The shareholders of El Corte Inglésmeeting today in an extraordinary general meeting held in Madrid, the accession of the Mutual Group in the capital of the company. The operation will involve a payout of 1.105 million euros by the Mutua group. Ignacio Garralda, Chairman and CEO of Grupo Mutua, will join the board of directors of The English Court. The Mutua group will, once the necessary administrative authority has been obtained, take an 8% stake in the capital, from treasury shares, for 555 million euros. In addition, it will acquire 50.01% of each of the two companies carrying out the insurance activity of El Corte Inglés: SECI (Life and Accident Insurance) and CESS (Insurance Brokerage Salary), for an amount of 550 million euros.
The agreement provides for the maintenance of the Seguros El Corte Inglés brand, international projection and the creation of new insurance products that adapt to the needs of customers. The agreement reached also implies a commitment to retain 100% employment.
The shareholders of El Corte Inglés have approved the re-election of Víctor del Pozo as CEO and CEO of El Corte Inglés for the next five years, until 2027.
El Corte Inglés has approved a 6% capital reduction through the redemption of treasury shares, which seeks to increase the percentage weight of the historic shareholders of El Corte Inglés. Following the capital reduction operation and the incorporation of the Mutua Group, the shareholders of El Corte Inglés will be as follows: Fundación Ramón Areces, 40.04%; IASA, 18.4%; Cesar Corporation, 9.64%; Mancor portfolio, 8.04%; Mutual Group, 8%; Primefin, 11.07%; and minorities, 4.81%.
The Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting also gave free rein to a change in articles of association to promote the company’s sustainability strategy. In this sense, it has decided to create a sustainability commission headed by Manuel Pizarro, which will also consist of three directors: Cristina Álvarez, Paloma García Peña and Carlota Areces. To this day, this Commission will take over from the Corporate Responsibility Commission (CSR). El Corte Inglés is currently in a process of internal reform of processes that seek to modernize decision-making and adapt it to a final IPO of the group, initially scheduled for 2028.
In line with the improvement of Corporate Governance and to improve the Compliance function, the Board of El Corte Inglés, also held today, incorporated Lara Vilachá, a State Attorney, into its management and who, until joining El Corte Inglés has performed its functions in the public sector. Vilachá participated in coordinating the legal assistance of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and the National Commission of Competition Markets (CNMC), among other entities.
latest measurements
El Corte Inglés has been reorganizing its structures for months, strengthening its subsidiaries and looking for new business channels. In this line, he now announced the transfer of staff to his logistics subsidiary (approximately 3,500 employees) and the creation of a new subsidiary specializing in luxury travel (Utópica), among other measures. El Corte Inglés Advanced Logistics is an example of this diversification strategy aimed at benefiting from the boom in e-commerce and the foreseeable decline in importance of the department store division in the future.
The IPO of El Corte Inglés has always been present in the company’s internal gossip, as much of the compensation to executives has been made through actions in the past and there are many favorable voices for it and the arrival of new shareholders strengthens support. It has always been believed in the company that going public will be profitable for both the workforce and the company in search of cheap financing for omnichannel expansion.
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multiple commissions
The structure of the El Corte Inglés group has been rediscovered in recent months in terms of internal organization, with the creation of commissions and working groups in all divisions. The deadline for going public will fundamentally coincide with the plans presented by the CEO, Víctor del Pozo, although there is pressure to make it even before 2028 to give shareholders liquidity. Del Pozo is an insider, he started working at El Corte Inglés at the age of 18, with experience in various areas of the business and special sensitivity to online sales and digital transformation. What he explains to his directors is that ECI will go public when more than half of the revenue is not directly related to the department store division and the ‘retail’. This is a new El Corte Inglés based on an “ecosystem” of services: logistics, energy, security, tourism …
Reference-www.elperiodico.com