Già che ci siamo e che stiamo parlando di Repsol fra le oil & gas companies, ed abbiamo parlato dell'aumento di capitale in Gas Natural per consentire a quest'ultima di comprare Union Fenosa, una Reuters che esamina taluni aspetti dell'operazione, mirata a costituire la terza utility spagnola per capitalizzazione dietro ad Iberdrola e ad Endesa.
Gas Natural down over 6 pct on rights issue news
Wed Feb 4, 2009 3:27pm GMT
MADRID, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Gas Natural's (
GAS.MC) shares were down more than 6 percent on Wednesday as investors factored in the group's plans to offer shareholders 223.8 million shares at an implied 2 euro discount to current prices.
The one-for-two rights issue, which aims to raise 3.5 billion euros for Gas Natural's 16.7 billion euro ($21.8 billion) bid for power company Union Fenosa (
UNF.MC), also led investors to calculate the dilution to earnings from the new shares.
"Although Gas Natural's dividend for July 1 seems safeguarded from dilution by the group's promise of a special dividend, the 224 million new shares will dilute earnings and dividends in the future," a Madrid-based trader said.
Gas Natural said it would pay a special dividend to make up for dilution if the 223.8 million shares on the block were issued before its July 1 dividend payment this year.
The 3.5 billion euros Gas Natural intends to raise from the operation implies an issue price for the new shares of 15.6 euros a share, against Gas Natural's price of about 17.6 euros.
Concerns investors might not take up the offer, leaving the new shares to overhang the market, were allayed by core shareholders Repsol (
REP.MC) and savings bank La Caixa's Criteria (
CRIT.MC), which are underwriting the share issue.
Repsol holds voting rights equivalent to a stake of about 31 percent in Gas Natural, while Criteria holds about 37 percent, data from Spain's stockmarket regulator CNMV showed.
Nevertheless, confirmation of the rights issue led French brokerage Ca Cheuvreux to clip its target price for the gas company by 4 percent to 22.7 euros a share and reiterate its "underperform" rating on the stock.
Cheuvreux's target price reflects execution risks for Gas Natural's planned acquisition of Union Fenosa and an estimated 19 percent dilution of the gas group's 2009 earnings per share.
Meanwhile, the Madrid-based trader said: "We are estimating about 17 percent EPS dilution for 2009."
The acquisition of Fenosa is awaiting approval by competition authority CNC before Feb. 24, industry sources said.
Gas Natural expects the deal, which will create Spain's third-largest power utility by market cap, to be completed in March or April.
With Repsol and Criteria underwriting the rights issue, shareholder approval for the new shares at Gas Natural's EGM on Mar. 10 is guaranteed.
By 1440 GMT, Gas Natural was down 6.5 percent to 7.40, while the Ibex
.IBEX leading share index lost 0.04 percent to 8,368.0. (Reporting by Jonathan Gleave; Editing by Andrew Macdonald)
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