The Government will watch "with particular attention" before a possible split of Naturgy

MADRID, 11 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Government will watch "with particular attention" against a possible split of Naturgy, since the company is a "particularly important" actor in a context like the current one where "the important thing is to provide security and stability to the Spanish gas system", according to the Third Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera.

At a press conference after the Council of Ministers, Ribera stated that we are currently in "a particularly important and sensitive moment in the field of gas", for which he assured that it is "relevant and important to preserve the behavior and capacity of companies to operate in such circumstances and, to the extent possible, avoid tensions in the markets".

He also recalled that the last corporate operation on the gas company, with the launch of a partial takeover bid in early 2021 by the Australian fund IFM, which ended with its landing in the company's capital with a stake that is currently around 14%, the The government has already set conditions.

"If there were a division, that would mean that this new actor would join two different councils and therefore it would be necessary to monitor whether the conditions set by the Council of Ministers are being met or not," added Ribera.

Last February, Naturgy announced its Gemini project, to create two large listed groups, one that will bring together the regulated assets and the other the liberalized ones, to promote its transformation and leadership in the energy transition.

However, despite the fact that the group initially set a deadline until the end of this year to complete the operation, the current situation has led to greater visibility when making a decision on its execution.

In this sense, the president of Naturgy, Francisco Reynés, considered, last week in a meeting organized by CEOE, that he should now preside over "prudence and have medium and long-term visibility".

"You can't leave port and decide your course without looking at the weather forecast, we have a weather forecast that says a lot of not very nice things, and that's where we are," he said, adding that the Gemini project makes "all the strategic sense, although prudence must preside before the execution".