The Diplomat
Hours before today’s Shareholders’ Meeting at which Ferrovial may decide to move its headquarters to the Netherlands, the government has redoubled its pressure on the company’s top management in an attempt to prevent this from happening.
Yesterday, the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, insisted that “the reasons put forward” for Ferrovial’s move to the Netherlands – not being able to be listed on the US stock exchange – “do not correspond to the spirit of the legislation”, having, in that sense, “nothing to do with the day-to-day business of what any company located in Spain can do”.
Having studied the legislation “in detail”, said Montero, the Government understands that “there is no reason of the kind put forward by Ferrovial to move its headquarters, and the Shareholders’ Meeting and the company must be aware of this so that, if it has any other reason to move, that is the one that prevails” so that “there is no need to be misled”.
On the possibility that, with its transfer, the company could enjoy the tax advantages of the special merger regime, included in the Corporate Tax, the minister said that “the legislation is clear”. “When there are no economic reasons, there are certain tax elements that cannot be applied to the company”.
Montero explained that “this is what the law says, without this implying, in any case, that it has to be transferred to this specific case because it will be at the appropriate time, when the Tax Agency knows the real and specific situation, which will have to assess whether or not the company’s reasons are those that correspond to the legislation in force”.
In any case, Montero specified that her words do not prejudge the final verdict of the Tax Agency, which, although it is attached to the Ministry of Finance, is theoretically an independent body.
For his part, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, addressing Ferrovial’s chairman, Rafael del Pino, said that the company’s shareholders “have every right to locate their company’s headquarters wherever they wish, but they also have every right to know the truth”. The government considers that the truth is that there are no economic reasons for the move, because it believes that it is legally possible to be listed in the United States from Spain.
While this government offensive was taking place, it became known that the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, Norges, has finally decided to vote in favour of the change, modifying the position it had announced days ago and favouring the del Pino family to achieve its objective.
From the ranks of the PP, its general coordinator, Elías Bendodo, yesterday described as “absolutely scandalous” the Government’s “interventionism and insult” to companies such as Ferrovial and guaranteed that this “will not happen” with an Executive of Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
For her part, the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in statements to Cope, questioned the image that Spain is giving abroad with Ferrovial’s departure to the Netherlands.
“If I saw myself in a situation like that, I would think about why it decided to leave and how, with incentives and in a positive way, to convince it to stay at home, but never treat it like that,” she said, while saying that what is happening with Ferrovial would not happen with an administration like the one she presides over.
She pointed out that when a company is looking for a place to settle, one of the things they find out about is “how things are politically” and said that Spain is “in the hands of a government that if the businessman decides something that does not suit him, he will be crushed alive”.
The president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, said that “pressuring” Ferrovial not to move to the Netherlands “is not the most appropriate way” to get it to stay. According to Garamendi, it is clear that the move can be made and Ferrovial has explained its reasons. “We must have respect for what the company is proposing”.
Ferrovial is holding its Shareholders’ Meeting in Madrid today and will be able to carry out the transfer operation as long as the amount it has to pay to shareholders who exercise their right of separation for opposing the operation does not exceed 500 million euros. “We hope that this will take place calmly,” said Ferrovial’s communications director, Francisco Polo.
