Neither Sepi, nor the State, nor Saudi Arabia, nor Saudi Telecom. José María Álvarez Pallete has shown the prudence that characterizes him and has avoided making direct references to the new shareholders of Telefónica during the speech he gave this Friday before the shareholders' meeting that was held at the Las Tablas headquarters in Madrid .
Although Saudi Telecom has 4.9% of Telefónica's capital and has options on the remaining 5% and the Spanish Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI) has already acquired 3% of the teleco's shares, it has not come out Not a word came from Pallete's mouth about the impact of the arrival of these shareholders at Telefónica, nor about the intentions of both of them to be represented on the board of directors or not. Pallete has limited himself to “welcoming those who have decided to participate in the future of the company.”
“We understand the interest that Telefónica arouses in the investment community, we understand all the parties that want to be in Telefónica because Telefónica is part of the future, a future on which it has bet,” was the only phrase that can be attributed to the presence of SEPI and Saudi Telecom.
Of course, Telefónica's top executive has issued a veiled warning regarding possible future representation. “We will continue to advance the best corporate governance practices, maintaining Telefónica as a leader in sustainability and diversity.” Key to the possible profiles of representatives that both new shareholders may be evaluating.
Beyond these few references to the new board, the centenary of Telefónica, which will be celebrated in 2024, and the evolution of the company from being a voice transmitter to the current complex structure of offering services in a world where data is the king.
As for the other topic of relevance at this time in the Spanish telecommunications sector, the recent creation of Masorange, the result of the merger between Orange and MásMóvil. Pallete has not reflected this in his intervention, but the shareholders who have participated in the meeting, which have been more than a dozen, have conveyed to their directors the need to know the impact of this operation on Telefónica.
For them, the CEO, Ángel Vilá, has made a strong statement. "We see ourselves very capable of continuing to compete in this scenario and we are in a position to negotiate a wholesale agreement with Digi," he noted.
The manager has also pointed out the "inconsistency between the preliminary analysis that the commission made about the merger, "when it said that no remedies were needed" and the final solution that has imposed those obligations such as ceding spectrum that affect the wholesale market." In any case, and despite the benefits of Digi, Vilá considers that he will need a roaming agreement with a mobile operator" and despite the preference conditions with Masorange, "Telefónica is willing to compete," he assured.
The manager reviewed the history of the company and highlighted Telefónica's ability to adapt to different economic and social contexts as well as to anticipate technological developments.
“We knew how to see it and we started to build that new future. It is as important to create the new as to say goodbye to the networks that saw us born and grow,” said the manager in reference to a business that has gone from being a voice transmission business to another in which data is strategic.
These data, according to Pallete, are the gateway to a “new era full of opportunities that requires new rules and that has to be governed by values.”
For this reason, the manager has once again demanded fair rules of the game for all new actors. With a warning, in this case nothing veiled. “We will fight for a fair regulation that allows us to compete on equal terms, because the world that gave meaning to that regulation has ceased to exist,” he assured.
In exchange, Telefónica offers to continue the company's historic commitment “We commit to collaborating with the sector and the technological ecosystem so that the supercomputer we have built connects with those in our sector and with the cloud. “We are committed to fighting to prevent abusive use of the networks.”
Pallete has looked to the future both for the company he leads and for those who have to regulate it “We see regulators who will finally have to abandon the regulation of the last century and adopt a new and broader vision. Regulators who will have to understand that it is time to let us compete on equal terms. We see an explosion of data and computing capacity that will make it necessary to create those networks that we anticipated eight years ago,” she noted.
