Spanish department store group El Corte Inglés has reached its highest valuation in at least a decade, following the upward revision of the value of its shares carried out by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, who entered the company’s capital in 2015. The Qatari shareholder, who owns 5.53% of the capital of El Corte Inglés, has appraised the value of his stake at 775 million, raising the value of the group as a whole to €14 billion, as reported by Cinco Días.
Primefin, the Luxembourg company owned by Al Thani through which he manages his stake in El Corte Inglés, has increased its valuation of the group by 8.5% year-on-year at the end of 2024. The value that the Qatari sheikh’s company gives to its stake in the company, moreover, has been rising for the third consecutive year, although it has slowed down compared to the previous year: in 2023, Primefin increased the value of its shares by 12.9%, from €632 million to €714 million.
Al Thani entered the capital of El Corte Inglés in 2015 through a €1 billion participating loan, which he later exchanged for 10.33% of the group’s shares. In 2022, the businessman sold for €500 million half of his stake, valuing the company at €9 billion. El Corte Inglés has increased its valuation by 60% since 2021
The company’s rise over the past three years follows the reduction it recorded after the outbreak of the pandemic. In 2020, Primefin decreased the valuation of its shares in El Corte Inglés by 15.3% to €972 million, while in 2021 it did so by another 6.4% to €909 million. At that time, the Qatari sheikh still held more than 10% of the group’s shares, bringing the company’s total valuation to €9,406 million and €8,803 million, respectively.
Since that year, and up to the €14 billion at which El Corte Inglés is currently valued, the figure has already increased by 60%. Al Thani’s capping of the Spanish department store group’s valuation comes at a key moment for its permanence. Ten years ago, with Primefin’s entry into the company’s capital, the company had the ability to unilaterally sell its shares within ten years if El Corte Inglés had not executed any transaction that would allow it to liquidate its investment in the company, such as an IPO.
The deadline arrived in July of this year, and Al Thani opted to maintain his stake, although he will again have options to exit on three more occasions: 2028, 2032 and 2034. As Cinco Días explains, however, the current situation of El Corte Inglés benefits the businessman, as the Spanish group has its lowest debt in the last 17 years, as well as having intensified its dividend policy. The last meeting of El Corte Inglés approved the historic distribution of €225 million, of which €12 million corresponds to Al Thani.
Internally, however, the company’s momentum is somewhat more turbulent, having had six different top executives in the last six years, a period in which Marta Álvarez assumed the presidency of the group. The last change occurred just a few weeks ago, with the departure of Gastón Bottazzini from his position as CEO, who was replaced, in this case as CEO, by Santiago Bau.
El Corte Inglés
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