Javier Escribano hopes to close the merger of EM&E and Indra this year and rejects the sale if the operation does not prosper
The president of Escribano Mechanical & Engineering (EM&E), Javier Escribano, has ruled out the possibility of selling the company in case the merger with Indra does not go ahead, as indicated by the manager in a meeting with the press this Tuesday. In relation to the conflict of interest that exists in the operation due, among other issues, to the fact that the president of Indra is Ángel Escribano, the brother of Javier Escribano and co-owner of EM&E, he has indicated that for EM&E “there is no plan B.”
“There is no plan B on Escribano’s part and saying: If I don’t merge with Indra, we will sell the company. We are not going to sell the company or leave. We have come to stay and if we merge with Indra, we will remain shareholders. We are not going to leave nor are we going to do anything crazy. First because it is not our objective and second because it would be a total disloyalty to everything we have created until now,” the manager stated.
He has also stressed 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%.
“We are a company that Indra has always been interested in acquiring. For several reasons, in the past, we have always put on a bit of a profile. Then, over time, Indra has been a company close to us, with which we have always had a good relationship. For us it is historic,” he added. Likewise, he has delved into the fact that the operation being studied “is not monetary”, given that The objective is a merger in which EM&E will increase its weight within Indrawhich would have to carry out a capital increase to execute the movement.
“In terms of percentage, we are at the expense of the banks doing their job and when they have it and issue a verdict we will make a finer negotiation or see how far we can go. It is something in which we all have to feel comfortable,” he stressed. On the other hand, regarding the advantages of the operation being completed –The agreement could reach before the end of that year-, Javier Escribano has highlighted that both companies have complementary capabilities and that the result would be a larger company with the capacity to attract the rest of the SMEs in the sector.
“Ángel (Escribano) and I are people who come from the world of small industry (…), from very humble conditions and we want, of course, to create a national defense company, but for SMEs and all the people in the value chain that are in the sector to train, progress and get ahead. The mandate that exists in increasing (military) budgets is not just about creating ‘elephant’ companies, but rather creating quality employment and creating cohesion territorial”, he highlighted. Along those lines, too has ruled out the option of undertaking an employment regulation file (ERE) in case the merger goes ahead and, in fact, he has pointed out that the idea is to generate more jobs.
Review your business forecasts upwards
On the other hand, Javier Escribano has pointed out that the company’s forecasts for the end of the year involve a turnover of about 480 million euros and for a gross operating result (ebitda) of between 180 and 190 million euros. This represents an update of the forecasts made at the end of last March, when he noted that the objective for this year was around 400 million euros of income. Likewise, the president of EM&E has indicated that the company’s order book until recently was around 1.4 billion euros, although that figure has grown due to the recent award of various military modernization programs by the Government.
