Economic daily newspaper Expansion reported that Spain’s ACS will acquire a 30% stake in the building division of China’s Citic group in the next few days.

Expansion, citing unnamed sources close to the deal, said a delegation from Citic will visit ACS’ headquarters in Madrid in the next few days to formalize the terms of the agreement, including the purchase of the stake. No financial details of the acquisition have been revealed.

The paper said the main objective of the collaboration accord is to give ACS and China Citic the combined strength to bid for important contracts in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

At ACS’ AGM in May, Mr Florentino Perez chairman announced plans to buy the stake in the Chinese company Citic Construction as part of a wide ranging collaboration agreement reached between the two groups over a year ago. Mr Perez said that “It is very difficult to conceive of a future without China.”

The newspaper said in 2007, over 90%of Citic Construction’s revenues came from overseas, including many non-OECD countries such as Iran, Uganda and Vietnam. It said this business will provide a strong complement for ACS’ European Union and eastern European business focus. ACS owns about 30% of German building group Hochtief.