Well yes, although the philosophy that I follow in the Stock Market is that of buy and holdThe truth is that in order to follow this strategy correctly, it must be borne in mind that it does not mean not to sell under any circumstances but to sell only in very extreme cases.
And with the Endesa case, I think we are facing one of those extreme cases that justify a sale. Let's look at the arguments:
- Endesa became in 2009 under the control of the Italian Enel so she no longer owns her future
- Endesa recently sold its assets in Latin America to Enel. Its presence in these countries was precisely the one that offered the best growth prospects for the future, so all that is lost.
- With the extra income obtained from the sale to Enel, a bonus. As Enel is Endesa's main shareholder, the result of this operation is that Endesa has returned to Enel the money received from the sale of Latin American assets via dividends.
- They have also paid a second extraordinary dividend charged to debt. This is an unprecedented event, to distribute an extra dividend and pay it with DEBT.
- Endesa has affirmed its objective of focus on your business in Spain...
Seeing all these performances for me it is clear the play that Enel has carried out. They have bought Endesa, they have self-sold its most important assets - to separate the wheat from the chaff they call it in my town -, they have returned the money paid via dividends and they have also increased their cash thanks to a debt contracted by Endesa.
And all this adorned with big headlines in the media showing that Endesa was going to pay the highest dividend in the history of Spain. But what they have not counted is that it is a dividend at the cost of their future growth (or even viability) and of going into debt up to their eyebrows.
So with this bleak outlook, I have decided to leave the company. For Fiscal issues I have preferred to wait to collect the dividend and sell once the price has dropped, since if I had sold before the dividend I would have had to go to the cashier and pay for the capital gains achieved.