Efacec for sale

The Portuguese Government has selected five candidates for the second phase in the privatisation of Efacec.

However, only two have made binding offers and given the nature of the offers, the government admits that there could be a third phase of negotiations with DST and Sodécia which could lead to the industrial company being split up.
Efacec provides solutions in the energy and transportation sectors including electric sub-stations, photovoltaic plants and components for electrical energy including transformers, switchgear and transportation systems.
“Both of the offers are bad and would demand State guarantees”, a source close to the reprivatisation of the company which the government considers to be of strategic importance to the country told the online news source Eco.
The Portuguese government was forced to nationalise 71.73% of the capital share that had been in the hands of Angola leaks tycoon Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos.
The deadline to present binding proposals for the reprivatisation of Efacec ended on 19 July and the State-owned umbrella company Parpública only received two — from two Portuguese groups – DST and Sing-Investimentos Globais (linked to the industrial company Sodecia).
None of the other three candidates — the Chint Group Corporation (China), Elsewedy Electric (Egypt) and Iberdrola (Spain) moved forward to the second phase which involved making binding agreements.
The reason why the three companies pulled out was because of the “financial deterioration of the company” and “difficult future growth prospects”.
Efacec closed 2020 with a debt of €184.2 million, an increase of €63.1 million on the previous year.