Grupo Agbar


Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona, SA. is a Spanish company specialized in the distribution and treatment of water.

History

The company was founded in 1867 in Liège as Compagnie des Eaux de Barcelone by an investor from France and Spain.
In 1979, Ricard Fornesa was named President of Agbar.
A joint acquisition bid by Suez and Criteria CaixaCorp, concluded in January 2008, resulted in the two companies controlling around 90% of Agbar's shares. Suez and Criteria have stated that they do not intend to delist Agbar from the Madrid Stock Exchange, instead gradually increasing the free float percentage of the company's shares from ten to thirty percent with two years. Ángel Simón became executive President of the company. In July 2015, Suez bought the 24,14% that La Caixa held in Agbar.
In September 2005, the Grupo Agbar inaugurated its new headquarters, the Torre Agbar in Barcelona designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel. In 2013, the group sold the Torre Agbar to the high-end hotel chain Hyatt for an amount estimated around 150 million euros. In January 2017, Merlin Entertainments acquired the tower.
In July 2013, the Grupo Agbar completed the acquisition of 78% of its domestic competitor Companyia d'Aigües de Sabadell for 24 million euros.
In October 2017, the headquarters of the company were moved from the Torre Agbar in Barcelona to the Torre de Cristal in Madrid following the political turmoil in Catalonia. In July 2019, Suez was considering selling the Grupo Agbar back to the consortium Caixa-Criteria.

Activities

The group is present in North America, South America, Asia and Europe. The headquarters are in Madrid and the chairman is Àngel Simon.
Agbar is constituted by more than 230 companies and with more than 140 years of history. Agbar is specialized in the services of health, certification, construction and communications networks.