Iberdrola will face ACS at court over the latter''s application to be accepted onto the Board of the Basque electricity firm. The trail date was scheduled for January 18th in Bilbao following a preliminary hearing held on Thursday at the Palace of Justice in which the implicated parties were unable to reach an accord.

Thursday''s preliminary hearing between Iberdrola and ACS was convened following a lawsuit brought by the construction firm over certain decisions reached at the last Iberdrola shareholders'' meeting. The directorate agreed on measures which would prevent ACS becoming a Board member despite them being a major shareholder, owning 12.6% of the Basque firm''s overall capital.

ACS appealed against two decisions reached by the Board of Iberdrola on March 26th this year. One refers to the decision to remove José María Loizaga, the Director appointed by ACS to Iberdrola, while the other concerns the decision to cut the number of Board members at Ignacio Sánchez Galán''s firm to fourteen.

Iberdrola, who allege that ACS is "a direct competitor" have also presented a separate appeal. At a court in Madrid, the Basque firm contested the construction company''s 2009 accounts believing that they "violate current regulations". In this case, a trial has been set for November 16th.

As well as appealing to the courts for the right to be accepted onto the Board of Iberdrola, ACS still intends to increase its share in the electrical firm to 20%. Via one of two ways, ACS will be able to establish its investment in the Basque firm as part of its company accounts, where up until now it has only been able to record the dividend.

National vote

Spain voted on April 6th on whether to ban caps on shareholder voting, some weeks after Iberdrola shareholder ACS was denied a board seat at the Basque utility.

Currently companies in Spain are allowed to restrict shareholder voting rights, but the ruling Socialist Party in February proposed making companies give shareholders voting rights equal to their holdings.

Proposed by the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the vote was delayed in March. The nationalists called it the "Florentino amendment" in reference to ACS chairman Florentino Perez, who is seeking a board seat for the builder''s 12% stake in Iberdrola.