After the sale of Efacec to DST of Braga was frustrated, the government is looking for “new possibilities for a solution” for the 71.73% stake it nationalized in 2020. Keeping the company in the sphere of the State is not part of the plans. , but ways need to be found to make this possible. And while the company’s problems are “clearly financial, they won’t be solved with capital injection alone,” assures a source familiar with the process.
Moreover, the same source assures, Efacec’s problem is not new. “The situation has greatly deteriorated due to the shareholder deadlock problem, because of Isabel dos Santos, but Efacec’s problem comes from behind. The company has had a lot of good things in this period, but it also has a lot of problems managing different solutions that have taken place,” he states, emphasizing that the government is seeking “a lasting solution”.
And how is this achieved? “It is necessary to find a professional management solution from Efacec in the business areas in which the company is likely to be viable and this requires finding solutions of a different nature. Financially, of course, but not only financially,” said a government source, without move on to more details.
Since DST was already the only one to formalize a binding proposal to purchase Efacec, in a process in which several were interested – in addition to DST, the only Portuguese selected by the government to present binding proposals in May 2021 it had been Sing , Sodecia’s holding company; there was also the Chinese Chint Group, the Spanish Iberdrola and the Egyptians Elsewedy Electric -, the situation is not easy to solve now, but the Executive guarantees: “We have not lost hope of finding a solution”.
It should be recalled that last Friday the government officially accepted that it was not possible to reach the end of the process of selling the public stake in the company, reporting through a joint communiqué of the Ministries of Economy and Finance that the re-privatization had no effect because “not all the necessary conditions for the sale agreement were met”. The government “continues to work with all parties involved, including those interested in acquiring the company, on a solution that will make Efacec’s industrial activity viable and safeguard the public interest,” the statement said.
DST also noted, in a short note to the editors, citing the same reasons for the operation’s failure and highlighting the “efforts of all parties involved” who were “barely committed to completing” the operation.
Source: DN
