Ignacio Gutiérrez-Orrantia, director of Citi, has rejected Naturgy’s offer to be its CEO and has decided to continue at the financial institution, according to the Bloomberg agency.
The resignation has transpired a few hours after the meeting of the board of directors that was to study his incorporation and a new distribution of executive powers in the management, until today concentrated in the president Francisco Reynés, as requested by the shareholder funds.
Despite Reynés’ recent ratification, the large shareholders had agreed to promote the appointment of a CEO, adapting the command to the most repeated chairman and CEO tandem within the Ibex 35.
Gutiérrez-Orrantia is a director of Citi. It would have contributed a financial profile to Naturgy’s management, it would have been Reynés himself, who has proposed his name since the two maintain very good relations. Gutiérrez-Orrantia is an old acquaintance of both Reynés and the president of Criteria, Isidro Fainé, as he has participated in various corporate and acquisition operations of both Naturgy and Abertis or Cellnex.
The current structure was established in February 2018, when Reynés assumed full power at Naturgy, replacing Chairman Isidro Fainé and CEO Rafael Villaseca.
Funds such as GIP (with 20.6% of the capital) and CVC (20.7%) wanted to incorporate a strongly financial profile into the management to revive the Gemini asset segregation project -one with regulated businesses, stable but with less return, and another with the liberalized ones, with more risk but greater opportunity for profit- or look for a similar alternative. Gemini was announced in February 2022, shortly before the outbreak of the Ukrainian war, and instability in the financial and energy markets postponed it. This dual structure would give the funds the ability to enter or exit specific group businesses.
