Cox, a Spanish company, prepares a multi-billion dollar investment plan focusing on Mexico

Nacho Moreno, CEO of Spanish energy company Cox, said that the new strategic plan will be focused on Mexico where Cox plans to invest more than $10 billion by 2030 in renewable energy and water.

Moreno stated that this figure includes Cox's acquisition of Iberdrola assets in the country for $4.2 billion, a deal which was "transformative" and allowed Cox already to reach the targets set by the company for 2028.

The new plan will be unveiled on September 25, according to the schedule.

Iberdrola's deal included 15 power stations with a combined capacity of 2.6 gigawatts and an pipeline of 11.8 GW of renewable projects.

Moreno stated that Cox would develop at least 2 or 3 gigawatts of power from this pipeline and had already identified six projects for desalination, which will require an investment around $1.5 billion.

He said that the demand for water and power in Mexico is only increasing. We are in a great position to capture both with this acquisition.

Moreno anticipates synergies with Cox's operations in water and energy and its unit that offers services such as engineering, operating and managing facilities and infrastructure. He said that the services unit will, for instance, handle the engineering for new capacity.

Cox anticipates that the acquisition will double its revenue forecast for this year, to approximately 2.7 billion euro ($3.15 billion), and triple earnings before taxes, depreciation, and amortization to 720 millions euros.

Operating cash flow is expected to increase from 100 million euros to 450 millions euros.

Moreno stated that "when you generate $500,000,000 of cash flow you are clearly in another league."

Cox will own a new corporation that will carry out the acquisition. 75% will be funded by debt, and the remainder with equity.

Moreno, refusing to identify the investors, said that Cox would inject capital into the equity along with two foreign investors who will receive preferred securities.

He said that Cox had secured the support of Citigroup, Bank of America Santander Barclays BBVA and BBVA for the debt.

(source: Reuters)