(FILES) Telefonica’s chief government officer Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete speaks throughout a press convention to announce the corporate’s yearly outcomes for 2023 in Madrid on February 22, 2024. Present government chairman of Indra Group holding firm’s Board of Administrators, Marc Murtra, will change Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete as chairman of the most important Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica, the corporate introduced on January 18, 2025. In a board assembly unexpectedly convened on January 18, 2025, shareholders elected Murtra as the brand new chairman, who “has accepted his appointment,” the historic telecommunications group defined in a press release. The corporate is current in 9 Latin American international locations. (Picture by Thomas COEX / AFP)
Madrid, Spain — Spanish telecommunications big Telefonica Saturday mentioned it had changed its president in a shock transfer pushed by strain from main shareholders.
On-line newspaper El Confidencial first reported on Alvarez-Pallete’s probably departure on Saturday morning. Sources near the operation then confirmed it to AFP earlier than the corporate issued an official assertion.
El Pais reported that the SEPI state holding firm, which lately took a 10-percent stake in Telefonica, had pushed for Alvarez-Pallete to get replaced by Murtra, at present head of Spanish tech consulting group Indra.
Spanish media studies say Murtra is near the centre-left authorities of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Alvarez-Pallete, who has headed Telefonica since April 2016, will obtain a 23-million-euro ($23.7 million) severance package deal, El Pais mentioned.
Telefonica, which has operations in 9 Latin American international locations, has been by a turbulent interval since Saudi group STC took a 9.9 p.c stake in September 2023.
That led the Spanish state to re-enter the group’s capital by SEPI to defend its “strategic” function of offering providers to the nation’s armed forces.
Spanish banking group La Caixa additionally raised its stake to 9.9 p.c.
Spain’s UGT union, one of many nation’s largest, expressed its considerations in regards to the administration change. It hoped “that SEPI would make clear the motives and function of the adjustments within the presidency”, it mentioned in a press release.
Telefonica has been going through elevated competitors in its house market following the latest merger of Orange and MasMovil, and the sale of Vodafone Espana to British funding fund Zegona.
Telefonica final 12 months introduced it will be reducing 3,400 of the 16,500 jobs it has in Spain.
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