So far this year three traded companies (Minor, Alba Corporation and Catalan of the West) have decided to end their journey in the sharing market. The main shareholders of these signatures have launched public acquisition offers (OPAS) to exclude these stock market values. This is the Thai Hotel Group Minor, which leaves the market without a representative in the tourism sector (the old NH Hotels); The March family, which ends several decades of price of its investment firm, Alba Corporation, and the Serra family, founder of Catalan of the West (currently Western), also wants to leave the parquet. The withdrawal of companies from the market, unfortunately, is not compensated with the incorporation of new values that increase the offer of possibilities of diversification for the investor. This tendency to buy the majority shareholders of the percentage of capital that is quoting (Free Float) and its subsequent exclusion of the price has visions to continue, according to experts. And, if quoting daily in the stock market has its advantages in financing, advertising and credibility, it also has its inconvenience. Being outside the daily negotiation simplifies the shareholding structure, avoids costs and regulations associated with it, and allows to restructure the company without market pressures. Juan José Fernández-Figares, Director of IICs management in Link Securities, points to several reasons to explain the march of companies. «If companies are not going to be active in terms of capital resources (financing), I understand that being in the stock market does not compensate, with all that this entails by the scrutiny and demands of regulators and the pressure of investors.» And he adds: «There is also the issue of liquidity, which has dried in Spanish bags, in many cases due to lack of monitoring of smaller companies by analysts – in this way the European directive MIFID 2 has a lot of responsibility -, which makes it complicated to finance you in the parquet at attractive prices.» «It is a pity that many more companies that begin to quote are leaving our stock exchange,» he concludes. The loss of liquidity has been a constant in European stock markets in recent years, and mainly affects medium and small values. Negotiation volumes have fallen strongly in all parks. A lot of European money has gone to US markets to take advantage of the pull of great technological ones. Passive management is also responsible for loss of interest to less capitalized companies. The growth of listed passive management funds that replicate the march of the indices leaves the investment to numerous values that, due to their size, are not part of these indicators. This has caused that the market increases in recent years have concentrated on large titles, while small and medium -sized quotes with important discounts. The lack of business in the bags causes many of these actions to be undervalued. Their prices do not collect the real value of the company and this invites the big owners to get them out of the market. Gonzalo Sánchez, independent manager, points out that since in 2019 the MIFID regulation began has destroyed a lot of analysis throughout Europe, by differentiating what the intermediaries charge for carrying out the sale operation (brokerage) and the analysis. «There are small and medium -sized companies such as Iberpapel or Miquel and Costas that nobody analyzes. They are depressed, forgotten companies. The temptation of the owners is to buy their own company to 70 knowing that it is worth 100. They are buying their own business – which they know perfectly – at very attractive prices. If you quote so far from your value, what better investment than to buy it?» This expert adventure that firms such as Dominion or CIE Automotive could also take the exit door by not reflecting their prices in the stock market. Another of the aspects that push to leave the stock market are the numerous requirements (information, transparency, sustainability) and costs that the quoted must comply with the markets and supervisors and supervisors. Demands that are saved outside the contribution. Large companies have more resources to cover them and in the small ones it can be a relevant expense. Roberto Scholtes, Chief of Strategy of Singular Bank, points to three reasons that explain the march of some companies: “The bags do not recognize the value of companies and owners prefer privileged, oversize the financial and legal department, and hold meetings with analysts.
Partial offers
The drastic decision to withdraw the stock company is usually preceded by partial opas, such as the case of Minor. Last year there were two partial offers. The one carried out on FCC by Mexican owner Carlos Slim, who managed to buy 4.5% of the capital, although he intended to reach 7%, paying 12.5 euros per share. Subsequently, he amortized this capital, which implies increasing its percentage of property, which exceeds 84%, directly through its family business control. This offer was forged when Prosegur's price had reached the minimum in 20 years, of 1.36 euros. The small investor is usually harmed by these offers if the owners take advantage of depressed prices in the action. If they do not agree to go to an exclusion bid because they consider that the price is low, they stay in a singular limbo, in a company where they cannot easily sell the shares. Thus, they are often forced to go to the offer to avoid it. Although investment funds usually disagree with the offers launched by the owners. Before the OPA of the Serra clan on Wester to 50 euros per action, Julián Pascual, president and Variable Income Manager of Buy & Hold, launched a hard message: “The Serra family has acted intelligently by launching an exclusion bid by Grupo Catalan Occidente (GCO), given the clamorous undervaluation of the company in recent years. Although the price is a price of 18%. Absolute historical, we think it is not a fair price.
