Gijón (EFE).- Duro Felguera is confident that the capital increase process linked to the entry into the company of the Mexican partners Prodi and Mota-Engil will be completed in October.
In a press conference after the general meeting of shareholders held this Tuesday in Gijón, the president of Duro Felguera, Rosa Aza, stressed that she has the “centered hope” that the necessary authorizations for the first phase of the process, which is the materialization of the loan of 90 million from Prodi and Mota-Engil, occurs in July.
“Once the loan is in the cash register”, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) may be asked for the exemption from the takeover bid, therefore, if August is discounted, October would be set as the time horizon “to complete the capital increase process.
The engineering and capital goods group held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on April 13 in which it was approved, with the support of 98 percent of the present capital, the entry into its shareholding as industrial partners of the Mexican companies Prodi and Mota-Engil, through the contribution of 90 million euros to take over a maximum of 55 percent of the company.
Opening to new markets
Aza has highlighted that “work is being done” on the creation and opening of engineering to new markets and, in this sense, the CEO of the company, Jaime Argüelles, has revealed that collaboration agreements are already being signed with companies from the Mexican investors Prodi and Mota-Engil in fields such as energy and fertilizers”, in Mexico, and in Africa in the energy segment, some of them already in “pre-engineering” phases.
The president has insisted that the presence of industrial investors in the Asturian firm already “provides synergies”, although she has qualified that for a company like Duro Felguera to lose reputation “is easy and to recover it is complicated”, something that she considers that the company is achieving, as reflected by the increase in recruitment, has pointed out.
Aza has also assessed that the firm’s list of pending litigation “is now much shorter”, although he recalled that its activity “always entails a certain amount of litigation”.
Approved the remuneration of directors
During the ordinary general meeting of shareholders, all the points on the agenda were approved, which included the remuneration policy of the board for the three-year period 2024, 2025 and 2026, the approval of the annual accounts and the management report of the company, the management of the board of directors corresponding to last year and the proposal for the application of the result of the financial year 2022.
Last year Duro Felguera registered a net profit of 5.4 million euros, which represented a cut of 76.2 percent compared to the previous year, when it was subject to a temporary public rescue of 120 million euros by the Fund Support for the Solvency of Strategic Companies of the State Company for Industrial Participations (SEPI).
The Spanish multinational raised sales by 45.7 percent, up to 123.1 million euros, while the gross operating result or EBITDA showed a profit of 4.6 million, compared to the red numbers of 9.1 million for the previous exercise. EFE