Spain Says It’s Analyzing #Saudi Telecom Investment in Telefonica - Bloomberg

Spain Says It’s Analyzing Saudi Telecom Investment in Telefonica - Bloomberg

Spain is analyzing Saudi Telecom Co.’s plan to become Telefonica SA’s largest shareholder, and has legal instruments to protect the country’s strategic interests, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.

“The government is analyzing the investment operation thoroughly,” Sanchez said on Friday at an event in Madrid. “We have the adequate instruments to exercise the necessary controls and we will guarantee that at all times national defense and security, understood in a broad sense, will be safeguarded. And we also guarantee that any foreign investment will not exceed the limits that would involve undue influence over strategic companies, or access to critical technologies.”

Sanchez, making his first public comments since the deal was announced last week, didn’t mention the firms by name and referred to foreign investors taking a stake in a Spanish telecommunications company “of reference.” He also said that interest from large international investors in Spanish companies is “always good news.”

Saudi Telecom plans to take a nearly 10% stake in Telefonica for about $2.25 billion as the struggling Madrid-based carrier prepares to lay out a new strategy for future growth. If approved, the stake purchase would turn Saudi Telecom into Telefonica’s largest shareholder, surpassing Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Blackrock Inc. and CaixaBank SA, which each own less than 5%.