El Corte Inglés yesterday concluded the agreement by which Mutua Madrileña becomes part of the capital of the department stores after acquiring 50.01% of the insurance business of the group of department stores, both the company that carries out the insurance activity of the department stores, which sells Life and Accident Insurance (SECI), such as CESS, the insurance brokerage.
The operation, announced in October 2021, also grants Mutua Madrileña 8% of the shares of El Corte Inglés in exchange for a total cash injection of 1,100 million euros. An amount that the group chaired by Marta Álvarez has decided to allocate to reduce its debt, which at the end of its last fiscal year amounted to 3,811 million euros.
Specifically, according to the relevant fact communicated yesterday to the Spanish Alternative Fixed Income Market (MARF), El Corte Inglés has amortized the remaining amount of a 690 million euro senior debt bond that it issued in 2018 and whose expiration date was maturing in 2024. The amortization communicated yesterday, which will be operational on June 10, amounts to 620 million euros.
Along with this operation, El Corte Inglés will repay the loan of 320 million euros that it requested from the ICO in the midst of the covid pandemic in 2020 to guarantee its liquidity levels. In total there will be 1,010 million, of the 1,100 received at the closing of the operation, destined to reinforce the group's solvency levels.
This decision means reducing its total debt to 2,500 million euros, "the lowest level in the last 15 years," say sources from the distribution group.
The CEO of the Mutua Group and Executive Chairman of SegurCaixa Adeslas, Javier Mira, will chair the two El Corte Inglés Seguros companies, while Ignacio Garralda, Chairman and CEO of the Mutua Group, will represent the company on the Board of Directors of El Corte Inglés, which will be incorporated in June.
