Eleven months after its debut on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, Ferrovial will fulfill its wish to begin trading in the United States. This Thursday, its shares are expected to begin their journey on the Nasdaq, the technological index that has been chosen to make the leap to the other side of the Atlantic, and which will put the final finishing touch to a Roadmap not exempt from controversy. The objectives of the Del Pino family are clear: increase their international visibility and, above all, give them a face in a market that represents almost 34% of their sales; and, in addition, become – over time – part of those indices (such as the Nasdaq 100) to which international managers and funds are indexed and which would place it within the channel through which most of the money circulates in the world stock markets. .
But Ferrovial is not the only Spanish company willing to also list on Wall Street. Large listed companies on the Ibex 35, especially in the field of infrastructure or energy, would also be evaluating this option, according to financial and legal sources consulted by EL MUNDO. In no case would the option of leaving the Spanish Stock Exchange (for a reputational issue) be being considered, but rather of make a dual listing (or double listing) in both markets or carry out a spin off (or spin-off) of its American business and list it in New York. “It is almost the fiduciary obligation of the directors to ask themselves why they should continue listing here or, at least, explore what advantages or disadvantages listing in other markets would have for their companies,” they point out from a law firm specialized in this type of operations. These consultations would have even reached large international consulting firms based in New York, financial sources point out. And it is taken for granted that listing in the US means doing so, in most sectors, at a higher valuation and that, over time, is reflected in an improvement in the price.
“Ferrovial participates in many concession contests in the US. Being listed in New York is, in the end, a business card that they did not have until now,” says sources familiar with the company’s IPO process, who even understand that When it comes to closing agreements, Ferrovial will also be able to offer “something liquid” such as its shares in the US market and not one as distant as the Spanish one, whose irrelevance in recent years has been increasing, like that of the rest of Europe. in favor of the USA.
Within the infrastructure sector, firms such as ACS, FCC or Sacyr have an important part of their business in the United States. Perhaps the clearest case is that of the company chaired by Florentino Pérez, since it has three subsidiaries in the country, Turner, Flatiron (through Hotchief) and Dragados, in addition to other companies. For the group, North America represents 62% of sales – the US alone represents 56%, with 20,107 million euros in 2023 -; followed by Asia, with 22% and Europe (15%). In January of this year, two of these subsidiaries delivered the last phase of the expansion of Denver Airport, in Colorado, with a budget of 920 million euros. Another example is the construction of the New York City stadium, in New York City, which will have 25,000 seats, for an amount of more than 700 million euros and which reconnects ACS with the royal family of Abu Dhabi, which is It also owns Manchester City and Girona FC in Spain.
For FCC, the waste management business is the most relevant in the country. It accounts for almost 10% of the group’s sales. The firm chaired by Esther Koplowitz is responsible for executing the expansion of the first recycling center in California, with an operating period of 20 years, in addition to various waste collection contracts in Florida.
Sacyr, meanwhile, opens its doors in the US. In January, it closed the contract for the construction and maintenance for 50 years of a section of the I-10 interstate highway in Louisiana, “the largest in the American state in its history and one of the largest tendered in North America in 2023,” the company noted. company The investment amounts to 1,900 million euros.
Within the energy sector the clear reference is Iberdrola, which has a listed subsidiary there such as Avangrid, with a capitalization of 14.2 billion euros, close to 20% of the total valuation of the group chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galón. It should be noted that in the United States there is a special interest in clean energy, where Spanish companies have been winning important contracts in recent years. Acciona Energa has publicly recognized a clear objective to grow there, despite the fact that it has been present since the beginning of the century through its parent company. It operates 1,300 MW of renewable energy and a 64 MW solar plant in the Nevada desert, in addition to highways and other projects. In September of last year, Repsol acquired the company ConnectGen, owned by the Quantum fund, which has a project portfolio of mainly 20,000 MW of terrestrial wind energy.
But there are more examples in the Ibex. Acerinox For a year now, they have been answering the question of whether they plan to go to the US, following in the footsteps of Ferrovial, and the answer is always “no.” Why so much interest? Despite having its headquarters in Campo de Gibraltar, They are the largest stainless steel producer in the US thanks to their factory in Kentucky, which accounts for half of the sales and, after the investment of 1,000 million announced for the coming years, will come to account for more than 65% of the total. Now, its management openly recognizes that listing there would mean for them to do so at much higher multiples, which would even double their listing.
Other company ms americana how spanish she is Fluidra, especially after its merger with Zodiac six years ago. North America represents 42% of sales for the group, followed by southern Europe, with 28%. In total, they reached 2,051 million euros in 2023.
Quote ‘half-way’
About twenty companies are already listed, in a certain sense, on Wall Street, what happens is that they do so through ADRs (American Depositary Receipt, for its acronym in English) which are instruments generally issued by investment banks and that give access to the same rights as those held by the owner of a share in Spain (dividends, voting at meetings, etc.). These are banks such as Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Bankinter, Sabadell or Mapfre, within the financial sectors; Grifols (also very present in the US, its ADR is the most negotiated), Telefónica or Inditex among the big ones; energy companies such as Iberdrola, Redeia, Naturgy and Endesa; concessionaires such as ACS and FCC; Indra, IAG, the aforementioned Acerinox and Ebro Foods, which exceeded 1,000 million in turnover last year in the US.
There are those who consider that listing through these ADRs is like doing it “through the back door”, since, as a general rule, they have a ridiculous negotiation. What will happen to Ferrovial’s ADRs now that its shares will be officially listed on the Nasdaq? The company remembers that they are not instruments issued by them, but that “logic” leads one to think that they will progressively disappear, although, in any case, this is a decision outside the firm’s control.