MADRID, 8 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Saudi sovereign fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), owner of 64% of the STC operator, has already declared to the market that it holds a 9.9% stake in Telefónica, according to the records of the National Market Commission. Securities (CNMV).
The firm details that this movement has been channeled through Green Bridge Investment, an investment vehicle controlled entirely by STC and which is the owner of both the shares and the financial instruments contemplated in the operation.
“Public Investment Fund is the direct control entity of Saudi Telecom Company (‘STC’), of which it owns 64% of the shares,” it details the CNMV, and also indicates that STC owns 100% of the share capital of Green Bridge Investment Company, and therefore controls it.
Thus, in the information sent to the supervisor, it reports that on September 5 – the day the emergence of STC in Telefónica was announced – Green Bridge Investment Company, “acting through its general partner, Green Bridge Management SARL”, acquired 4.9% of Telefónica’s shares and signed a purchase and sale contract for 5% of the operator’s securities, “the effectiveness of which is subject, among others, to the approval of the Spanish Council of Ministers.”
Specifically, STC owns 569.29 million Telefonica shares – equivalent to 9.9% of the company’s share capital -, of which 281.77 million are securities with effective voting rights at this time and 287, 52 million are actions through financial instruments.
As STC explained at the time, the amount of the operation amounted to 2.1 billion euros, however, the value of the Saudi group’s share package at the current market price – around 2:20 p.m. this Friday – is at 2,187 million euros, with Telefónica’s price at 3,842 euros.
In this sense, different sources have indicated that Morgan Stanley has been in charge of acquiring small packages of Telefónica securities for STC in recent months through subsidiaries and other investment vehicles, an issue that, according to various analysts, would also have served to sustain the price of Telefónica’s share price, especially in August and after the setback that resulted in the loss of 1
The CNMV, asked about why the purchases of the share package and financial instruments contemplated in the operation – 4.9% in shares and 5% in financial instruments – went unnoticed and had not been reflected in its records until today , has indicated that “there are specificities and partial exemptions”.
“Significant holdings and the duty to notify them are included in a European standard and in its Spanish transposition. There are some specificities and partial exemptions for the positions built by financial entities. The CNMV will verify that the standard has been applied correctly in this case, how could it be otherwise”, the CNMV has indicated to Europa Press.
The regulations contemplate that banks have an exemption from the CNMV by which they do not have to register participations in companies if they do not exceed 5% of the company’s share capital and are for trading.
