02:08 GMT 18th July 2011
It will not get a seat on the Gas Natural board. Gas Natural added it would expand its capital by issuing 38.18 million new shares at €13.4806 per share.
Sonatrach, which has a monopoly on Algerian energy exports and is Spain's biggest natural gas supplier, took Gas Natural to an international arbitration court to demand the Spanish firm pay higher prices for natural gas imports. Gas Natural contested the claim and challenged a court ruling which ordered it to pay up to 2bn euros in retroactive gas price increases. Last month, Sonatrach and Gas Natural said they had settled the long-running dispute with a deal whereby the Spanish firm would pay the Algerian company $1.897bn and allow it to acquire a minority stake.
Sonatrach had originally said it would not acquire more than 3 per cent in Gas Natural. The Spanish group said in June the final payment was in line with a revision of prices between 2007 and May 2011 and would have no impact on earnings.
The agreement was well received by analysts as Gas Natural had predicted a greater payout. 'In the end, Gas Natural is paying less for a longer duration of backpayments, that's 36 percent lower than the scenario we were looking at originally,' Intermoney analyst Alvaro Navarro said.
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