The Government, through the SEPI, will promote the replacement of the current president of the company José María Álvarez-Pallete. Marc Murtra, president of Indra, is positioned as a new candidate to lead the telecommunications operator.
Agustín Marco, journalist from El Confidencial, has been in charge of advancing the information that has subsequently been confirmed by the main media. The SEPI (State Society of Industrial Participations) has activated the replacement of Pallete as President of Telefónica. We remember that SEPI invested more than 2,000 million euros to buy 10% of the operator after the surprise entry of the Saudi Arabian operator STC into the shareholding. In the coming days an urgent extraordinary council will be held to approve the replacement of the presidency and everything indicates that it will be the Catalan Marc Murtra who will take charge of the company. With this move, the Government will convert Telefónica into a state company just like Indra, which means that there will be important movements within the telecommunications company.
Pallete’s eternal fight to lift the action
Since the arrival of José María Álvarez-Pallete to the presidency, the executive’s main objective has been to raise the price of Telefónica, which has dropped more than 50% since his mandate. Pallete has encountered many obstacles throughout his management, starting with the impossibility of selling O2 to Hutchison for 13 billion in 2016 due to a decision by Brussels. From there, the manager has been dealing with different scenarios such as the depreciation of currencies in Latin America impacting the company’s fundamentals or the questionable management of the German management team that has not achieved its objectives. Telefónica de España has been the division that has brought the most joy to the multinational, which today has a stock market value of 22,000 million euros, a capitalization similar to the entry of STC and SEPI into the operator’s shareholding.
According to El Confidencial, Pallete has been reflecting in recent weeks on his continuity and we must not forget that the Saudis have to appoint a representative on the council, while the death of Javier Echenique, an advisor highly appreciated by the current president, is going to provoke movements among the council positions. The substitute who is aiming for the presidency of Telefónica has been directing Indra for four years, a company that is 28% controlled by the Spanish Government through SEPI and which can be said to be a state company. Marc Murtra is a member of the La Caixa Banking Foundation, another of the operator’s main shareholders and has the approval of the executive to direct the operator.
Expected changes after Pallete’s departure
The presumed departure of the executive will alter the operator’s organizational chart with changes that could be very significant. The first person to leave the company will be Eva Fernández Gómez, Director of communication and brand of the company who is not liked by the Government and who is ideologically at the opposite end of the executive. Francisco Álvarez, Eva’s lieutenant and man in the shadow of Luis Abril, Pallete’s true ideologue and strong man in the media, will also presumably appear. This decision could have important consequences for a multitude of media outlets that rely on institutional advertising that Eva decides practically by hand. We remember that the Government is especially vigilant in the role of the media and the income they receive in its fight against what they call “fake news.”
It is still early to make more pools but what is evident is that the changes in the operator’s shareholders in the last fifteen months and the Government’s desire to control the most important companies in the country have precipitated corporate movements.
