The departure of Iberdrola from Mexico is monopolizing the headlines, since it was leaked that Barclays was advising the Spanish with the sale of 15 power plants. The news surprised many, even the employees themselves, the rumors of corridor dictated that the hiring of Katya Somohano as CEO of Mexico, was a strategy to facilitate the sale of the remaining central to the CFE, because said executive served as general director some years ago and could thus soften the process, however, everything took a turn when Cox announced that he had made a binding offer for the acquisition Unofficial sources, calculated at 47 billion dollars.
They followed speculation in the media that other giants such as Action and Enel were also interested in offering also. All this remained silent when last Thursday, July 31 Iberdrola published an official announcement in which he made known that he had signed a SPA (Sale and Purchase Agreement) with COX for the transaction, confirming the intention of sale of assets valued at 4170 million dollars. The truth is that this agreement is not new, at least not for Cox and Iberdrola, who have an understanding since February of this year. Just this Thursday, it was formalized, however, it is old news for these two.
Many in the sector feel surprised, not only because of the speed at which information evolved, but also for secrecy, but, above all, by the buyer. Before 2020, Cox was a ghost, it is as if it did not exist, it had no contracts and no activity, much less energy active. It is very good source that before 2020, bankers looked for to be advised for a stock market and many bankers rejected them with a “impossible” response, “it has no value”, however, with no more than a Business Plan, they got a banker who was arranged and in July 2020 they were listed in the new Biva Stock Exchange (https://www.biva.mx/). The capital they managed to lift in this issuance was 25 million dollars, less than they expected, and according to several sources, the majority of the capital was through Friends and Family. For energy 25 million dollars it is the same as anything, it does not work for much, so for five years they fought to invest in Mexico, without being lucky, to date they still do not have their own energy or asset supply contracts, but something did well and very good.
They sought opportunities in other countries, and according to their annual report, although in Mexico they do not have representative income, in 2024, they had sales of 702 million euros and a net profit of 59 million euros, the question here is: how can it be possible that a company without income between the stock exchange? And how is it possible that five years later I can achieve a purchase of more than 4000 million dollars?
It was not luck, the answer is, they did it through public relations and much optimism. Enrique Riquelme, CEO of Cox was associated with old acquaintances of the Mexican energy sector, the Spaniards of the Abengoa Group. This company has a history in Mexico.
Grupo Abengoa in November 2015 had a debt close to 27 356 million euros, and was expelled from Ibex 35 days later. Finally, he declared insolvent in February 2021 and led them to the disappearance worldwide.
In 2023 Cox Abg was formed and was listed in the Stock Exchange of Spain forging this new Cox alliance and some of the former members of Abengoa. With the purchase of Iberdrola assets, they let us see that there is still appetite for the Mexican market. In this transaction it is pending to know the destiny of the approximately 500 employees of Iberdrola Mexico, the logical thing may be that Cox not only acquires the assets, also the complete template, which includes all the operational employees and executives of Iberdrola, since Cox in Mexico has only a couple of employees, so the most logical play would be to keep the entire team that today works for Iberdrola.
It seems to me a feat worthy of studying the evolution they have had.
*The author is CEO Eon Energy
