Iberdrola up on merger comments

MADRID (Reuters) - Shares in Spanish power producer Iberdrola rose more than 7 percent on Monday after weekend comments by Repsol YPF's chairman Antonio Brufau on a potential merger between the Basque utility and Gas Natural , in which Repsol has a 30 percent stake. In an interview published on Sunday Brufau told Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia that a merger still made sense after he twice failed to buy Iberdrola when head of Gas Natural. A spokesman for Repsol said the comments did not mean that Repsol is brokering, or has plans to broker, a merger between the two utilities. "We reiterate that there are no talks, or plans to hold talks, of a merger between Iberdrola and Gas Natural," the spokesman said. Both Iberdrola and Gas Natural outperformed on Spain's blue chip IBEX-35 index, with brokers citing the comments as... [read full story]