Naturgy – formerly Gas Natural – doesn't want any distractions from its management, and in recent years it has had enough. Since the sudden entry of the Australian fund IFM in 2021, when it launched an unsolicited takeover bid for 22.69% of the share capital for €5.06 billion, the rumors surrounding the gas company's shareholders and management have been constant, albeit in the wake of recent moves by one of its main shareholders: GIP, now BlackRock, which at the end of 2025 accelerated the sale of 7% of its capital to the company. The company, facing a "challenging" 2026, has sought to project an image of stability, emphasizing the business and strategy, rather than governance. How? By reorganizing the board of directors and extending the term of its CEO, Francisco Reynés, until 2030—one of the few executives in the Ibex 35 who wields absolute power within his company—the company is "cutting off any distractions at the root," in the words of one company insider.

For several years now, the nuclear shutdown has lost momentum, with a war in Ukraine upsetting the order of priorities, opening the door to extending the life of this energy and leaving behind the widespread commitment to speeding up the energy transition. In this context, the electricity companies, owners of the nuclear power plants, are calling for a rethinking of the roadmap they agreed upon, which provided for a shutdown schedule between 2027 and 2035.

Neither did Europastry. The other investment announced by Àngel Simón—the former CEO of Criteria, the investment arm of the La Caixa Foundation, who was dismissed a few weeks ago—has been definitively rejected by the current team, of which Francisco Reynés, executive chairman of Naturgy, is the first vice president.

The La Caixa Foundation plans to increase its social work budget to €800 million by 2030, up from €655 million in the current year, and invest a total of €4 billion over the next five years, according to the new 2025-2030 strategic plan unveiled today. This roadmap aims to "drive social transformation and respond to the challenges of the coming years" under the motto Believe to transformThe entity will focus its activities on three pillars: social, research and scholarship, and culture. In this new phase, the explicit mandate is for the foundation and its investment arm, Criteria, to act "in a coherent and coordinated manner," even strengthening "shared governance" after a change in management.

A new phase for Criteria, the investment arm of the La Caixa Foundation. The holding company has reviewed some of its latest investments, including the Catalan frozen dough manufacturer Europastry, according to a statement released by the company. The Confidential and sources close to the entity confirmed to ARA. This decision comes in the new era of Criteria with Francisco Reynés as first vice president, who took office a few weeks ago after the departure of Àngel Simón as CEO.

The pieces are falling into place at Criteria, the investment arm of La Caixa. The executive committee of the company's board of directors has appointed José María Méndez as the company's new CEO. Until now, Méndez was deputy to CriteriaCaixa's CEO, Ángel Simón, who was dismissed last week. The new senior official will be responsible for the holding company's operational management.

The major earthquake in management changes has been dominated this week by the news of Ángel Simón's departure as CEO of CriteriaCaixa, one year and four months after his appointment. His replacement at the helm of La Caixa's investment arm will be Naturgy's executive chairman, Francisco Reynés. Beyond this move, former Congress president Meritxell Batet returns to the headlines by joining Ebro Foods, the president of Celsa will also become president of Veolia Spain, and a Mango veteran is leaving. These are the week's key signings.

On April 16, just before the Easter holidays, something unusual occurred at La Caixa, the country's leading business conglomerate. The group chaired by Isidre Fainé is a world of "teamwork, with visible leaders, but without too much obsession with notoriety, and even less so with that related to conflicts," explain sources familiar with the universe of Miró's star.

Francisco Reynés Massanet (Palma, 1963), the new strongman at CriteriaCaixa, the investment arm of La Caixa (with the largest portfolio of business holdings in Spain), has now established himself as one of the most trusted figures of the Foundation's president, Isidre Fainé. The first sign of this rise for the Naturgy CEO came at the beginning of the month, when Reynés became a trustee of the La Caixa Foundation, the owner of the entire universe of the Miró star and the sole shareholder of Criteria.

Ángel Simón has stepped down as CEO of CriteriaCaixa one year and four months after his appointment. His replacement at the helm of La Caixa's investment arm will be Naturgy's executive chairman, Francisco Reynés, according to the La Caixa Foundation, which owns 100% of the investment holding company Criteria. The Board of Trustees of La Caixa, which Reynés joined as a patron at the beginning of the month, has also agreed to fill the vacancy left on the board by Simón with the appointment of Reynés as a director of CriteriaCaixa, with the aim that the company's board of directors will name him executive vice president in the coming weeks. Simón, who was the president of Agbar, was appointed CEO of CriteriaCaixa in January 2024 and was then considered one of the most trusted men of the president, with whom he shared his hometown of Manresa. Simón's appointment was interpreted in some banking circles as a successor and different voices suggested that he could be the main candidate to replace Fainé, president of the La Caixa Foundation, due to his control over CriteriaCaixa's subsidiaries and, through this company, over CaixaBank, the delegate had to lead CriteriaCaixa's strategic plan, presented last year. Currently, the portfolio of investments reaches €30 billion. The strategic plan aims to reach 2030 with gross assets of €40 billion and become one of the leading investment holding companies in Europe. Fainé, president of the foundation and of Criteria, has emphasized on several occasions that the holding company's strong results allow the La Caixa Foundation, which is funded by dividends from Criteria's holding companies, to have its largest budget in its history in 2025, at €655 million.