The board of directors of Telefónica met this morning to address for the first time the landing of Saudi Telecom in the company's shareholding through the purchase of 9.9% of the capital. The operation, which makes the Saudi group the first shareholder, has not yet been notified to the Government, which will foreseeably impose conditions on the new investor.
According to the sources consulted, the president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez-Pallete, reported the details of the investment and the directors expressed their concerns, related to aspects such as the permanence of the Saudi fund, the discretion with which it purchased the shares. and his possible interest in joining the council. Telefónica sources do not report the content of the meeting.
From Saudi Telecom the message is that at the moment there is no intention to enter the council. However, the Saudi telecommunications group plans to ask the Government for permission to exercise its political rights over the entire stake, acquired for 2.1 billion euros. The Saudi group, controlled by the sovereign fund Public Investment Fund, has 5% of Telefónica directly and another 4.9% in Morgan Stanley derivatives parked pending government permission.
Spanish legislation allows taking up to 5% in a group associated with Defense such as Telefónica and raising the participation to 9.9% with the condition of not exercising political rights, unless the Government gives authorization.
The ordinary Telefónica board meeting was the first since Saudi Telecom announced on September 5 an investment built on small share purchases since February. He did it behind the back of Telefónica, which was informed the same day of the arrival of the new investor. The Government also knew it at that time.
Álvarez-Pallete has had the opportunity to meet twice since then with the senior managers of Saudi Telecom. The first was on the trip he made to Riyadh with the CEO, Ángel Vilá, as soon as he learned about the investment. The second was these days, at a meeting of the GSMA business association, in which Telefónica and Saudi Telecom share a seat.
The Government, which has two months to make a decision from the moment Saudi Telecom notifies the purchase, will set conditions to limit the outflow of dividends and avoid the sale of assets, according to Bloomberg.
CaixaBank and BBVA, with 4.8% each, have separate directors in Telefónica. They are Isidro Fainé and José María Abril.
