Spain's Indra chairman to resign after failed EM&E deal, reports say

Indra Sistemas SA

01/04/2026 13:44

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April 1 (Reuters) - The chairman of Spanish defence firm Indra IDR.MC, Angel Escribano, is set to resign from his position at an extraordinary board meeting later on Wednesday, according to El Economista newspaper and several other local news outlets.

This comes two weeks after Escribano's company, Escribano Mechanical and Engineering (EM&E), withdrew from a potential acquisition by Indra due to a conflict of interest.

Indra declined to comment on Escribano's potential resignation. Indra shares fell 7% on Wednesday.

State-owned fund SEPI, which owns a 28% stake in Indra, and Escribano, who owns EM&E together with his brother Javier, have been at loggerheads over the failed Indra-EM&E deal and the conflict of interest.

EM&E in turn has a 14.3% stake in Indra, making it the second-largest shareholder behind SEPI.

SEPI had previously asked Indra to resolve the conflict of interest among shareholders before advancing with the deal.

El Confidencial news website reported last month that Spain's government had urged SEPI to use its influence to force Escribano's dismissal over the dispute. The government has publicly said it was not aware of a conflict of interest when Escribano was appointed chairman.

The Spanish government has been taking a more active role through SEPI in companies it considers strategic, helping to replace Telefonica's TEF.MC previous CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete with Marc Murtra, who previously chaired Indra.

(Reporting by Gemma Guasch; editing by Paolo Laudani and Andrei Khalip)

((gemma.guasch@thomsonreuters.com ; +48 58 746 90 08))