• The board also approved the appointment of Antonio Basolas Tena as Deputy Chairman and Manuel García Cobaleda and Carlos J. Álvarez Fernández, as non-executive directors of CGE.
  • Gas Natural Fenosa Chile announced its successful takeover of CGE, having acquired 95% of its shareholding.
  • The acquisition enables the Spanish group to enter the Chilean energy market, strengthen its presence in Latin America and move ahead in its aims for the internationalisation and growth of its energy-distribution business, under the goals of its strategic plan.


The Board of Directors of Compañía General de Electricidad, S.A. (CGE) unanimously agreed to appoint the Managing Director of GAS NATURAL FENOSA, Rafael Villaseca, as Chairman of the Chilean company. This appointment follows the successful completion of the takeover bid for CGE launched by Gas Natural Fenosa Chile.

The board also agreed to appoint the General Manager for Strategy and Development of GAS NATURAL FENOSA, Antonio Basolas, as the new Deputy Chairman of CGE and the General Manager for Economic and Financial Affairs, Carlos J. Álvarez Fernández, and the General Manager for Legal Services, Manuel García Cobaleda, as members of the board of directors of the Chilean company.

That means CGE's Board of Directors is made up by Rafael Villaseca Marco as Chairman, Antonio Basolas as Deputy Chairman and Carlos J. Álvarez, Manuel Garcia Cobaleda and Antonio Bascuñán Valdés as directors.

Rafael Villaseca Marco (Barcelona, 1951) has been the CEO of GAS NATURAL FENOSA since 2005. He is also the Deputy Chairman of the Gas Natural Fenosa Foundation, a member of the Advisory Committee of Foment del Treball and a member of the Spanish Chapter of Club de Roma. He recently concluded his term of office as Chairman of Club Español de la Energía.

He has previously been a member of the board of directors of Enagás (technical manager of the Spanish gas system), a director-general manager of Panrico and the chairman of various companies, such as Inisel (now the Indra Group) and Túnels i Accessos de Barcelona, S.A.C. Rafael Villaseca is a graduate in industrial engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and has an MBA from the IESE business school, University of Navarre. The Managing Director of GAS NATURAL FENOSA received the 2009 Executive Award from the Spanish Executives Association (AED) and was named Best CEO by the 2010 edition of Platts Global Energy.

During the board meeting, the then directors Francisco Marín Jordán, Cristián Neuweiler Heinsen, Francisco Marín Estévez, Andrés Pérez Cruz, José Luis Hornauer Herrmann and Jorge Eduardo Marín Correa tendered their resignation and the board then expressed its gratitude for their management and dedication during their time as directors.

CGE's acquisition was concluded last week, after its shareholders accepted the takeover offer and sold their 402,122,728 shares in the Chilean company. Gas Natural Fenosa Chile is now the new majority shareholder of the largest electricity and gas distributor in the country and one of the largest companies in its sector in Latin America. After closing the deal, the power company now holds 96.5% of the share capital in the Chilean company.

Chile: a key energy market

The successful takeover of CGE represents a milestone for GAS NATURAL FENOSA that will allow the company to enter the Chilean energy market in a leading position by taking over the top electricity and gas distribution company in the country, which has over 2.5 million customers and distributes electricity to 40% of the Chilean market, including part of the capital - Santiago.

By acquiring CGE, the multinational Spanish power company is now active in the energy sector of seven of the nine largest urban areas in Latin America and five of the main capitals on the continent (Bogota, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago).

Barcelona, 20 November 2014.

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