FCC approves the IPO of its subsidiary Inmocemento for 1.6 billion euros and with almost no liquidity

FCC, the construction and services group, approved this Thursday the latest movement of the Roadmap that Carlos Slim, its main shareholder, has drawn up with the aim of grouping together all his real estate holdings and making their value appear on the stock market.. The Shareholders’ Meeting of the company, where Slim controls more than 80%, has given green light to the spin-off project of its subsidiary Inmocemento, which intends to begin trading at the end of the year, for a value of 1,596 million euros through a listingthat is, the same shareholders will maintain the current percentage they have in FCC also in their spin off real estate.

The operation consists of splitting two paws of the FCC business and bring them together in the same company: the cement company that comes from Cementos Portland, and where FCC controls 99.028%; and the real estate side in which the company owns 80% and the other 20% is in the hands of Carlos Slim through one of its companies, Soinmob Inmobiliaria Española. Under this umbrella is where it has grouped the purchases it has been making in recent years in Realia and MetrovacesaIn the first, Slim reaches a total stake of 92% after the last acquisition of 15% that he made in March to the Polygon fund and that he articulated through two companies, the first is FCyC, a subsidiary of FCC that is now listed on the stock market and, the second, Finver Inversiones 2020, another of its arms financial in Spain. Also included in the company will be Jezzino Uno, with 100% of the capital; and Metrovacesa, where FCC holds 21.224% indirectly.

The objective of the shareholders, as in everything listingis to maintain its initial stake in the new listed company, which will result in a company with little liquidity and a free float (capital that is freely traded on the market, in the hands of small shareholders or minority stakes) close to 6%-7%. This implies that for each FCC share they own they will receive one Inmocemento share.

Carlos Slim sees value in Spanish real estatethe old brick that has not returned to what it was since the outbreak of the bubble in 2008. With the construction of a new home depressedthe sector is far from recovering, at least, a cruising speed of 100,000 homes per year, still far away. The latest figure is around 87,000. Two years ago the Mexican magnate made his appearance in the capital of Metrovacesa, one of the three listed developers of new coineither. Since then, the market has closely monitored its approach to the company given the possibility that it could do the same as with Realia, but, to date, the banks that own the developer (Santander and BBVA) with the largest land bank in Spain have not They are willing to sell. The reality is that Metrovacesa continues to trade at a discount close to 40% on what its properties are really worth if tomorrow it decided to sell them all at market price, about 2,000 million euros, and Slim’s objective is to bring out the intrinsic value of its real estate properties. Added to this is inflation and the increase in construction prices, not only in materials, but also in salaries, from which Cementos Portland benefits.

For group figures, Listing Inmocemento means spinning off 9.8% of its revenues and 16.15% of the group’s EBITDA. At the end of 2023, the cement company represented 614 million euros of its business and 140 million euros of EBITDA (6.8% and 9.1%, in each case). For its part, the real estate company generated 254 million in income that translated into 105 million in gross profit, 3% and 7%, respectively.

The meeting also approved the appointment of Esther Alcocer Koplowitz, president of the company, as proprietary director of the company for a period of four years, who until now was represented on the board through her company Dominum Desga. And has given light The company also has a flexible dividend – because it can be paid in shares or cash – of 283.5 million euros, which is equivalent to 0.65 euros gross per share, 30% more than the 0.5 euros that the company paid last year. This implies a return for its shareholders of 4.6%, taking into account that it is listed at around 14 euros.