Summary

After the Tinell Pact that set out the will to “act from the Regional Government of Catalonia to create Catalan operators in the energy sector”, Gas Natural launched a hostile bid to take over Endesa. President Zapatero and Solbes (Minister of Economy), approved the merger despite the unfavourable opinion of the Competition court. The Spanish Courts later suspended that decision by the Government. Alfedro Perez Rubalcaba, Congress socialist spokeperson, explained that “Gas Natural’s takeover bid is half the Statute of Catalonia”. E.On outbid the original offer, but Zapatero rejected it through the “Anti-E.On Decree”, which made the European Commission took Spain before the European Court of Justice. Zapatero toasted with Merkel for a “happy end to E.On’s bid” but his economic adviser and the Minister for Industry were meeting in secret with the top managers of Enel, the Italian state-owned power utility. Zapatero met with Prodi and it was announced that Acciona and Enel now control Endesa without having launched any public bid. Endesa ends up split in two and controlled by the Italian company Enel. The president of the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV, Spanish Securities and exchange commission) is forced to resign and discloses the pressure on the CNMV from the President’s office during the bid and the suspicious personal interests of the deputy president of the CNMV and of Zapatero’s two economic advisers, now facing charges of abuse of power, bribery and influence peddling at the Office of the Public Prosecutor against Corruption. The Financial Times stated that “the Spanish Government is making a fine mess of things”.