He warned about it last Tuesday after the Council of Ministers and reaffirmed it again this Monday in an interview with the newspaper Cinco Días. According to the Third Vice President and Minister for the Energy Transition, Teresa Ribera, the Government has all its eyes on Naturgy and is suspicious of any company plan that "could put the transformation of the energy system and gas supply at risk".
If last Tuesday Ribera referred to Naturgy as "a particularly important actor", he reinforced the message. "Naturgy is the most important company to guarantee the supply of natural gas to this country," he insisted. A supply that the Government fears could be compromised with the plan of the company chaired by Francisco Reynés to split its business into two new companies announced on March 15. An operation baptized as the Gemini project that Ribera described as neither "sustainable" nor "convincing".
The minister believes that it would jeopardize the guarantees of a regulated activity and supply under reasonable conditions and prices. She even considers that she may put Naturgy's own financial viability at risk.
In principle, the Government should have nothing to say about the activity of a company with private shareholders. However, due to its strategic nature, the Executive already demanded last year "reinvestment and containment in the distribution of profits" as a condition for approving the entry of the Australian IMF fund into Naturgy's capital.
In this case, the warning regarding the strategic movement of the Spanish gas company is more complicated to understand. The spin-off operation that was scheduled to end at the beginning of 2023 was already paralyzed by the company itself due to the enormous uncertainty that the energy markets are experiencing. Reynés himself confirmed on October 6 that "this is not the time to carry it out", given the instability of the markets. “What cannot be done is to leave the port and decide the course without looking at the weather forecast because it will probably end. We have a weather report that tells us not very pleasant things, what we have to do is reef the mainsail, put a small jib and hold on, ”he explained, pulling on a maritime simile.
More open is the possibility of movements in the shareholders. According to Voz Populi, the French energy company TotalEnergy would be testing the market to acquire a part of Naturgy. The CVC fund, owner of 20%, has confirmed its interest in remaining in Naturgy and denies having had any contact with TotalEnergies. Another fund, GIP, which owns another 20%, has not commented. So the market does not rule out that Ribera is launching a warning to make the French desist. The antiopa shield on strategic companies that the Government approved during the pandemic is in force, for the moment, until 2023.
