The Spanish government had no hand in moves last week by Italian energy group Enel to buy a stake in Spanish peer Endesa, Spanish Finance Minister Pedro Solbes told Spanish newspaper Expansion in comments reported on Monday.
"According to the information at my disposal the government did not participate in any way in this operation. I learned about it last Tuesday," Solbes told Expansion.
Enel announced on Tuesday that it had snapped up a first tranche of 9.99 percent on the way to a stated ambition of capturing 24.99l, the threshold for launching a take-over bid of its own under Spanish law.
If Enel teams up with Endesa's main shareholder, construction group Acciona, which has 21.03 percent, the group could thwart a bid for the group from German rival E.ON. E.ON has launched a take-over bid worth 41 billion euros (53 billion dollars) for Endesa, which is unpopular with the Spanish government and is opposed by Acciona.
Solbes, former EU monetary affairs commissioner, also told Expansion that "the government's main concern now is, clearly, consumers and competition." He added: "The presence of an excessive concentration of firms would have a negative impact in price terms." Noting the need to protect the interests of minority shareholders, Solbes said: "The government considers that the (Spanish market regulator) CNMV must do its work to protect them and that is what it is doing, giving as much information as possible so each one can decide" on their course of action.
The Spanish government previously favoured a rival, lower bid for Endesa by fellow Spanish utility Gas Natural, expressing support for a national link-up in a "strategic sector." But the government fell foul of EU rules and Brussels dubbed the stance overly protectionist.
Enel, in which the Italian state has a 32 percent stake, said last week its chief executive officer Fulvio Conti had on February 16 met Spanish Industry Minister Joan Clos, but insisted that they had not discussed Endesa.
Clos later said that was an accurate account. But Spanish media see Enel's acquisition of Endesa as part of a southern European bid to torpedo E.ON's ambitions of capturing Spain's top electricity provider.