Spain Inc is back in fashion. Italy’s Atlantia SpA on Monday announced a 16.34 billion euro (US$18.03 billion) bid for Abertis Infraestructuras SA that would create the world’s biggest toll-road operator, a deal that might be the largest takeover of a Spanish company in 10 years.
The offer is a sign of the growing attractiveness of the country’s assets as the economy, ravaged during the financial crisis, continues to heal.
The volume of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving Spanish targets has increased 57 percent to about US$63 billion in the last 12 months, according to Bloomberg data.
If successful, Atlantia’s bid to buy Abertis would be the biggest since 2007 when Italy’s Enel SpA along with Spanish infrastructure firm Acciona SA bought power company Endesa SA in a landmark deal before the economy lapsed into a five-year slump at the end of 2008.
Atlantia’s offer is “a vote of confidence in Spain and shows how the country’s companies are now becoming anchored in the global economy,” said Mauro Guillen, a management and international relations professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
Interest from foreign investors has grown as the Spanish economy continues a recovery that has now extended for 14 consecutive quarters.
The election of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the pro-business People’s Party to a second term in office last year has also helped seal a period of political stability for the country.
The increasing confidence in Spain last year paved the way for three significant deals. Europe’s biggest publicly traded healthcare provider Fresenius SE agreed to buy Spanish hospital group IDC Salud Holding SLU, also known as Quironsalud, for 5.76 billion euros.
Canada’s Global Infrastructure Partners bought a 20 percent stake in Spain’s gas supplier Gas Natural SDG SA for 3.8 billion euros, and Europe’s largest engineering company Siemens AG and Gamesa Corp Tecnologica SA agreed to combine their wind-turbine manufacturing businesses.
That compares with previous years when some of Spain’s biggest publicly traded companies bought businesses abroad to reduce exposure to their home markets. In 2014 alone, Spanish companies spent US$22 billion buying assets outside the country, mainly adding businesses in the Americas, Bloomberg data showed.
However, there might be clouds on the Spanish horizon.
As the leader of a minority government, Rajoy might struggle to achieve much more in terms of economic reforms. The opposition Socialist Workers’ Party, whose goodwill on key legislation Rajoy needs to ensure the nation’s parliament does not become gridlocked, are also embarking on a leadership contest with party primaries due on Sunday.
A win for former Socialist Workers’ Party leader Pedro Sanchez, a fierce critic of corruption scandals swirling around the People’s Party, would lead the Socialists into more open conflict with Rajoy and his government.
For now, Spain’s economic recovery is on course and set to attract more foreign investment as the government expects the economy to average 2.5 percent growth over the next four years.
“The combination of growth and value means Spain will stay in an investment sweet spot,” Madrid-based asset management firm Tressis Gestion chief investment officer Daniel Lacalle said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six