The general shareholders meeting of Gas Natural yesterday approved the change of name of the company, baptized Naturgy Energy Group. The group thus relaunches itself at the moment when it wants to take part in the corporate dance taking place in the energy sector. Gas Natural is passing through an historic phase, with drastic changes among its shareholders and leadership and with the design of a strategic plan for 2022. One of the keys to this new road map will be organic growth, in other words the purchase or adquisición of other companies, or even mergers. Other keys in this Strategic Plan will be reducing the size of the decision making bodies and increasing operational efficiency. The ticker (abbreviation by which a company is known in the stock market) will be NTGY rather than GNF.
The details of the new strategic plans will be revealed on Thursday in a presentation to analysts in London. The market is awaiting three basic points in the plan: The envisaged generation of operational cash flow; the rotation of assets; and dividends.
The fund CVC y CF Alba (March family group) last February acquired the 20% of shares in Gas Natural retained by Repsol at 19€/share. These new shareholders are demanding that the management team produce an active programme of asset rotation to crystallize value in the different businesses of the group and at the same time ensure a solid financial position that allows a generous pay out to shareholders through the dividend. The current commitment is to pay a dividend of one euro per share. The Caixa continues to be the largest shareholder with 24%.
