State-owned China Three Gorges in US$10.8 billion bid for Portugal’s biggest company EDP
If the deal goes through it will be the latest in a series of acquisitions by Chinese firms in the country since its 2010-13 debt crisis
China’s state-owned utility China Three Gorges on Friday launched a bid to take control of Portugal’s biggest company EDP, offering a premium of just below 5 per cent on the power firm’s closing stock price.
The total value of the proposed deal is €9.07 billion (US$10.83 billion), excluding a 23 per cent stake already owned by CTG, the Chinese firm and largest EDP shareholder said in a statement issued late on Friday in Lisbon.
Reports that EDP may be an acquisition target of European foreign companies have been circulating for over a year, during which CTG continued to raise its stake, culminating in the €3.26 a share offer.
CTG said in its preliminary offer announcement that it wanted to reach at least a 50 per cent voting stake plus one share in the company. It also offered €7.33 a share for EDP’s wind power unit, EDP Renovaveis, below its closing price of €7.84.
EDP had no immediate comment. The online edition of the Expresso newspaper said earlier that EDP was likely to consider the offer hostile.