Endesa to Sell Enersis Shares to Parent Enel, Pay Dividend

By Ilan Brat

MADRID--Italy's Enel SpA (ENEL.MI) said Thursday that it will acquire a majority stake in its Spanish division's Latin American unit.

Enel said it expects to execute the transaction--involving Enel's acquisition of a 61% share in Enersis SA (ENERSIS.SN), which is the Spanish division's Chile-based business in Latin America--in the fourth quarter of 2014. Once complete, Enel said it will pay shareholders of the publicly traded Spanish division an extraordinary dividend based on independent experts' opinions of the "fair value" of the Enersis business.

Enersis' market capitalization was about 12.4 billion euros ($16.6 billion) Wednesday, making the 61% stake worth about EUR7.6 billion.

But an Enel spokeswoman said the fair value won't necessarily be based only on the market capitalization.

Enel said it wants to enact the change in order to simplify its corporate structure and align it with the company's objectives. To that end, Enel said it will design a new business strategy for the Spanish division, Endesa SA (ELE.MC), to take advantage of the Iberian Peninsula's improving economy.

Write to Ilan Brat at [e-mail]

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