Spain Regulator Won't Revoke Atlantia Bid Authorization

Spain's market regulator said Monday that it wouldn't revoke its earlier authorization of Atlantia SpA's (ATL.MI) takeover bid for Abertis Infraestructuras SA (ABE.MC), despite a request from two Spanish government ministries to do so.

The regulator, CNMV, said it considered that the offer meets all the requirements set forth in the Royal Decree 1066/2007 on takeover bids.

The Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda and the Ministry of Public Works issued a formal request in December for the regulator to annul or revoke its authorization of the 16.3 billion euro ($19.60 billion) bid, which it approved in October.

The ministries said in the request that Atlantia was legally obliged to submit its bid for government approval and that the CNMV shouldn't have approved the deal without their prior consent.

Atlantia said in its response that it didn't consider government approval to be necessary under Spanish law, but said it would make a direct request to the ministries out of respect for Spain's institutions and to avoid slowing down the bidding process.

Write to Nathan Allen at nathan.allen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2018 13:07 ET (18:07 GMT)