Brussels, 28/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to include in its formal investigation procedure on the restructuring of public shipyards in Spain all the operations that resulted in the creation of the shipbuilding group, IZAR, in order to fully and correctly assess possible State aid. In this respect, it doubts that the price paid by Izar (Bazan at the time) to acquire several shipyards in Astilleros Españoles (AESA) and its parent company, the Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), had complied with a true market operation.
We recall that the Commission opened a formal investigation procedure on 12 July 2000 on the subject of SEPI's acquisition of two shipyards, Juliana and Cadiz, as well as the factory for the manufacture of Manises engines from AESA, at a reported price of EUR 60 million. The Commission suspected that this amount, which was probably inflated, had been an injection of capital into AESA and hence aid in favour of the company. Any aid of this kind would not be compatible with the common market (see EUROPE of 14 July 2000, p.15). In the meantime, SEPI merged in September 2000 within a new entity all the Spanish shipyards belonging to the State, a merger that consisted of two main operations. During the first, the military shipbuilding group, Bazan, directly acquired from SEPI both civilian shipyards (Juliana and Cadiz), as well as the Manises boat engine plant for the symbolic price of one peseta each. In the context of the second, Bazan (since renamed IZAR) bought up four other civilian shipyards (Astano, Puerta Real, Sestao, and Seville) from AESA, also for one peseta each. The Commission doubts that the price of one peseta paid for each yard as well as for the engine factory was conform to the market price, as the State rules governing operations between public companies provides. It thus suspects IZAR of having benefited from an economic advantage during the move. Furthermore, given that aid in favour of public shipyards is banned, the Commission doubts that the operation is compatible with the rules in force.
The Commission noted that the merger decided by SEPI is closely linked to the procedure begun earlier. All the companies concerned by the operation coming under the investigation under way also took part in the final merger. The Commission further notes that the transactions took place within a time span of a few months and that the price of the companies concerned changed dramatically from one transaction to the other.