Unexpected twist at Naturgy. Banker Ignacio Gutiérrez-Orrantia has left the casting to become the next CEO of the gas company. This was reported by the financier this morning in what he has been his home for almost 20 years, the American bank Citi, where he has decided to remain as the head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
He was the favorite of those who sounded for the position. The president of the gas company himself, Francisco Reynes, had sponsored him to assume the role of CEO (or a similar figure) in the energy company. But, finally, and on the same day that the Naturgy Board of Directors meets to discuss the new distribution of powers in the company, Orrantia has communicated internally at Citi its decision to remain in the house in which it heads an area that brings together to more than 2,000 professionals from more than fifty countries, as Bloomberg has advanced and EL MUNDO has been able to confirm from market sources.
It’s not just the size of his position that has tipped Orrantia’s balance toward the business bank. From Citi they would have counter-offered the banker after learning of Naturgy’s interest in signing one of his star financiers. After several weeks in the spotlight of the market, Orrantia has silenced the rumors that already crowned him as the new number two of Reynés.