Whereas his engagement in soccer is more fun than running his construction business, ACS (where he has a 12.5% stake) saw a $1.4 billion loss in the first nine months of 2012. Among the main culprits for that situation are Spain’s financial crisis and the burst of its housing bubble as well as ACS’s 2011 acquisition of German construction firm Hochtief, which obviously made the situation worse. To clear the debt, the company sold a 3.69% stake in Iberdrola and 2,800 kilometers of power lines in Brazil, as well as it announced it would cancel the February 2013 dividend. Throughout 2013, ACS continued to sell 6.4 million treasury shares to further reduce debt.
