Ángel Escribano plans to resign as Indra's chairman

Madrid180-degree turn at Indra. After defending his permanence as president, Ángel Escribano is considering resigning this Wednesday afternoon, as reported by Expansión and confirmed by sources familiar with the process to el ARA. The decision would be conveyed at an extraordinary board of directors meeting to be held this same afternoon at 5 p.m., as this media outlet has learned. The company, for the moment, is not commenting. When the decision became known to the media, Indra began to fall on the stock market. At 2:30 p.m. the stock was plummeting by more than 6%, although at 3 p.m. it rebounded again and the fall remained at 3.3%.

Just last week, Escribano's name hung by a thread after tension with the Spanish government, Indra's main shareholder through SEPI with 28% of the share capital, over the integration –currently on hold– between Indra and the Escribano group, also dedicated to defense. This company is not only a shareholder of Indra with 14.3% of the share capital, but Ángel Escribano is the founder.

Despite the political dispute, at last Wednesday's board of directors meeting, not even a plan B for Escribano was discussed, according to sources familiar with the process told el ARA. The company's highest power conclave has also not questioned the continuity of the CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos, whose mandate ends this June.

The operation had placed Indra's top executive in the spotlight, with the idea –never officially confirmed– of a forced dismissal precisely by SEPI, the Spanish government's investment arm, having loomed over him.

Two weeks ago, SEPI acknowledged through the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) its concern about a possible conflict of interest surrounding this operation. In fact, it even anticipated a blocking of the business integration if this conflict was not "resolved," although it did not go into detail about what the solution should be. The media spotlight, however, quickly pointed to the departure of Ángel Escribano. SEPI sources reaffirmed a few days ago that they support an inorganic growth operation, in line with Indra's strategic plan, but that the conflict of interest must be "resolved" first.