State signs Efacec sale contract

The contract of sale for 71.73% of electrical and transport systems company Efacec to DST was signed on Friday.

The sale which had been agreed in December means the majority shareholding will now pass to the Braga-based engineering and construction company.
“Parpública (the State-owned holding that controls public companies in Portugal) informs that in the reprivatisation process a share of 71.73% of the capital of Efacec – Power Solutions went ahead today with the signing of the Agreement of Direct Sale with DST. This now begins a phase to firm up the prior conditions for concluding the re-privatisation process”, states a communiqué from Parpública.
“The conclusion of the reprivatisation of Efacec was approved at a Council of Ministers meeting on 24 February 2022. However, since this was a straightforward operation, with a reduction in share capital and later capital injections, the State will still maintain a 25% share in the company”, said the Secretary of State for Finances, João Nuno Mendes at a press conference that day.
Now that the sale contract has been signed, a period of restructuring of share capital will begin which may result “in a share of up to 25% in Efacec resulting from capitalisation by Parpública”. This means Efacec will begin to reduce capital and the State will increase it by €60 million with quasi-capital financial instruments.
Following this, the new shareholder will add €81 million of capital. There will also be a refinancing line from the development bank which would enable the company’s debt to be refinanced by €100 million over 25 years at an interest rate of 1.25% convertible in voteless preferential shares.
In 2021, Efacec suffered a consolidated loss of €183.9 million, a management operation loss of €40 million, and a net debt of €193 million.