CriteriaCaixa closes its half-year adjustment with higher profits
The investment holding company of the La Caixa Foundation has received €1.074 billion in dividends from its holdings.
BarcelonaCriteriaCaixa, the investment holding company of the La Caixa Foundation, closed June with one of its busiest half-year transactions in recent memory. On an operational level, with the acquisition of Veolia and the reversal of its foray into Catalan companies. Europastry and Celsa, and in the management field, with the premature departure of Àngel Simón and the arrival of Naturgy's executive chairman, Francisco Reynés, as executive vice president.
During this period, the balance of Spain's main portfolio of business investments has been positive: from January to June it earned €1,361 million, 7% more than a year ago. These profits come mainly from the dividends it receives from the companies in which it participates, among which CaixaBank, as well as Naturgy and Telefónica, stand out in particular.
In fact, from January to June, Criteria received up to €1,074 million from all its holdings, more than half of which from CaixaBank, with €637 million. It also received €155 million from Naturgy and €85 million from Telefónica, as well as €33 million from Colonial, Grupo Financiero Inbursa (€27 million), The Bank of East Asia (€24 million), and ACS (€12 million), in addition to the €101 million from the rest of the portfolio.
The company explained that, beyond the cash generation driven by dividends, it has also monetized the increase in its stake in CaixaBank (amounting to €184 million), generated by the amortization of shares repurchased by the bank on the market, which continued in July, for an additional amount. Also noteworthy was the partial takeover bid executed by Naturgy, through which Criteria received €705 million in cash corresponding to the sale of 2.74 percent of its share capital.
The entrance to Veolia
This investment giant has not only grown in profits, but also in volume: its stake in all these companies has increased in value, with an increase of 5.535 billion euros. This has also been mainly due to CaixaBank (+40.5%), Naturgy (+15.5%), Telefónica (+13.2%), and ACS (+21.7%). Thus, the investment holding company had a net asset value of 32.032 billion euros at the end of June, 27.5% more than in the same period of the previous year.
This semester has also been that of the entrance to the capital of the French company Veolia Environnement, the main shareholder of the Agbar group. Criteria announced in March that it would acquire a 5.01% stake in the company, in a transaction that materialized for €1.046 billion.
On the accounting front, Criteria's gross debt as of June 30th was reduced to €5.22 billion and the net debt ratio stood at 11.1%, below the €5.288 billion and the 13.2% at the close of business on June 4th, 2009. €2.536 billion.
New movements were also announced at its parent company. In June, the La Caixa Foundation presented its strategic plan to 2030, which includes a €4 billion investment plan and aims to increase its social work to €800 million by 2030.