The purchase this Friday of 9.5% of the aircraft engine manufacturer ITP by Indra has meant the confirmation of an operation that has been circulating for two years through the gossip and offices of the Ibex 35 and that those responsible for the Ibex listed 35 have repeatedly denied it in public.
“It's not on the table”, was the usual tagline used by the company's previous CEO, Ignacio Mataix, when the analysts who followed the company asked him about the existence of the operation, carried out at the behest of the Government to thus create a new defending champion.
Precisely, the reluctance of Indra's previous management to buy ITP was one of the triggers for the departure of Fernando Abril-Martorell from the company and the governance crisis unleashed as a result of this. Now, two years and three months later, the Executive sees its objective fulfilled and the previous appointment of a respected executive such as José Vicente de los Mozos as CEO of the group seems to have calmed the waters in the corporation, which will thus be able to squeeze its good fortune on the stock market. business results and take advantage of the situation in the defense sector to grow on the floor, while increasing the weight of this sector on its balance sheet.
The next step for the company led by De los Mozos is to appoint a director, who would become part of a body in which the rest of the company's national shareholders are also present: the Basque Government (6%), SAPA (5%), %), also a shareholder of Indra, and JB Capital (10%).
The 175 million euros disbursed by Indra to acquire a stake in ITP mean that ITP is valued at almost 2,000 million euros, a much higher figure than the slightly more than 1,600 million (with debt) paid by the Bain investment fund last year. year – and quite close to the 2,300 million euros that Indra itself capitalizes.
During the last two months Bain Capital and Indra had accelerated contacts to close the purchase. Indra intended to acquire up to 15% of the share capital and would have offered 250 million euros for this stake. However, Bain considered this offer insufficient in a new market in the aeronautical sector where the war in Ukraine has multiplied investments in defense and when ITP is leading projects to use new less polluting and more efficient fuels for commercial aircraft.
FUTURE
In addition to taking part of the capital, Indra has also signed an agreement with ITP to act as technological partners in projects such as the Future European Air Combat System (FCAS), where the listed company is the Spanish industrial coordinator of which it is one of the star projects of European defense.
More in the medium term, it is expected that the technology will increase its weight in the engine manufacturer. Like all investment funds, Bain's presence in the capital of ITP will not last forever and, if the circumstances arise, when it leaves, the Government's intention would be for a strategic company like the Basque one to remain in Spanish hands. Indra's opinion was already revealed by its president (and government man), Marc Murtra, at his last shareholders' meeting: “We are an operator with an industrial vocation, we do not make financial investments”. Meanwhile, the company is already working on its strategic plan, which it will present at the beginning of 2024.