MADRID, 7 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has not yet planned any meeting with the Saudi Arabian delegation that will attend the G20 summit this weekend in New Delhi to ask for explanations regarding the purchase by the Saudi STC of a 9.9% stake in Telefónica.

This has been reported by government sources, which have confirmed that Moncloa was notified last night of the acquisition, the amount of which amounts to 2,100 million euros. In the Government they maintain that since the events have occurred in the last hours, no bilateral agreement with the Saudi representation has been considered -predictably the crown prince Mohamed bin Salman- although they have not ruled out that some greeting may take place during the course from the summit

On the other hand, the sources have indicated that the Government is going to study the operation in detail in accordance with the powers attributed to it by the Foreign Investment Law and the modifications introduced by the recent 'antiopas' shield.

By virtue of the royal decree approved last July with which said shield is imposed, the Executive has to give permission to non-EU investors who intend to acquire more than 10% of a listed strategic company.

However, this threshold is lowered to 5% in the case of companies with interests in the field of national defense, an assumption in which government sources have recognized that Telefónica could enter.

Authorization requests will be addressed to the person in charge of the General Directorate of Armaments and Material of the Ministry of Defense and its resolution will correspond to the Council of Ministers at the proposal of the person in charge of the Ministry of Defense and following a report from the Board of Foreign Investments. The maximum term to resolve the request and notify the interested party of the resolution will be three months.