Hochtief, the German subsidiary of ACS, closes the loan of 15 billion for the purchase of Abertis

Hochtief, the German subsidiary of ACS, has closed the syndicated loan for 15 billion euros to finance the public procurement offer on Abertis, in one of the largest corporate loans that a Spanish group manages to finance an operation. In the syndicated loan have participated a total of 17 lenders between national and international banks, with an oversubscription of more than 65%, and has been closed "at very competitive prices," said the German company in a statement. The loan will be destined to pay the part of the OPA that will be paid in cash, about 80% of the transaction, valued in a total of 18.6 billion euros. The remaining 20% is proposed by an exchange of shares, for which Hochtief will expand capital for 3.67 billion euros. "We are very pleased with the firm commitment of the banks;" This clearly underlines absolute support for the proposal for a procurement, said ACS CEO and president of Hochtief, Marcelino Fernandez Verdes. Participating banks among the financing banks are the French Société Générale, Natixis and Crédit Agricole; The German Commerzbank; The British HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays; The Japanese Sumitono and Mizuho; The Canadian RBC and the Spaniards BBVA, Bankia and Sabadell, reported in sources close to the operation. The financing mechanism had been signed by JP Morgan prior to the announcement of the offer for Abertis. In the operation they have participated as Placers JP Morgan, Commerzbank, HSBC, Mizuho Bank and Société Générale. ACS, through Hochtief, offers 18.76 euros for each abertis action. In the case of the exchange, it proposes to give 0.1281 titles of this new emission for each action of the group that directs Francisco Reynés, although it is limited to a maximum of that 20% of the capital of the company of motorways and satellites. The takeover bid launched by the ACS subsidiary on Abertis competes with that of the Italian Atlanticia, valued at more than 16.2 billion euros, which has already been approved by the Council of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) on October 10th.