SPAIN: A Basque consortium has reached a commercial agreement for the acquisition of approximately 29·7% of the share capital of Talgo from largest shareholder Pegaso Transportation International.
The consortium comprises Clerbil, which owns steelmaker Sidenor, as well and financial organisations Finkatze Kapitala Finkatuz, BBK Banking Foundation and Vital Banking Foundation.
Pegaso Transportation International owns 40% of Talgo. Its backers include private equity investor Trilantic Capital Partners, the Oriol family and the Abelló family’s Torreal. The remainder of Talgo is in the hands of numerous smaller investors.
The Clerbil-backed consortium had previously said it did not intend to acquire 30% or more of the share capital of Talgo, as that would trigger a requirement for it to make a takeover offer.
The agreement announced on February 14 has a fixed price of €4·15 per share, plus a variable price of up to €0·85 subject to future performance.
Talgo’s headquarters could be relocated from Madrid to Vitoria-Gasteiz, near the Talgo plant in Ribabellosa which has 700 employees.
There has been speculation about a bid for Talgo for some years, with the company needing additional production capacity and Trilantic looking to divest its stake.
Last year, the Ganz-Mavag Europe consortium of rolling stock manufacturer Magyar Vagon (55%) and Hungarian state investment fund Corvinus (45%) proposed the acquisition of 100% of Talgo. This was vetoed by the Spanish government because of confidential concerns about national security, understood to relate to potential links to Russia.
Possible deals with Czech company Škoda Group and India’s Jupiter Wagons also did not progress.
On February 8 Polish state investment fund PFR, which owns Pesa Bydgoszcz, announced plans to make a public offer for 100% of Talgo, saying this could create a European champion. However, on February 17 PFR said that after further analysis it had decided not to submit a final offer or make any equity investment as a minority shareholder. It remains open to exploring opportunities for collaboration between Talgo and Pesa within the framework of a memorandum of understanding signed at InnoTrans in September 2024.
Talgo’s non-executive Vice-Chairman José María Oriol Fabra has stepped down from the board, as have the directors representing Pegaso, Javier Bañón Treviño and Javier Olascoaga of Trilantic and Pedro Manuel del Corro García-Lomas from Torreal.
