MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spanish construction group after majority stake in Repsol-YPF

Spain's construction and services group Sacyr Vallehermoso has plans to become the main shareholder of oil company Repsol-YPF, ahead of the Catalonian financial group La Caixa according to Spain's Securities and Exchange Commission, CNMV.

Sacyr Vallehermoso intention of hiking its stake to 20% comes ten days after it acquired 9.24% of the Spanish-Argentine oil company.

The operation involved an average price of ?25.32 per share, with a total investment of ?2.855.6 million.

Repsol YPF is the leading oil industry in Spain and one of the ten biggest private oil companies in the world, with an important presence both direct and indirect in the electricity and gas markets.

At current value, ?25.8 the new operation would involve at least ? 3.4 billion, almost 4.3 billion US dollars.

The announcement comes hours after Spain's National Energy Commission declared that the Sacyr Vallehermoso stake in Repsol-YPF "did not merit an analysis", since it did not involve any regulated industry.

If the construction group manages to achieve its goal it will become the oil company's largest shareholder, ahead of La Caixa which has a 14.1% stake.