Spain’s government has acquired a three-percent stake in telecoms giant Telefonica following concerns over a Saudi firm taking a piece of a company that Madrid considers strategically important.
Spanish state-owned holding company SEPI said in a filing with the stock market regulator late Monday that the move was “in line with a cabinet decision in December” to acquire 10 percent of Telefonica’s share capital.
At the time, the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it was to safeguard the firm’s “strategic capacities and essential importance” to Spain.