Digital SEPI will delay government entry into Telefonica

The Minister of Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá, announced during the Mobile World Congress, and at the same time as José María Álvarez-Pallete (Telefonica), one of the star proposals of his ministry and government for the sector. .

The government is set to approve at the Council of Ministers next week the creation of a kind of digital SEPI to invest in strategic companies in the telecommunications and technology sector. This would mean that The state will break into the stake through this investment instrument, for which approximately 20 billion euros will be mobilized.

Escrivá said he would take the initiative to the next Council of Ministers so it could be processed as a matter of urgency. As soon as the executive branch approves the digital transformation proposal, the bureaucratic procedures for the creation of the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT) will begin.

According to the calculations of the ministry itself, only almost in the summer will the state-owned company be able to begin investing in strategic companies that the government of Pedro Sanchez is considering. Thus, and due to the delay in the creation of the company, entry into Telefonica’s share capital will have to be postponed.

The truth is that more than four months have passed since SEPI announced its intention to buy 10% of the operator Telefónica, and the public company has not been able to buy a single share of the listed company Ibex 35. As already mentioned, this newspaper, the executive was looking for a better formula for the acquisition of a stake, the total investment of which would be approximately 2.3 billion euros.

In socialist economic ministries it was proposed to purchase securities by increasing the debt of a public company by General budgets. However, the uncertainty that reigns in the Congress of Deputies due to the instability of agreements between government partners could jeopardize this year’s budgets and prolong the previous year’s budgets. However, the SEPI injection may not be given.

However, this newspaper has already published information that it is more than likely that the state will not finance the operation from the general budget and will do so by increasing the SEPI debt.

Thus, the government is preparing a new company that will have economic resources coming from various sources. The company will house the current State Microelectronics and Semiconductor Society (SEMyS) to kickstart the development of the PERTE chip.

Thus, SETT will combine the aforementioned PERTE, which invests 12 billion dollars in semiconductors, the NextTech fund with 4 billion (2000 of them private) to invest in companies with a high innovation component, or the Audiovisual Hub fund with 1700 million.

Emergency procedure

Entry should take several months. The executive estimates that the new digital SEPI could be operational within three months. Once the royal decree is approved, it must be formalized as a bill. All indications are that it will be urgent if the government or any group requests it. If this were done, the time frame would be cut in half.

Despite the new scenario, the government and SEPI plan to continue working on the same roadmap drawn up and expect to reach 10% in the coming months, although it is possible that this will happen through a new partnership, as Escrivá himself said at a press conference during Mobile World Congress.

A new public company that is about to be launched has had a major impact on the telecommunications sector. At the stands of the leading Spanish operators at the Mobile World Congress, this was a big topic of conversation, and various sources consulted explain that “it is always good news that there is institutional support for technology companies”, although they are mindful that the government must “act” as a neutral player” so as not to “impede the smooth operation of companies.”

UTK and the government in a mobile phone

This Mobile World Congress allowed Telefónica, STC and the government to meet behind the scenes of the technology event. The Saudi operator continues to remain silent and gives no hints about the intentions within the company headed by Alvarez-Pallet. It is worth recalling that it already owns 5% of the authorized capital of the Spanish company, but it has yet to decide whether to increase it to 9.9%.

Meanwhile, high-level activity in the event is “quite normal,” according to sources consulted by the newspaper. In this sense, they assure that “although these are not official conversations,” it is “quite normal” for the parties involved in this type of operation to “hold informal meetings.”