Find out about the main M&A transactions that have taken place in the Spanish water management sector in 2017. We also analyse the buyback of 49% of SmVak, a Czech company specialised in water distribution and treatment, from Mitsui & Co for €92.5M.
Find out about the main M&A transactions that have taken place in the Spanish water management sector in 2017. We also analyse the buyback of 49% of SmVak, a Czech company specialised in water distribution and treatment, from Mitsui & Co for €92.5M.
About SmVak
Severomoravské Vodovody a Kanalizace Ostrava (SmVaK) is one of the leading companies in the water market in the Czech Republic, the largest in the Moravia-Silea region. The company, acquired by FCC in 2006 for €248M (including a net financial debt of €79M), specialises in the production and supply of drinking water and the disposal and treatment of wastewater.
About Aqualia
Aqualia is the water management company of FCCone of Europe's leading citizen services groups. The Spanish company is the third largest private water company in Europe and the seventh largest in the world, according to the latest ranking of the specialised publication Global Water Intelligence (GWI). Aqualia, specialised in the management of Municipal Water Services, offers the market all the solutions to the needs of public and private entities and organisations, in all phases of the integral water cycle and for all uses: human, agricultural or industrial.
Aqualia currently serves 22.5 million users and provides services in 1,100 municipalities in 22 countries: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman. In 2016 it achieved a turnover of €1,010M, with a business portfolio of close to €15,000M.
Aqualia buys SmVak's 49% from Mitsui & Co for €92.5M
FCC Aqualia, an FCC subsidiary specialising in water management, has agreed with Mitsui to buy back 49% of SmVak, a Czech company specialising in water supply and treatment, for €92.5M, thus regaining control of the company's 100%.
The sale of SmVak's 49% to Mitsui for €97M in 2013 was part of a divestment plan that FCC launched at the beginning of that year to reduce its debt, improve its profitability and return to profit. As part of this programme, it also sold, among other assets, its street furniture subsidiary Cemusa, the logistics business and the concessions subsidiary Globalvía, as well as Slim's takeover of the group in which Esther Koplowitz then held a majority stake.
Since then, FCC Aqualia has managed the business with Mitsui as a relevant minority partner. The Spanish company has indicated that the transaction will not have a significant impact on its income statement, as it is the purchase of a minority stake. The effectiveness of the transaction is conditional on obtaining approval from the Czech Republic's competition authorities. Mitsui is making this sale as part of a change in the company's strategy for its European water business.