The integration plan between Atlantia and Abertis is and remains only one, the one I present to the market a few weeks ago. This was confirmed by Fabio Cerchiai, president of the Italian motorway group, when answering questions from journalists regarding the existence of a plan B described by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
“The plan is the one presented, it is a market operation aimed at all shareholders, on 100% of the capital. There is no plan A or plan B, there is only one plan”, Cerchiai told the foreign press on the sidelines of a Febaf conference.
Atlantia presented an offer that values Abertis at more than 16 billion euros, with the aim of creating the main motorway operator in the world.
“We hope that all or at least 51% will join, otherwise we acknowledge that they have other interests. Caixa is reflecting and there is time to reflect”, added the manager, explaining that according to him the market is evaluating the offer positively as shown by the trends of Atlantia and Abertis. Caixa, we recall, is the main shareholder of the Spanish group and it is precisely from the Iberian giant that the success of the integration could depend.
The answers given by Cerchiai sound like a denial of what was reported by El Mundo which claimed that Atlantia would be working on a plan B aimed at overcoming a possible refusal by Caixa. The second option carried out by the Benetton family company, according to the newspaper, would have started contacts with investment funds and proxy advisors to present the transaction and convince them that the 16,5 euro per share offered constitutes a 'fair value', which nobody is willing to exceed on the market, according to financial sources consulted by the Spanish newspaper.
