Magyar Vagon accuses government and Skoda of market manipulation by proposing merger with Talgo
Hungarian consortium Ganz-MaVag, which in April submitted a bid to take over 100% of Talgo publicly in exchange for 619 million euros, has filed a complaint with the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) accusing the government and Skoda of manipulating the market when it became known about the Czech group’s proposal to merge its business with the Spanish train maker.
The Hungarian conglomerate, made up of railway company Magyar Vagon (55%) and the Hungarian state through its Corvinus fund (45%), has sent a letter to the Spanish stock market regulator in which demand protection of your proposal in the face of what he considers “a possible operation on Talgo aimed at avoiding speculation about competitive bids provided for by the Takeover Law,” as El Confidencial reported this Friday.
In his letter, the Hungarian bidder states that “events may have occurred that constituted market manipulationTalgo acknowledged to the market on Tuesday that it had received a statement of intent from the Czech Skoda group to carry out a “business combination and industrial integration.”
Skoda’s intentions were interpreted by Magyar Vagon as Government attempt to stop investment in Spainafter Transport Minister Oscar Puente admitted his opposition to the Orban government’s entry into the Spanish company, which he and other members of the executive branch quickly labeled “strategic”.
Czech group’s proposal It does not include an industrial or financial plan and does not contain any takeover bids for the company.. In an urgent call after receiving it, Talgo’s board of directors asked Skoda to provide more details about its offer, in particular asking whether it would be prepared to make a counter-offer at a price higher than the 5 euros per share offered by Ganz-MaVag. .
The interest of the company, based in Pilsen, Czech Republic, was announced after a three-month period to evaluate the offer. period that would be extended until August 10 after the Foreign Investment Council, the body that evaluates these transactions and is dependent on the Ministry of Economy, requested additional information from Ganz-MaVag to learn more about its plans for the manufacturer headquartered in Madrid and the Basque Country.
In the absence of news of investment approval, the Hungarian consortium decided to inform the regulator of their “concern and helplessness” They believe that if the opportunity arose, Operation Skoda could have been carried out. outside the current regulatory frameworkwhich, in his opinion, would amount to “distorting the direct investment approval rule in Spain” by using it “as an arbitrary instrument against the offeror”.
At the same time, he calls on the CNMV to act against what he considers to be a violation of shareholder rightswhich “would have meant depriving them of their voluntary cash offer at a premium of 41% over Talgo’s weighted average price”, which would have meant “direct economic harm to shareholders”.