Naturgy plummets 12% in the stock market after announcing the split

BarcelonaThe day after it was announced that Naturgy would split into two companies, the company’s share price had plummeted by almost 12%. Energy stocks led by Francisco Reynés closed at 25.01 euros on Friday after falling 11.94% and leading losses among Ibex-35 companies. The fall in the stock market has reduced the company’s market capitalization by almost 3,290 million euros. It is the biggest drop in the company’s stock price since March 2020, with the pandemic confined.

However, from the energy point of view, they have ironed out the situation, assuring that it is still above what it was worth a year ago, and that yesterday’s 25 euros could be the new land of value.

Francisco Reynés has defended the company’s split operation – one for the regulated business and one for the liberalized business – against stock market analysts. He said that splitting the company in two will allow them to be “more competitive” when each is looking for business opportunities with “new growth projects for the future”. In addition, the CEO of Naturgy has defended that the cost of the synergies that will be lost with the creation of the two companies will be “absolutely insignificant”. Energy executives have stressed that the group will maintain its “opportunistic” approach to possible mergers and acquisitions.

Doubts of analysts

Overall, stock market analysts have received the split operation with doubts about whether it will add more value in the future. Credit Suisse notes in a report on the transaction that the current share price is already discounting possible mergers and acquisitions of its key divisions, so “extracting more value will be a challenge”. Bankinter analysts, for their part, consider the transaction good news, despite not seeing “much potential for revaluation”. Banco de Sabadell considers that the creation of value will be “in the medium term” and, in addition, could be asymmetric between the two companies that will emerge from the spin-off of the current Naturgy.

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