A decisive week begins today for Abertis, the company that manages the Spanish motorways disputed between the Italian Atlantia and Florentino Peres' ACS group. According to the newspaper El Mundo, an agreement is being worked on under which Atlantia and Acs will acquire joint control of Abertis: each will have 50%, a share to be held for at least 5 years and without cuts.
For Abertis, therefore, there is no prospect of a stew, but a division of assets within a management in which the presidency should remain Spanish. It seems that Atlantia is very interested in toll roads in Latin America, while Acs would be more focused on Europe. In any case, after five years, part of Abertis' assets may be sold in exchange for shares.
But there is a problem: time to find an agreement is scarce. The Cnmv, the Spanish Consob, gave the go-ahead for Acs' takeover bid on Abertis on Monday. This means that the two contenders will soon have to clarify whether they have reached an agreement or whether they will proceed separately on the market. Everything therefore seems to indicate the urgency of reaching an agreement as early as this week.
In short, after months of battles and negotiations, the agreement on the partition must now be found quickly. At the latest, they say, within this week. Probably not in time for the Abertis meeting scheduled for Tuesday, but for the government meeting to be held on Friday.
According to El Economista, the team will ultimately go through a joint offer by Atlantia and Acs on Abertis through a new vehicle at a price in line with the maximum proposed so far: 18,36 euros per share or 1 eurocent more if necessary (18,37 euros).
