The Basque Government is clear that it wants to become a minority partner to ensure the roots of the company in Euskadi. And his winning horse for the control of the trains manufacturer remains, which seeks to get 29.9% of the capital in the hands of the Trilantic fund. The Vitoria Executive would materialize the operation through its Finkatuz Investment Fund, which has resources of 226 million euros and this year plans to make up to four purchases of this type. At this point in the pulse per Talgo it is considered discounted that one of the investments will be related to this company.
But in Finkatuz, and by extension to the Basque Executive, he is being claimed that he is open to a plan B. L, president and shareholder of Talgo, of which his grandfather José Luis Oriol was one of the founders, occurred in full definition of the possible offers by Talgo. Sources knowledgeable about the manufacturer’s situation, with a deficit of production capacity in their plants, explain that from the palace he went to the appointment in Bilbao to ask Pradales that the Basque Executive raised the barriers to the possibility of entering foreign investors, such as the fund State Polish PFR or India Jupiter Wagon, for the industrial good of Talgo. He would also have guaranteed that the Board of Directors will worry that the future owner maintains the activity and employment in the Spanish plants, the Alavesa of Rivabellosa and the Madrid of Las Matas.
Ajuria Enea staged at the highest level its interest in Talgo. Officially, they did not transcend details of the meeting, but the sources consulted comment that Pradales was going to remember Carlos de Palacio that the support of his cabinet at the exit that Trilantic seeks, preferred, by the option of Sidenor, manufacturer of Special steels chaired José Antonio Jainaga.
Finkatuz has, therefore, became a element to court by the two foreign applicants to take the technological capacity of Talgo, also with its contract portfolio, for the manufacture of high -speed trains. The Basque Public Fund already participates in the shareholding of four companies that considers essential for the development of the Euskadi economy. These operate in various sectors: from feeding with Kaiku to aeronautics through ITP Aero, through the steel, with a presence in Arania, and the railway industry itself with participation in CAF. This last group of Beasain (Gipuzkoa) has assured by active and passive that he has no interest in entering a concentration process with Talgo.
According to the model followed so far by Finkatuz, whose management depends on the Basque Institute of Finance (IVF), the intervention of the Government of Vitoria would be rigged to the requirement of a representative in the Board of Directors of Talgo, to monitor that future investments guarantee The employment and industrial base of the company in Euskadi, where it has its main factory. Talgo uses more than 700 workers in Rivabellos.
Movements
The other two industrial groups interested in Talgo, the railway producers Pesa and Jupiter Wagon, of Poland and India, respectively, have not contacted to date with Sidenor to make a common front. At the moment, the Poland government has been the most active in the search for positions through its PFR state fund, which controls it. The Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, had a meeting on January 29 in the Polish capital, Warsaw, with his counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski. . Beyond the issues related to the EU Polish Presidency, the interest of the State Development Fund by the Spanish high -speed trains manufacturer was discussed. Sikosrki said he had sued Albares that PFR’s proposal, with the ability to articulate an OPA for 100%, is taken into account as friendly.
In fact, PFR informed the Spanish media last week, where they work. A strategy in search of the Spanish march that was immediately answered by Sidenor: Jainaga wants to go as the only industrial partner in the alleged acquisition of a Talgo first shareholder package.
Konrad Laskowski (Ministry of Foreign Affairs /EFE)
Another minister, the transport, Óscar Puente, had already taken visit to the businessman at the headquarters of Sidenor in Basauri (Bizkaia). In that meeting on December 4, the recognized support of the central government was clear to the option of the steel.
From Sidenor it has been recognized that part of Jainaga’s interest in Talgo resides in diversifying his steel offer from the car to the railway sector. Some views that could expand in alliance with any of the other suitors of the Spanish manufacturer. The Indian group Jupiter Wagon, which has in this step to consolidate in Europe, is a world reference in rail maintenance and could function as a gateway to India, called to become a leading economy in competition with China, which is Faced with the United States. PFR, on the other hand, has the advantage of having the Polish manufacturer weighs, with wide implementation in Central and East Europe, where important projects are emerging. In addition, to take advantage of these new opportunities.
Sidenor’s warning that he wants to be the only industrial actor in Talgo’s shareholders could well be a maximum position to negotiate equally with both foreign firms, with greater financial capacity than Basque.
The backs are still high. The first Talgo shareholder, the Trilantic Fund with 29.9% of the capital, has requested offers for the middle of this February. On the other hand, the Basque Government does not want more scares in its industrial fabric, after closing this week of the factory of the American multinational Guardian in Laudio-Llodio (Álava), which leaves 171 employees of the center that prepares glass for Construction. From the Vitoria Executive they are already looking for investors who take the relief of Guardian, but prioritize local investors to try to avoid instability that may be associated with foreign capital.
