Spain, Poland: Last week, Piotr Malepszak, Poland’s Infrastructure Vice Minister, has expressed interest in acquiring the Spanish producer. At a meeting of the Senate Infrastructure Committee, he has stated that they are focusing on the deal that has attracted their attention.
The country car builders, Pesa, Newag, and FPS, lack expertise to construct high-speed trains, while Poland needs from 100 to 200 trains capable of operating at 250 km/h for a project developed by Centralny Port Komunikacyjny.
Meanwhile, the Czech company, Škoda Group, has made Talgo’s board an offer of “business combination and industrial merger”, as reported some Spanish media outlets with sources close to the negotiations. If the deal is finalised, Talgo’s shareholders will exchange their shares for Škoda’s. It was earlier reported that the investment foundation CriteriaCaixa plans to engage the Czech manufacturer as a potential manufacturing partner.
The Spanish producer has been on the market since last year. There was only one offer received from Ganz-MaVag together with the Hungarian state foundation to support foreign investments Corvinus. This offer was approved by the Spanish National Securities Market Commission, CNMV. The current shareholders, Trilantic and Torreal, have expressed satisfaction with the offer, but the Spanish government has yet to approve the deal. At the same time, the Hungarian company has accused the government and Škoda Group of market manipulation.
