The Ferrovial Shareholders’ Meeting approved this Thursday the transfer of its parent company to the Netherlands with the support of 93.3% of the partners.
The operation, which the company announced less than two months ago and which the Spanish government has tried to avoid ever since, thus gains massive support, according to the results reported this afternoon by the company.
The vote was held with a quorum of 77.6%, higher than usual, and after it the period of one month begins for the partners who have voted against the transfer to decide if they exercise their separation rights, that is, if they sell their shares in exchange for compensation of 26 euros per share.
The Chairman of Ferrovial and the group’s largest shareholder, Rafael del Pino, stressed during his speech at the historic shareholders’ meeting that “Spain has always been our country and we have not given it up” with the transfer of the company’s headquarters to the Netherlands.
In addition, he stressed that this operation is part of the freedom of establishment “which nourishes the very essence of the EU”, It is not carried out for tax reasons since the group will continue to contribute tax in Spain as it has been until now.
The group has stressed its growing commitment to internationalization, especially to the US market, where it will debut on the stock market, or Canada, while studying new opportunities in Australia, Europe or Latin America.
What is Ferrovial?
Ferrovial, SA is a multinational company that operates in the transport and mobility infrastructure sector, through four divisions: Highways, Airports, Construction, and Energy and Mobility Infrastructures.
Ferrovial was founded by Rafael del Pino y Moreno in 1952, as a company dedicated to the execution of railway works. In 1954 he achieved his first international work: a railway project in Venezuela, and in 1956 he carried out the renovation of the railway line between Bilbao and Portugalete.
Between the 1960s and 1990s, the company focused on the highway market and also acquired companies in the construction and railway sectors. In 1999 Ferrovial debuted on the stock market.
In 2002 it acquired a 20% stake in Sydney airport, Australia, and in 2006 it bought the British airport operator BAA (British Airports Authority, with which it began to operate seven airports in the United Kingdom: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Southampton
Within the framework of the meeting, the Secretary General of the World Investors Federation, the Belgian Jean-Pierre Paelinck, has accused the Government of “violating the property right” of Ferrovial shareholders with its “interference” in the decision to the company to move its headquarters to the Netherlands.
Along the same lines, the president of the Slovenian association Vzmd, Kristjan Verbic, which represents 5 million minority shareholders, has stressed that the fundamental principles of the EU go through the freedom of establishment and that the decisions of private and listed companies must be taken exclusively by the shareholders and not by politicians or governments.
The Secretary of State for the Economy of Spain, Gonzalo García Andrés, sent a letter on April 10 to the CEO of Ferrovial, Ignacio Madridejos, in which he assures him that the company will be able to list on the New York Stock Exchange without having to move its parent company to the Netherlands.
Three days before the Ferrovial shareholders voted on the transfer, the Executive continues to press for the president, Rafael del Pino, to reverse his decision.
In the letter, to which the newspaper El País has had access, the ‘number two’ of the Ministry of Economic Affairs informs Madridejos that the analyzes carried out by Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), the National Securities Market Commission ( CNMV) and the Ministry itself conclude that it is not necessary to transfer headquarters to list directly on Wall Street.
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