Spain’s Duro Felguera’s shares soar as it finds partners to inject cash

MADRID (Reuters) – Shares of beleaguered construction and engineering firm Duro Felguera soared on Tuesday after it said it had found potential industrial partners to inject cash into the company.

Without naming the potential partners, Duro Felguera said in a statement that the group’s management foresaw the entry of new shareholders with a capital increase in the near future, with the process “at a very advanced stage”.

The company’s shares were the top performers on the Madrid stock exchange, jumping 27%.

Duro Felguera secured a 120 million euro emergency loan from the state in early 2021 to help it weather the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the state aid, Duro Felguera posted a net profit of 22.6 million euros in 2021, after a 172 million euro loss in 2020.

The company, which had net debt 82 million euros at the end of 2021, also said it plans to lay off some staff.

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo and Inti Landauro; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)