Madrid, October 31, 2007. - Befesa and funds managed by Qualitas Equity Partners (“Qualitas”) have today signed an agreement to integrate their aluminum waste recycling activities into a single joint company.

The shareholding of this new company will be sixty percent Befesa, who will provide its aluminum waste recycling business companies, and thirty-seven percent of funds managed by Qualitas, who will provide the recently acquired company Aluminio Catalán (Alcasa). The remaining three percent will be held by senior management. The transaction is subject to granting of the corresponding authorization by the Competition Authorities.

Befesa's aluminum business unit billed 228.4 million euro in 2006. It has a 95,000 ton aluminum alloy production capacity and production facilities in Valladolid and Biscay, plus two salt slag recycling facilities in Spain and the United Kingdom with overall treatment capacity of 200,000 tons.

On the other hand, Qualitas will contribute Alcasa, a company that billed 117 million euro in 2006 and which has a 55,000 ton capacity aluminum alloy treatment plant in Barcelona. Moreover, Alcasa owns the company Trinacria, with a plant in Krakow (Poland) that is expected to attain 20,000 ton treatment capacity by 2008.

The resulting company, whose billing will be around the 350 million euro mark, will rank third in the European aluminum waste recycling market and will attain the critical mass required to provide an integral service for its customers throughout Europe and to continue to develop its sustained growth plan.

According to the chairman of Befesa, Javier Molina, "this integration will allow Befesa to consolidate its position as leader in Europe in industrial waste recycling and, at the same time, allows us to get a foot in the door to the promising waste treatment market of Eastern Europe."

According to Eric Halverson, a Partner of Qualitas, "the integration will provide us with the opportunity of participating in a larger-size driving company and, therefore, with greater capacity to grow and serve our customers at Pan-European scale."

Befesa, Abengoa’s environmental services subsidiary, focuses on providing environmental services for the industrial sector and on constructing environmental infrastructures. It is a listed company that closed the 2006 financial year with treasury stock of more than 813 million euro (www.befesa.es).

Qualitas Equity Partners is a venture capital management company whose investment activity focuses on transactions to buy-out companies with sales ranging between 20 and 200 million euro. In the past year, Qualitas has completed several other investments in sustainable sectors: the acquisition of Garnica Plywood Group and several companies in the solar energy sector. Furthermore, its investment portfolio includes companies such as Azuvi, leader in the ceramics sector, Bellsollá, one of the main companies in the frozen bread dough sector, and Forte, a "build up" operation in the prefabricated concrete sector.