Thirty listed companies reveal their hidden investors 14/01/2008 00:00

With an investor transparency deadline looming up, around 30 companies quoted on the stock exchange have revealed new names on their list of owners.

14 January 2008

BARCELONA - With an investor transparency deadline looming up, around 30 companies quoted on the stock exchange have revealed new names on their list of owners.

In a move that mirrors policies in other EU countries such as Germany and Britain, a new law establishes that any investor who owns 3 percent or more in a listed company must inform the CNMV, Spain's securities exchange commission. Until now, the percentage was set at 5 percent.

A list of new investors including institutions, banks, investment funds and foreign firms have emerged in the last few days as Wednesday, the deadline for the disclosures, approaches. For instance, Citigroup has revealed that it owns 3.451 percent of the tobacco company Altadis, while Aguas de Barcelona (Agbar) is participated in by France's Crédit Industriel et Commercial, which holds 3.135 percent of the water company. For both Spanish firms, the disclosure comes in the middle of a takeover operation.

Bankinter is another interesting case, where it turns out that savings bank Caja Madrid owns 4.87 percent of the stock, while Société Générale, which until now had downplayed its connection to the financial group, has a 3-percent interest in it.

The real estate sector has also provided a few surprises. Last Friday, it became known that savings bank Caja de Ahorros de Castilla La Mancha has a 3.82-percent stake in the developer Astroc, whose fall on the stock exchange last year forced the resignation of its president and signalled the beginning of a crisis in construction across Spain.

[Copyright EL PAÍS / ARIADNA TRILLAS 2008]

Subject: Spanish news