By Ilan Brat
MADRID--Italy's Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) said Thursday that it will
acquire a majority stake in its Spanish division's Latin American
unit.
Enel said it expects to execute the transaction--involving
Enel's acquisition of a 61% share in Enersis SA (ENERSIS.SN), which
is the Spanish division's Chile-based business in Latin America--in
the fourth quarter of 2014. Once complete, Enel said it will pay
shareholders of the publicly traded Spanish division an
extraordinary dividend based on independent experts' opinions of
the "fair value" of the Enersis business.
Enersis' market capitalization was about 12.4 billion euros
($16.6 billion) Wednesday, making the 61% stake worth about EUR7.6
billion.
But an Enel spokeswoman said the fair value won't necessarily be
based only on the market capitalization.
Enel said it wants to enact the change in order to simplify its
corporate structure and align it with the company's objectives. To
that end, Enel said it will design a new business strategy for the
Spanish division, Endesa SA (ELE.MC), to take advantage of the
Iberian Peninsula's improving economy.
Write to Ilan Brat at ilan.brat@wsj.com
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