Criteria ratifies its support for Reynés as head of Naturgy

sanzida963

Investment arm of La Caixa and first shareholder of Naturgy, today publicly expressed its support for the president of the energy group, Francisco Reynés. “Criteria reaffirms its confidence in the company's management team led by its president Francisco Reynés and will support its proposals aimed at being able to face the company's important challenges in the coming years,” the holding company that it presides, Isidro, said in a statement. short statement. Fainé. Criteria's statement comes one day before the board of directors meeting, in which the appointment of a CEO, or similar executive figure, will be discussed. A function that Reynés has exercised for five years along with that of president. Criteria supports the creation of the new executive position, although it wanted to make it clear that this does not reduce Reynés' power in the company.

The idea that is on the table is to appoint Citi director Ignacio Gutiérrez-Orrantia as Reynés' number two and with the distribution of executive functions between the two. Reynés was the one who proposed the Job Function Email Database appointment of Orrantia, a person also very well regarded by Fainé. The incorporation of a CEO has been a repeated request from the shareholder funds to strengthen the financial profile of the management team as a prior step to the reactivation of the Geminis project or another similar one. The Gemini project was announced in early 2022, shortly before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, which forced it to be put in a drawer due to the destabilization of the energy and financial markets. Faced with this situation, the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has openly declared herself against the project, which has contributed to her paralysis.



Gemini plans to segregate regulated assets, safe but less profitable, from liberalized ones, with more risk but with more possibilities of profitability. In this way, shareholders would be given the option to optimize their investment by focusing on one business or another. Naturgy has been insisting in recent months that Gemini is parked, but not forgotten. And now the stabilization of the markets and the expectation of a change of government fuel the possibilities that it will start. Ignacio Gutiérrez-Orrantia would provide precisely the financial profile necessary to launch a project like Geminis. The large shareholders agree on this, led by Criteria (26.7% of the capital), followed by the GIP funds (20.6%), CVC (20.7%) and IFM (14%). Gutiérrez-Orrantia is currently co-head of banking, capital markets and advisory for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Citi.