No change at Endesa and no plans to sell

ITALIAN energy company Enel, which owns 70 per cent of Endesa, rejected out of hand rumours that it was planning to sell the Spanish company.

It had no intention of divesting itself of its Endesa stake “neither now nor in the future”, Enel said in response to a report in the Spanish daily, El Confidencial.

On the contrary, it viewed Endesa as “key” to Enel’s future strategy and a company statement dismissed the reports as “totally unfounded” on July 5, putting an end to speculation that any kind of operation was afoot.

The unprecedented profits of the Spanish electricity company in 2022, which allowed Enel to pocket a historic dividend of almost €1.1 billion in 2023, made this even more unlikely, insiders said.

A day earlier, El Confidencial maintained that the president of Repsol, Antonio Brufau, and Endesa’s former chief executive Borja Prado had met to analyse the possibility of merging both groups, given the likelihood of the PP’s Alberto Nuñez Feijoo winning the July 23 general election.

“There has been no meeting, neither between Enel and Repsol executives, nor with Borja Prado,” the statement declared.
The Italian state is Enel’s largest shareholder, with almost 24 per cent of its capital, and in April, Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni installed Flavio Cattaneo as chief executive, taking the place of Francesco Starace.

During Endesa’s annual meeting, also in April, Cattaneo, who is also its non-executive chairman, said he did not foresee “any changes” to its top management.

Enel’s 70 per cent stake in Endesa, which is Spain’s largest electricity provider, has a market value of nearly €15 billion euros  and its sale would “significantly reduce Enel’s net debt,” analysts at Italian brokerage firm Equita pointed out in a recent report. However, it added that the Italian group’s current asset disposal strategy of possible future sales, did not include Enel’s stake in Endesa.