Sonatrach will take the stake by fully subscribing to a capital hike worth 514.7 million euros ($728.9 million) in the Spanish utility. It will not get a seat on the Gas Natural board.
Gas Natural added it would expand its capital by issuing 38.18 million new shares at 13.4806 euros per share.
Sonatrach, which has a monopoly on Algerian energy exports and is Spain’s biggest natural gas supplier, took Gas Natural to an international arbitration court to demand the Spanish firm pay higher prices for natural gas imports.
Gas Natural contested the claim and challenged a court ruling which ordered it to pay up to 2 billion euros in retroactive gas price increases.
On Tuesday, Sonatrach and Gas Natural said they had settled the long-running dispute with a deal whereby the Spanish firm would pay the Algerian company $1.897 billion and allow it to acquire a minority stake.
Sonatrach had originally said it would not acquire more than three percent in Gas Natural.
The Spanish group said on Tuesday the final payment was in line with a revision of prices between 2007 and May 2011 and would have no impact on earnings.
The agreement was well received by analysts as Gas Natural had predicted a greater payout.
“In the end, Gas Natural is paying less for a longer duration of backpayments, that’s 36 percent lower than the scenario we were looking at originally,” Intermoney analyst Alvaro Navarro said on Wednesday.
