Mutares informs competition authority of Efacec purchase

The German fund Mutares has informed the Portuguese competition authority of its purchase of the electrical and transport systems company Efacec.

The regulator AdC made the information public on Monday. According to the announcement the AdC received a note on Friday from Mutares that it had purchased the “exclusive control” of Efacec. The State had a 70% control of the company.
On June 23 the Portuguese State and the German asset management company and fund signed a purchase agreement to buy Efacec expecting to close the operation in the third quarter. However, the transaction will depend on some conditions, namely the approval of the AdC and the European competition authority.
The Mutares business plan foresees that current Efacec bondholders (the 30% of the company not owned by the State) will have to accept a 50% write down on the value of the bonds they had acquired in 2019 and worth a total of €58 million.
However, the investors’ association Maxyield believes that the government is creating a new set of prejudiced investors (There was the case of thousands of small investors losing their life savings when they bought Banco Espírito Santo bonds shortly before it collapsed in 2014) who will lose 50% of their investments from buying the bonds.