Spanish Energy group Iberdrola, which acquired ScottishPower earlier this year for £11.6bn, is searching for a new chief executive for the Glasgow-based utility, and hopes to replace the Spaniard who now heads the company with a Scot, a senior source at the group revealed yesterday.
At a private meeting at Iberdrola's offices on the north-western outskirts of Madrid, it emerged that Jose Luis de Valle, ScottishPower's current chief executive, will likely leave the company next spring.
He is expected to be transferred into a far more powerful role within the fast-expanding Bilboa-headquartered company. He will likely head its US and UK operations, as Iberdrola moves to consolidate itself as the world's leading producer of electricity from clean technologies such as wind farms.
advertisementThis means De Valle will have overall responsibility for Energy East, a US electricity and natural gas company that Iberdrola has agreed to acquire for $4.5bn (£2.2bn), PPM Energy in Oregon and other assets in the US, which Iberdrola has clearly earmarked as its next big growth market. He will also have overall control of ScottishPower.
De Valle, who was parachuted into ScottishPower as its chief executive just days after Iberdrola completed the acquisition in April, is widely regarded as the right hand man of the Spanish power company's executive chairman, Jose Ignacio Sanchez Galan. He has maintained a dual role as the group's global strategy director.
He is also the man who Iberdrola credits with originally identifying ScottishPower as a potential takeover target after the British utility rebuffed the advances of German behemoth E.ON in 2005. De Valle led the negotiations to buy ScottishPower and has headed up what Iberdrola now regards as a "model integration that took only five months".
He is also responsible for pushing through the 4.2bn (£2.9bn) investment in ScottishPower under Iberdrola's three year strategic plan - a third more than its Spanish investment plan - announced at the Madrid Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The senior source, who asked that his name be withheld, said: "Jose Luis de Valle will be replaced by someone British who knows Scottish society.
"This is our style. An American runs our American operations and a Brazilian runs our business in Brazil. It makes sense. We are not moving around the world with a flag. We are moving around the world with common sense."
De Valle had also identified PPM and Energy East as a potential acquisition to increase its presence in the US as Iberdrola expands internationally, and he is widely expected to integrate that company with the same aplomb he demonstrated at ScottishPower.
The source added: "His position with ScottishPower was always going to be a transitory position. We are looking to replace him now with someone more permanent, and I can tell you we are looking both inside and outside the company."
Another source said De Valle's tenure at ScottishPower is likely to last until April 2008, by which time it is anticipated that a replacement chief executive will be recruited and the acquisition of Energy East will be completed.
"He is now basically in charge of everything he has brought to Iberdrola," the source said.
Asked about Iberdrola's relationship with First Minister Alex Salmond and the Scottish Government, particularly in light of the SNP's previous objections to the potential takeover by E.ON, the senior source highlighted the common cultural ground between the Basque utility and ScottishPower.
"Iberdrola and E.ON have very different styles. I need to be diplomatic here. We try to integrate, not impose," he said.
"We met Alex Salmond in July, and we found him to be extremely capable and committed, and we are also in touch with him regularly."
In spite of the fact that executive chairman Galan is originally from Salamanca, and not from the Basque region, the senior source added: "As a Basque company, we have the same complexes and frustrations as they do in Scotland, but when we are together we are very proud."
Meanwhile, he also reiterated that the "synergies" from its purchase of ScottishPower would reach 260m by 2009 - twice the amount originally forecast - but that this would not be achieved through job cuts.
He said: "The synergies will come from the integrations of the systems. We are always thinking about how can we be more efficient and more competitive.
"It's logical that we integrate the different systems. This is critical if we want to share our wealth with our customers and our shareholders.
"But we are also investing 350m in retraining. Otherwise it's bread today and nothing for tomorrow."
The company has around 9000 employees in the UK. The firm poured cold water on rumours that it has plans to move out of its ScottishPower headquarters at Atlantic Quay in Glasgow, where it employs around 70.
The senior source said: "Don't listen to all the noises you hear."
Since the April takeover, the cuts have occured in areas that had been involved in ScottishPower's activities as a stock market-listed company, but are no longer required as an Iberdrola subsidiary.
It is estimated that less than 20 such jobs have gone through a voluntary redundancy programme, and up to 80 in total are working out their notice across ScottishPower.
When asked about the cuts related to the recently announced synergies, a spokesman told The Herald: "No job cuts have been identified, although there may be some losses through natural attrition or early retirement."
No comments:
Post a Comment