Last Saturday, in an extraordinary meeting, the board of directors of Telefónica accepted the resignation of Álvarez Pallete – agreed upon the day before at Moncloa – and the appointment of Marc Murtra, who was until then the president of Indra. Murtra had similarly ascended to the presidency of Indra after a government maneuver. Murtra, a man close to the PSC, finds himself with a company whose shares are trading below €4 after losing more than half of its market capitalization during Álvarez Pallete’s management, which has not helped strengthen his position. It also likely did not help that he stopped supporting the business academic project of the president’s wife, Begoña Gómez. This is a matter for which representatives from Telefónica and Indra will have to testify today before the judge.
The Government, through SEPÎ, acquired 10% of Telefónica at the end of the year – after buying shares for over €2.4 billion, under the pretext of safeguarding the “Spanishness” of a strategic company in light of the entry of Saudi STC, which controls 5% with an option on another 5%.
But from safeguarding, they have directly moved to control by replacing their president. Orchestrating the maneuver with the private shareholders who had been making decisions at Telefónica until now, Caixa – with 10% – and BBVA – with 5% – cannot have been difficult. The Government is the second-largest shareholder of Caixa, and BBVA is at the mercy of the Government not torpedoing its takeover bid for Sabadell. Following Álvarez Pallete’s resignation and the support of the dominant shareholders for the new president appointed by Moncloa, the independents have not found compelling reasons to oppose. However, this operation effectively represents a change in control of the company, which, on paper, should entail a takeover bid.