Mutares wins Efacec bid

Portugal’s Council of Ministers will decide today to announce that the German equity group Mutares has won the bid for the reprivatisation of the electrical and transport systems firm Efacec.

Under the terms of the reprivatisation Mutares will have a 71.73% stake in the company while the government will retain the rest.
According to an exclusive story broken by the online newspaper ECO, the Best and Final Offers (BAFO) were delivered by the competing companies by April 11 but over the past two weeks it became effectively a two-horse race between Mutares and another fund Oaktree.
However, the choice of Mutares as the preferred option was evident according in a report from Parpública – the umbrella company that holds Portuguese public companies.
The sale will be dependant on pre-agreed conditions such as a restructuring plan. The end of the competition process puts a full stop to a cycle of failed reprivatisation attempts over the past three years.
The construction and engineering firm DST almost bought the company but pulled out at the 11th hour because of demands by Brussels over State financial incentives.
This time however, the negotiations with the candidates were made at the same time as discussions with Brussels and DGComp. (The EU competition authority)
The restructuring agreement under discussion will revolve around writing off loans from creditors and banks which had bought Efacec securities and the restructuring of parts of the business and labour force.
Mutares will want to reduce the number of employees and requires an agreement to close the deal. It will largely have the upper hand since it knows that the alternative for the company will be to wind it up says ECO.
State financial help for Efacec worth €159 million put an 0.07% dent in the Portugal’s GDP for 2022 according to the Stability Programme 2023-2027.