A group of foreign investors and retail shareholders have made a non-binding takeover bid worth 200 million euros ($238 million) for a 70% stake in Abenewco1, the holding company of Spanish engineering and energy group Abengoa SA.
Last month, Abenewco1 had received a non-binding offer from a group of investors led by Los Angeles-based private equity fund TerraMar Capital LLC. This offer was also worth 200 million euros and aims to control 70% of the company. It also included a 50 million euro capital increase.
Under the rival offer, a group led by Caabsa, a Mexican infrastructure group, and EPI/Ultramar oil and gas firm, said it was conditional on approval of 249 million euros in state aid Abenewco1 had recently requested.
Abengoa said on Friday the offer, led by Mexican investors, consists of an injection of 135 million euros in loans and 65 million euros in financial instruments in the subsidiary Abenewco 1.
In early February, Abengoa voluntarily started a bankruptcy process after its creditors refused to extend a deadline for negotiating a restructuring agreement.
Abenewco1, which holds most of its parent company’s assets and liabilities and employs most of the group’s 13,500 workers, was not part of the insolvency proceedings.
The new offer, which would be implemented in two different phases, also foresees a 50 million euros capital increase.
A proposed restructuring to tackle Abengoa’s 6 billion euro debt mountain unravelled in February after the regional government of Andalusia withdrew an offer of 20 million euros in funding as part of a 250 million euro overall deal.
The Seville-based business had borrowed heavily in the preceding decade to fund an aggressive expansion into clean energy from its traditional infrastructure projects.
Source: Reuters
