Although with centennial origin in many cases, the current energy map began to be forged in the 90s with privatizations, mergers…which have led to integrated energy groups. And it is that a 1997 was approaching when the liberalization of the electricity sector, forced by the European Union (EU), which demanded more competition. Campsa’s assets in the oil sector were previously distributed in 1992.
One of the first movements was the merger in 1991 of Gas Madrid (Repsol) and Catalana de Gas, founded in 1843 and controlled by La Caixa. The company has been transformed with their respective presidents, Pere Duran Farell, Antoni Brufau, Salvador Gabarró, Isidre Fainé y Francisco Reynésthe current one, which in 2018 was renamed Gas Natural SDG as Naturgy and has directed it towards the decarbonization. Reynés has also designed a plan to divide it into two companies, one for the regulated business; and another for renewable energies and other unregulated businesses, although the current situation has frozen the project. The great leap forward for the company was the absorption of Unión Fenosa, the third-largest power company in the market, in 2009, after failed attempts to acquire Endesa (2005-2007) and Iberdrola (2003). But Naturgy has also been the object of desire, when the Australian fund IFM launched a partial takeover bid last year, which punctured, although it later exceeded 13% with purchases in the market. Criteria, the investee company of La Caixa, has remained firm as the main shareholder.
The year of the Barcelona Games, in 1992, another of the greats of the sector was born: Iberdrola, fruit of the union of Iberduero (1944); and Hidroeléctrica Española (1907), founded by Basque business families. After a failed merger attempt with Endesa in 2001, with Ignacio Sanchez Galan to the front, he turned in the internationalization -the subsidiaries Scottish Power and Iberdrola USA stand out, which have turned it into a multinational- and the renewable until reaching a stock market value that has surpassed that of the textile giant, Inditex. Until 2007, the company had BBVA as a shareholder and fought against an attempt at control by ACS through Unión Fenosa –of which the construction company became the main shareholder–, still in court 18 years later.
Endesa (1944), for its part, began its privatization process in 1988 with Felipe González (PSOE) as President of the Government; and ended in 1998, with José MarÃa Aznar (PP). It took over most of the capital of Viesgo, Fecsa and Sevillana, among others. It also came to control Hidroeléctrica de Catalunya (Hidruña), previously owned by Hidroeléctrica Española; and through Enher it absorbed it in 1998. Thus, the two large electricity companies of Catalan origin, Hidruña and Fecsa, were integrated into its orbit. After the struggle to stop the takeover bid for Gas Natural when Manuel Pizarro was president and trying to get the German EON to take over the company, everything ended with Acciona and the Italian Enel taking control. The Italian public group ended up taking over 100% and in 2014 it launched, placed a part on the stock market and kept 70.1% of the capital.
drivemeanwhile, was born with that brand in 1997 as diverse group, originating from the integration of the old builderscubiertas and MZOV and Entrecanales and Távora. With the landing at the head of the company of the second generation of the family, and Jose Manuel Entrecanales Domecq As president, in addition to infrastructure and water, he opted for renewable energies, until with his subsidiary he became one of the main players in the business, both a promoter of wind farms and a manufacturer of wind turbines.
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Repsol, born in 1987, began to be privatized in 1989 in a process that culminated 8 years later. In 2012, the group overcame the expropriation by Argentina of YPF, which it had bought in 1999 with Alfonso Cortina as president. In 2004 Antoni Brufau took over and from the purchase of the Canadian Talisman Energy they made the great leap to compete today in electricity, with the purchase of the assets of Viesgo (a company bought by the Portuguese EDP in 2020). Sacyr became the first shareholder of the group, in the time before the 2008 crisis in which the construction companies were swimming in liquidity. In 2018, Repsol ceased to be a shareholder of Gas Natural, in whose capital it had been since 1989, and La Caixa ceased to be a reference partner of Repsol.
As regards Cepsa (1929), the company agreed in 1988 to include IPIC, from Abu Dhabi, as a shareholder. Elf-Aquitaine, Total or Banco Santander passed through its capital. Following the integration of IPIC and Mubadala, this sovereign wealth fund, and Carlyle, are the sole shareholders of the company it runs Maarten Wetselaarin charge of leading the green transition of the company.