Madrid, June 29 (.).- OHLA has surprised the market this week by announcing a capital increase for 100 million euros to which its reference shareholders, the Mexican Amodio brothers, will attend, which has aroused the interest of new investors for entering the construction group, which Moody’s has just lowered its rating.
Last Wednesday, at market close, OHLA advanced its plans to increase capital by 100 million through an operation with preferential subscription rights in which Luis and Mauricio Amodio, reference shareholders of the company, have expressly committed to participate with the objective that its 26% in the company is not reduced.
Next extraordinary meeting
Following this announcement, which will be brought to an upcoming extraordinary shareholders meeting, the group suffered a strong punishment on the stock market, dropping -12.45% to 0.33 euros.
On Friday, before the market opening, OHLA announced that it had received two non-binding offers from the Mexican real estate company Coapa Larca of Andrés Holzer and the Atitlan group, led by Roberto Centeno (son-in-law of the president of Mercadona, Juan Roig) and Aritza Rodero , to enter its capital. In neither case would it exceed the 30% that would require launching a takeover bid.
After this information, OHLA shares were the second that rose the most in the entire Spanish stock market during Friday’s session, behind Ercros (BME:), since they appreciated 5.68% and closed at 0.35 euros by title.
However, the group has experienced a stock market decline of almost 25% so far this year, and its market share has also fallen by around 23% in the last twelve months. This percentage soars to 65% if its evolution over the last five years is observed.
Different options
Atitlan proposes to enter the capital by fully subscribing to a capital increase without preferential subscription rights for a value of 75 million. In addition, it proposes another increase, this time with preferential subscription rights, for another 75 million to which it would subscribe in the proportional part that corresponds to it at this time. The validity of this non-binding offer expires on July 5.
For its part, Inmobiliaria Coapa Larca undertakes to secure 25 million in the capital increase announced by OHLA and, in the event that it cannot do so because the current shareholders have already subscribed, it proposes another increase until securing an investment of 25 million of euros.
At the meeting held on Friday, OHLA President Luis Amodio highlighted the great interest in investing in the company and defended the expansion to consolidate the group’s transformation.
For 2024, the group’s priority is to reduce its debt through the sale of non-strategic assets and the announced capital increase.
The execution risks associated with the expansion have been one of the reasons given by the rating agency Moody’s for downgrading OHLA’s rating to Caa1 and worsening its outlook to negative.
There is also a lack of progress in refinancing the outstanding bonds for 412 million, half of which mature in March 2025 and the other half in March 2026. For this reason, he points out that the materialization of the sale of the services business and its 50% stake in Canalejas is key to reducing the debt.
OHLA expects to close 2024 with sales of 3.8 billion euros, an operating result or EBITDA of 145 million and hiring of 4.1 billion.
In 2021, the Amodios became controlling shareholders of the group, which went from being OHL (BME:) to be called OHLA after the departure of the Villar Mir family.
