The Abengoa Committees announce an indefinite confinement from Tuesday "until they get a clear answer from SEPI"

SEVILLA, 8 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The chairman of the Abengoa Agua SA works council, Valentín San Emeterio, announced this Wednesday that the Abengoa works councils will start an indefinite lockdown from Tuesday, June 14 "until you have a clear and forceful response from the State Company of Industrial Holdings (SEPI).

This is what San Emeterio has stated in media statements in the framework of the concentration called at the Abengoa headquarters in Palmas Altas (Seville), with the aim that SEPI agree to the request to grant 249 million euros in favor of Abenewco 1, an entity that holds the bulk of the multinational's assets and lines of business.

The president of the works council has underlined that "we are here because we have no answer and we do not know what the reason for the employment is", noting that "we still have a period of 20 days left for SEPI to pronounce itself and give us favorable support to the rescue of the company.

"In January everything was resolved, we are in June and the deadline is over. A deadline that can cause more than 11,000 layoffs and not only direct, but indirect as suppliers or small companies that depend on Abengoa", he specified.

San Emeterio explained that "this is the beginning of a series of mobilizations", specifying that "we have convened two more, one on Tuesday 14 from the San Telmo Palace to the Government Subdelegation", and "that same day we have decided to start a final lockdown.

"The week of June 20 - we have not decided on the day - we are going to travel to Madrid at the gates of the SEPI so that they can listen to our demands and give us a favorable response", he concluded.

For her part, the president of the Abengoa Energy works council, Laura Rodríguez, has indicated that Abengoa currently "has a lot of workload because we have achieved projects together with partners". "We are confident that we are doing it well, and when the market trusts us, it will be for a reason," she added.

Likewise, he has assured that "we want to trust that this is going to come out", but "there is less than a month to go before the deadlines end and we do not have an affirmative answer, we are waiting for someone to answer us". "It is very late and the agony is unbearable," she added.

Rodríguez has highlighted that there are colleagues "who have left for their peace of mind", specifying that "there are families whose entire marriage is in the company and many have left to secure a payroll".

Finally, he stressed that "the option we have is to row in the same direction as the company", since "we want this to be saved". "We will have the opportunity to stand up and defend what we have to defend", she pointed out.

It should be remembered that this comes after, on May 25, Abengoa, whose voluntary bankruptcy is already in the agreement phase, communicated that it had already sent to SEPI "all the documentation and information required to obtain new financing" for a total amount of 249 million euros, charged to the Solvency Support Fund for Strategic Companies.

The requested funds, according to the entity, would be allocated to six subsidiaries of the Abenewco 1 company, where the vast majority of the group's commercial activity is centralized.

In parallel to this operation, Abenewco 1 expects to receive a total of 200 million euros from the US investment fund TerraMar Capital, of which 140 million will be contributed in the form of a loan and 60 million in the form of capital, an amount that will be granted to TerraMar 70 percent of the share capital of Abenewco 1, following the implementation of the conversions of the current convertible debt instruments.

Last April, let us remember, the aforementioned investment fund TerraMar extended its offer to June 15 to inject those 200 million euros into Abengoa, with which in exchange it would acquire 70 percent of Abenewco 1 through an increase in capital.

In this situation, the works councils of Abengoa, which recently held a meeting with Joshua Phillips, director of the US fund TerraMar, point out said communication of delivery of documentation to SEPI in search of the aforementioned 249 million euros, remaining "to at the expense of finally issuing the resolution of the file presented more than a year ago", referring to the request for financial support presented on March 17, 2021 to said state entity.

And it is that in order to "avoid the imminent liquidation of July 1", it is necessary for SEPI to "accept" the financing requested within the aforementioned period.