MaVag made a takeover bid for 100 percent of the shares in the Spanish company in March.Continue reading
The Spanish government will not approve the sale of the Spanish train manufacturer Talgo to the Hungarian company Ganz-MaVag Europe, the country’s Ministry of Economy announced at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“The detailed analysis carried out has shown that authorizing this operation would entail insurmountable risks to national security and public order,” the ministry stressed. It was emphasized that Talgo is a strategic company in a key sector for Spain’s economic security, territorial cohesion and industrial development.
According to the communication, the Spanish government made its decision based on the opinion of the inter-ministerial Foreign Investment Council.
The government has classified the report on this matter,
it said.
The Spanish Ministry of Economy emphasized that the refusal of authorization was made in application of the Spanish regulations in force on the control of foreign investment and in accordance with law and the competences of the European Union in the field of foreign direct investment, the protection of the internal market and the free movement of capital.
The Spanish legal framework is balanced and serves as an international reference, as it reconciles the attraction of investment with the protection of national interests.
The Hungarian company Ganz-MaVag Europe made an official public takeover bid of EUR 619 million for the Spanish company Talgo at the beginning of March at a price of EUR 5 per share in return for a minimum stake of 50 percent plus 1 share. The company’s shareholders supported the acceptance of the offer.
The Basque daily El Correo had already reported on the government’s expected decision on Tuesday morning, whereupon the Spanish stock exchange supervisory authority (CNMV, National Securities Market Commission) suspended trading in Talgo shares for hours in view of the uncertain situation.
The Spanish government suspects that Russian investors or even the Russian state itself are behind the Hungarian business circles.
No concrete evidence for this allegation has been presented. The Hungarian consortium consists to a large extent of Magyar Vagon gAG and to a lesser extent of the Hungarian state investment fund Corvinus. Where the Spanish cabinet suspects the Russian thread remains classified information, as does the aforementioned analysis.
It is not surprising that the Spanish government’s veto on Tuesday has not gone unheeded and a concrete response has been announced, Világgazdaság pointed out. More specifically, the Spanish Association of Minority Shareholders, AEMEC, has announced that
they will go to court to protect Talgo’s minority shareholders from interference by the Spanish government.
AEMEC is directly challenging in court the regulation allowing the suspension of foreign investment, which is the basis on which the Spanish government has blocked the Hungarian takeover of Talgo. “The regulation is causing serious damage to shareholders. In addition, the Talgo deal has nothing to do with Spanish national security interests and therefore it is not in accordance with the law to sabotage it on that basis,” they underlined in a statement.
AEMEC is so determined that it is not only taking the government’s decision to the Spanish courts, but is also considering lodging a complaint with the European Court of Justice. One thing is for sure: it is also launching a civil and criminal action to recover damages suffered by Talgo’s more than 8,000 shareholders.
Via Ungarn Heute, Világgazdaság; Featured image via Talgo LinkedIn
