The move follows the Spanish government’s investment, widely seen as a counterbalance to Saudi Arabian telco stc’s stake in the company
CaixaBank’s main shareholder, Spanish holding vehicle Criteria, announced it had raised its stake in Telefónica to 5.007% from a previously reported 2.69%. CriteriaCaixa’s Chairman Isidro Fainé will seek to renew as a director of Telefónica at the telco’s next general shareholders’ meeting next Friday on behalf of CriteriaCaixa.
The investment follows the Spanish Government’s holding company SEPI announcing it had bought a 3.044% stake in Telefónica two weeks ago. The government’s holding is part of its plan to acquire a stake of up to 10% to counterbalance the acquisition of a large stake in Telefónica by Saudi Arabia’s stc.
According to Reuters, stc’s holding consists of 4.9% of Telefónica’s shares and financial instruments that give it another 5% in what it called “economic exposure” to the company. stc has still not requested government authorization to exercise the voting rights corresponding to the financial instruments.
Criteria did not say how much it paid, but a 5% stake in Telefónica has a current market value of slightly more than €1.14 billion. Last month CaixaBank reduced its stake in the telco to 2.51% from 3.51% previously.
In a media statement, CriteriaCaixa said the new stake was of a “strategic and long-term nature” and its investment objective was to provide the company with the “greatest shareholder stability” for “an essential company both for the country and for the industry at an international level.” In 2023, CriteriaCaixa received a total of €42 million dividends from Telefónica.
“La Caixa’s” relationship with Telefónica dates to 1987, when the then savings bank invested for the first time in the operator by acquiring 2.5% of its share capital. In 1996, it reached a 5% stake for the first time, which was diluted to 3.6% in 2000 after several capital increases undertaken by Telefónica to finance its international expansion.
In 2004, the stake recovered again above 5%. Although the investment was initially made by ”la Caixa”, in 2007 the stake became part of the perimeter of Criteria CaixaCorp, within the framework of the corporate reorganization prior to its listing on the stock market. In 2011, following the reconversion that led to CaixaBank’s listing, the bank began to hold the historic stake in Telefónica.
For its part, since 2017 CriteriaCaixa has built its own direct position in Telefónica’s share capital through purchases in the stock market. Following the transaction announced today, it now reaches 5.007%.
In all these years, both “la Caixa” first, then CaixaBank and now CriteriaCaixa, have maintained their presence in the governing bodies of the telco. Currently, that representation is held by Isidro Fainé, who is vice-chairman of Telefónica, and who has exceeded 30 years as a proprietary director this year.
Other major shareholders in Telefónica include BBVA and BlackRock.