Acs falls in Madrid after 700 mln capital increase and equity swap resolution
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - ACS slipped on the Madrid Stock Exchange, after a €700m capital increase and the termination of two equity swap contracts whose proceeds will help finance investments in digital infrastructure. The Spanish construction and engineering group's share price has risen around 48% since the start of the year. Actividades de Construccion y Servicios announced a capital increase of 2% of the share capital through an accelerated bookbuilding offer. The price was set at EUR 125 per share, a 5.09% discount to the last closing price. At current prices, the transaction is worth over EUR 700 million. The group also indicated that it will use EUR 1.1 billion from the liquidation of two share exchange contracts with CaixaBank and the Spanish subsidiary of Société Générale to finance its development plans.
Florentino Perez, president of ACS, through his investment company Rosan Inversiones and the Spanish holding company Criteria, majority shareholders of ACS, said they would participate in the placement to avoid dilution of their shares. Rosan Inversiones holds a 14.58% stake in ACS, while Criteria holds 9.36%. As the documentation sent to the Cnmv, the Spanish financial markets supervisory body, specifies, the two share swap transactions were concluded with Société Générale and Caixa Bank in 2023 and were designed to cover plans to grant shares and share options to the group's executives. ACS 'holds a sufficient number of treasury shares to cover these plans, therefore the financial swap transactions are subject to early termination', the company points out. The termination of the swap transactions will result in the financial institutions selling an equivalent number of ACS shares (11,120,000 in total), which the institutions held to cover their position. ACS will receive the amounts corresponding to the resolution (estimated at about EUR 1.1 billion), as well as those corresponding to the capital increase.
ACS will allocate the net proceeds 'to the development and implementation of its business plan, including the potentialacceleration of certain investment opportunities within the previously announced €5.5-6 billion capital investment framework, while maintaining financial flexibility and a disciplined approach to capital allocation'. The group expects that 'the funds will be partially allocated to digital and technology infrastructure, including data centres, semiconductor facilities and artificial intelligence-related infrastructure in key markets such as the US, Canada, Europe and Asia-Pacific'. ACS also intends to allocate part of the funds to strengthen 'integrated engineering and modular construction to support the efficient execution of next-generation infrastructure projects, as well as to undertake other investments in traditional infrastructure'. Rosan and Criteria have committed to a 90-day lock-up period following the closing of the capital increase. Rosan will acquire 1.2 million Acs shares and Criteria up to 4.07 million shares.
