“Given the serious damage that the Spanish government’s decision represents for the legitimate interests” of the consortium, as well as “uncertainty” regarding “the terms of the offer and the costs of maintaining its validity”, Ganz Mavag decided to abandon the bid, the group said in a statement sent to Spanish stock market regulator CNMV.
Spain’s leftist government said Tuesday it had vetoed the takeover offer made in March, which valued Talgo at 619 million euros ($690 million) “for reasons linked to protecting the strategic interests and national security of Spain.”
“Talgo is a strategic enterprise in a sector key to Spain’s economic security, territorial cohesion and industrial development,” the government added in a statement.
The government did not say so specifically in its statement, but it has made clear it is concerned about close links between Hungarian companies and the country’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is considered an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
El País newspaper reported Wednesday that Spanish intelligence services had produced a report raising the alarm about the consortium’s links with Orban’s government, and with Transmashholding, Russia’s largest manufacturer of trains and rail equipment.
Founded in 1942, Talgo is the main supplier of trains to Spanish state railway company Renfe, including Spain’s high-speed AVE trains, and as a result has access to key information about the country’s railway network.
Ganz Mavag, which groups Magyar Vagon and Hungarian state investment fund Corvinus Zrt, said its takeover bid for 100 percent of Talgo’s capital complied “with all the legal requirements in force”, so “there are no well-founded reasons for the Spanish government’s opposition.”
It said it would take legal action in Spain and the European Union to seek compensation over the blocked bid.
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