Indra Group CEO José Vicente de los Mozos defended the advantages of his company's integration with Escribano Mechanical and Engineering (EM&E) at the Forum Europa in Brussels on Thursday and guaranteed "maximum transparency" in response to the possible conflict of interest arising from the fact that its chairman, Ángel Escribano, is co-owner of the military manufacturer.
During his speech at this informative meeting organised in the EU capital by New Economy Forum, De los Mozos was asked about the progress of the merger with Escribano, one day after it was reported that Indra's minority shareholders had asked the CNMV to investigate the operation due to this hypothetical conflict of interest.
The CEO expressed his conviction that the operation will go ahead with the endorsement of the ad hoc committee created by the Board of Directors to analyse this conflict of interest. "If our chairman were not Escribano, but 'Ruiz Pérez', the agreement would have been reached long ago", he added. "I laugh when the press writes about whether it will be agreed in the next consensus or the one after that. I don't care about the timing, but rather the governance of the company".
In his opinion, the merger between Indra and Escribano is timely because they have a "highly complementary" portfolio, the former as a technology company and the latter with an industrial DNA, and together they can better help transform the defence industry, as they are already demonstrating with their joint projects currently underway.
The CEO praised the management of Indra's current team and what has been achieved in the last two years with the “Leading the future” strategic plan.
He boasted of a company with "zero debt" that "does not need to take risky decisions" in terms of acquisitions, and to which banks "come every day to offer us money". "We were one of the first European defence companies to sign a loan with the EIB and we are now in discussions with the ICO in Spain", he said.
He assured that for Indra, "the problem is not having money, which I can get, but where to spend it", especially in innovation and support for entrepreneurial projects. "That's why we created IndraVentures" as Indra's investment arm. "Because we are a little tired of investing and paying too much, and we prefer to support start-ups from the beginning".
De los Mozos expressed his gratitude for the trust he said they are finding in the Ministry of Defence to lead the defence industry and "reorganise" it, "something that is not easy", he said, "because we come from a history of many isolated companies, and changing the culture is not a matter of a year; we need time".
