by BlackRock.
In this context, it should be remembered that The Saudi operator STC acquired 9.9% of the capital of Telefónica on September 5 for 2.1 billion euros.
However, its position is divided into 4.9% in direct shares and the remaining 5% are financial derivatives which are not yet effective because the government must agree to the operation due to regulations on foreign investments in strategic companies.
Economy Minister Carlos Body recently announced that SEPI would request at least one seat on Telefónica’s board of directors.
Last Friday, during the general meeting of shareholders, the president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, welcomed the new shareholders who join the stable core of the company, which, in his opinion, demonstrates the attractiveness of the group, and with the conviction that they will bring their experience and business vision to the century-old company.