(BFM Bourse) – After a difficult start to the year, the title of the “Parisian Company for the Electrical Industry” rose following the announcement of a 5% stake taken by the Lac1 fund, managed by Bpifrance.
More punished than the market average since the beginning of the year (nearly 10% decline, while all in all the decline of the CAC 40 is only 2%), the Spie share price has regained some colors Tuesday at the announcement of a stake in Bpifrance, gaining 1.17% to 20.74 euros around 11:40 am. Via the Lac1 fund, the public investment bank now holds 5% of the round table of the multi-technical service provider in the fields of energy and communications. That is a significant block on the scale of Spie, whose capital is extremely open with a free float of more than 86% (given the gradual withdrawal of the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec).
The entry into the capital of Spie corresponds to the fourth investment of the Lac1 fund -which Bpifrance manages on behalf of French and international investors- since its creation at the end of 2020. “The investment in Spie, whose activities are at the heart of the transition energy and the digital transformation of companies and public authorities, is fully in line with the fund’s strategy, consisting of long-term investment in listed French multinationals with strong potential for value creation and attentive to societal issues”, mentions Bpifrance in a press release. The fund will present the appointment of an administrator at the general meeting on May 11.
The heiress of the 1900 “Société Parisienne pour l’Industrie des Chemins de Fer et des Tramways Electriques” (shortened to Société Parisienne pour l’Industrie Electrique after the Second World War, hence its current name) was introduced in Stock market in 2015 by its shareholders at the time, the Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, AXA Private Equity and Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec funds. The funds were released on this occasion while the CDPQ has long maintained a significant block, even strengthening in 2018, before reducing its stake to less than 5% last year.
Stable and long-term shareholder
As a result, the Bpifrance fund becomes Spie’s second largest shareholder, just behind Peugeot Invest (ex-FFP, which joined in 2017) which today stands at 5.3% of the capital, not counting the employees and managers who collectively hold 8.3%.
“We welcome this entry into the capital of the Lac1 fund as a stable and long-term shareholder. The involvement of Bpifrance in the governance of SPIE will be an important asset for the implementation of our growth and creation strategy. value, and we will fully benefit from the multiple skills of its teams,” said CEO Gauthier Louette (who individually owns just over 1.5%).
Bpipfrance considers that Spie’s activity is “driven by dynamic structural trends: the digitization of the economy, energy efficiency, decarbonization (energy renovation of buildings in particular), the development of renewable energies, the deployment of e-mobility or the continued deployment of fiber optic or 5G networks”.
With a view to creating value, the Lac1 fund wishes to “get involved over the long term alongside Spie, in particular to promote the group’s sustainable growth and support [soutenir, NDLR] to fully implement the consolidation strategy it initiated”, through a policy of targeted acquisitions, such as the recent takeover of Worksphere, which raised Spie to the top rank of multi-technical services in the Netherlands with a turnover of more than 1.2 billion euros in this country. Bpifrance was also “convinced by the quality of the company and its management, as well as by its strong commitment to sustainable development, in the all of its activities.
Guillaume Bayre – ©2022 BFM Bourse
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