The Diplomat

Iberdrola’s president, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, stated yesterday that the energy company is “looking” at new opportunities for alliances in which to work hand in hand with Qatar, one of its historical partners and the group’s main shareholder.

Speaking to the press at the inauguration of the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm (France), Galán highlighted the good relations with Qatar, with whom it already has various alliances. “They are our partners in other matters and we are looking to be our partners in other places,” he said.

Iberdrola and Qatar have become strategic allies in recent years. The collaboration between the two was consolidated in 2011, when the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) became the main shareholder of Iberdrola.

Since then, the Spanish company has always grown with Qatar’s support for its business model, investing in renewable energy, smart electricity grids, storage and smart solutions for its customers.

Qatar, which invested in Iberdrola’s capital more than a decade ago with 6% of its capital, has been climbing positions until raising its participation to almost 9% – surpassing in its shareholding firms such as Blackrock (5.3%) or Norges (3.6%).

“I speak with the Qataris every other week. In other words, I have a personal relationship with them, not good, but super good, at all levels,” stressed the president of Iberdrola.
What he did say he was unaware of is Qatar’s possible interest in increasing its participation in the largest Spanish and European electricity company. “In this case, I have no news,” he stressed.

Galán framed the group’s alliances, similar to those sealed with Qatar itself, Norges Bank – to grow in renewables in Spain and Portugal -, with Masdar – to co-invest 15 billion in offshore wind and green hydrogen in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States -, with GIC – for the expansion of transport networks in Brazil for 430 million euros -, with Mapfre or with BP, among others, as a strategy to take advantage of the wide range of investment possibilities in ecological transition.

“At this moment there are more investment possibilities in the world than, let’s say, we could rationally face and that is why we have partners who do it as partners,” he indicated.

In this regard, Galán, who last week pointed out in an internal meeting with group executives that Iberdrola has investment opportunities for more than 100,000 million for the next six years, estimated that only in the United States and the United Kingdom there are opportunities until 2029 for more than 60,000 million euros – some 30,000 million euros in each country – mainly in electricity networks. “We are a network company. We are networks first,” he said.