The Government studies applying the IFM doctrine to the entry of STC Group into Telefónica

The Government would be studying applying a doctrine similar to the approval with conditions of the IFM takeover bid for 22.69% of Naturgy's capital in 2021 to the entry of the Saudi group STC Group into Telefónica, according to Bloomberg..

Last Monday, the first vice president, Nadia Calviño, assured that the situation was being studied, but that the official notification from the Arab telecommunications operator, backed by the country's sovereign fund, had not yet reached the Ministry of Defense.

In the case of the aforementioned takeover bid, the Executive forced IFM to guarantee that it would not support a delisting from the stock market in three years, except under very specific conditions linked to the lack of negotiation of the value.. At the same time, it ensured that the Australian fund could not promote divestments of the group's strategic business subsidiaries in Spain, nor position itself against the company's green investment plan to increase in exchange for increasing the dividend, which should remain at around “prudent” levels. In addition, he also had to bet on maintaining his job.

In order to extrapolate this decision to Telefónica, it should be noted that the authorization of the Saudi group does not follow the channels of the anti-takeover shield, since the company was (voluntarily) 0.1% of the capital away from activating it when it acquired 9 .9% of shares. On the other hand, this operation must be analyzed by the Ministry of Defense, taking into account strategic issues and possible threats to the sovereignty raised by the operation.. The operation must also be analyzed through the prism of the new anti-takeover decree, approved last July, which lowered the requirements of the previous one.