Skoda Transport Group joins Spanish national financial group CriteriaCaixa as a professional investor in the fight to take over Spanish train manufacturer Talgo, and this is welcomed by the Spanish government, writes The Spanish economic newspaper El Economista.
This is interesting in light of the fact that the MaVag (Hungarian Vagon) group, which is behind the Mol Group and the state-owned Eximbank, had previously made a bid for the high-speed train manufacturer, but the Spanish government did not. Like it from the beginning. The reason behind Spain's opposition is that the Sánchez government does not sympathize with Viktor Orbán and fears that a Russian investor or the Hungarian state itself may be behind the Hungarian takeover intention.
According to the newspaper, Skoda executives visited Madrid at the end of April to hold talks with senior officials at the Ministry of Transport. The meeting ended with the government's approval of the potential entry and the Czech managers' commitment to study with their investors so that they could implement the process. As you remember, Transport Minister Oscar Puente was not very friendly with the Hungarians, he announced that they would do everything in their power to reject the Hungarian offer to establish a Taljo train factory.
Talgo is a leading designer, manufacturer and maintainer of high-speed and intercity trains, operating in Spain, Germany, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kazakhstan. The company's main shareholder is private equity fund Trilantic, which has been wanting to exit the company for some time, looking for a buyer for its stake.
Ganz-Mavag Europe Zrt was supposed to swoop. On this stake, the Hungarian company has two owners, 45 percent to the state investment company, Corvinus Zrt., and 55 percent to Ganz-Mavag Holding Kft., a Magyar company. Vagon Investment Asset Management Zrt is 100 percent owned. Behind Solva II. There is a private equity fund, the main shareholder of which is Csaba Törő. The Solva II private equity fund is managed by the management company Lead Ventures Alapkezelő Zrt., which is 100% owned by Hungarian Mol Vagyonkezelő Kft., which in turn is owned by Mol Nyrt. The total value of the Hungarian offer is 619 million euros (240 billion forints), and the financing will be partly carried out from a 134 billion euro loan from state-owned Eximbank.
We wrote about why the Hungarian consortium wants to buy Talgo and why one of Talgo's major owners wants to divest its shares in this article.
