Ignacio Galán

and

Florentino Pérez

, two colossi of the Ibex, collide again a decade after both starred in one of the toughest confrontations in memory between large Spanish listed companies.

Lawsuits and court cases once again fly over the groups that both preside over,

Iberdrola and ACS

, with an ingredient in the middle that makes the battle even more morbid: Commissioner

José Manuel Villarejo.

Iberdrola has filed a lawsuit for unfair competition against ACS, considering that the construction company has carried out "an act of denigration of a competitor to undermine its credit in the market." The electricity company accuses Florentino Pérez of having leaked to the media his intention to file a mega-lawsuit of 2,600 million euros against Iberdrola if the company were to be charged in the 'Villarejo case', something that is currently being analyzed by the Prosecutor's Office and the court training.

Their argument is that the publication of this information, two days before the energy group published its annual results last March, had a reputational and financial impact on the company by provoking numerous questions from investors and a potential discredit in the markets. .

Markets in which, adds the demand, both groups compete for financing.

The claim comes after the

Mercantile Court no.

4 of Madrid

rejected the request for preliminary proceedings filed by Iberdrola to find out if ACS was behind this leak.

The judge considered that this analysis would suppose a means of proof in itself and not a preparatory diligence to formalize the claim, so Iberdrola goes on the attack directly with the claim itself.

ACS has taken just a few hours to reply through a public statement in which it argues that the lawsuit "once again constitutes a diversionary maneuver motivated by the summons to testify in the next few days, as investigated, before the Central Investigating Court No. 6, of Mr. Ignacio Sánchez Galán and other senior executives of Iberdrola based on the new evidence found in the documentation seized by Commissioner Villarejo ".

In other words, the group defends itself by attacking where Iberdrola hurts the most: the reputational impact that the group may suffer from the investigation into its president and which the president of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMC) already warned about last Friday. ,

Rodrigo Buenaventura.

In addition, the construction company recalls that Pérez has already appeared in the 'Tandem case' as affected by the publication of some audios between the director of Security and Villarejo in which they talk about "making the president of Real Madrid disappear" through simulation of an accident.

"It is disgusting," denounces ACS.

It is not the first time that Galán and Florentino Pérez have seen each other in court.

The companies they preside maintained a tough legal battle in the face of ACS's attempted assault on Iberdrola with the purchase of a 20% stake in 2008. The construction company tried to assert its weight in the capital to appoint a director in the electricity company, but the council controlled by Sánchez Galán blocked the operation considering that both groups were direct competition in the field of renewables.

ACS responded with a wave of lawsuits against the electricity company for not being able to exercise the rights acquired through the purchase of shares, which led to a battle that the

Supreme Court

resolved in 2014 in favor of Iberdrola.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Jose Manuel Villarejo

  • Supreme court

  • Madrid

  • Justice

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