Naturgy receives shareholder support for its 2.3 billion euro buyback plan
The Spanish utility Naturgy announced on Friday that it had set a maximum value for a share purchase announced last month of 2.33 billion euro ($2.53 billion), after its four major shareholders committed to support the plan.
The company intends to resell its bought-back stock on the market in order to increase the free float of the company and to return it to the main indexes. This will support their market value.
Naturgy has confirmed that it will pay the same 26.5 euros per share as was announced in February. It will purchase up to 88,000,000 shares or 9.08% its total equity.
On Friday morning, shares rose 0.8% to 25.14 euro.
The company stated that shareholders representing around 85% capital would participate in the plan. This was a condition essential for the plan to proceed.
The Spanish holding company Criteria is the largest shareholder, with 26.7% of the shares. BlackRock, which acquired its stake by acquiring investment fund GIP, and private equity firm CVC each have more than 20%. And Australian investment fund IFM has almost 17%.
Naturgy estimated that in February, increasing its free-float from 11% to 15% would be sufficient to reach its goal of returning back to the main indexes.
The shareholders will be asked for their opinions.
Approved
The plan and significant board changes will be discussed at the next general assembly on March 25, 2019.
(source: Reuters)
