Indra informs Competition of the acquisition of Hispasat and the takeover of Hindesat

Indra notifies the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) of the company acquisition the satellite company Hispasat to Redeia. The technology and defense company is thus finalizing the procedures to complete the purchase that it agreed to last January to take control of 89.68% of the share capital of Hispasat for an amount of 725 million euros.

As this media has been able to confirm, the company chaired by Ángel Escribano notified the operation to Competition on October 17, within the framework of its aspiration to complete the purchase before the end of the year. “The ‘closing’ of the operation will be this November and, of course, I cannot say how it will turn out (the question of the council), because right now it is not a concern” highlighted the Notary himself in the recent ‘VII Defense Forum’ organized by The Economist.

Precisely at this event, the executive who faces the final stretch of his first year at the helm of Indra already highlighted that The operation has required a battery of regulatory authorizations in a dozen countriesgiven the international reach of these firms, thus pending the approval of the Spanish authorities to close the integration.

At this time, the file is in your first phase of analysis by the CNMC, which indicates that the authority is evaluating whether the operation may significantly affect competition in the corresponding market. This implies that it is being reviewed whether the acquisition or joint control could lead to a restriction of competition (for example, increasing prices, reducing innovation or making it difficult for new operators to enter) and whether it is appropriate to impose conditions, force modifications or even reject the operation if it is considered harmful to the market.

It should be remembered that the operation also includes Hispasat’s 43% position in the share capital of Hisdesata company in which Indra already had 7% of the shares. Within this agreement there is a suspensive clause that establishes as a mandatory condition the financial consolidation of Hisdesat in Indra’s accounts. The operation conditions its closing on Indra achieving the majority in Hisdesat through the additional acquisition of up to 0.1% that would allow it to exceed 50%.

While finalizing an agreement with EM&E

This acquisition may not be the only one that Indra agrees to before the end of the year. Or, at least, that’s what the president of Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E), Javier Escribano, said yesterday, when he stated before the media that The merger agreement could be reached in the next two months. At this meeting, the manager ruled out the possibility of selling the company in case the merger with Indra does not go ahead.

In relation to the conflict of interest that exists in this operation due, among other issues, to the fact that the president of Indra is Ángel Escribano, Javier Escribano’s brother and co-owner of EM&E, he tried to emphasize that Indra has always had an interest in acquiring EM&E, in the sense that That intention already existed before Ángel Escribano became president of Indraa company in which EM&E is the second largest shareholder with 14.3% of the capital, only behind the Sociedad Estado de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), which has 28%.