Mota-Engil reduces board. Family shares power with CCCC

Mota-Engil went from a 75-year-old family company to a group that has two reference shareholders, the Mota family with 40% of the capital and the Chinese CCCC with about 32.5%. A change with an impact on the company’s governing bodies, to be approved at the General Assembly on June 30. There are fewer administrators, five nominated by the family and five by the Chinese group, and four independent. And there are also departures, such as that of António Lobo Xavier, until now a non-executive member of the group.

When the agreement for incorporating a new reference shareholder was announced, two points became obvious: Mota-Engil would have the financial strength it did not have to continue its internationalisation and the management would undergo a profound change, with entries and exits. António Mota will remain chairman of the company and Gonçalo Moura Martins will be executive chairman, but there will be changes in management, but also in philosophy. A shorter and more strategic executive board of the holding company, composed of Portuguese, Chinese and four independents. The operational units will gain responsibilities to meet the objectives for the three-year period 2021/2024. From a total of 20 members, the Board will be reduced to 14. Of the independents, three will continue, and a new face has just arrived, Isabel Vaz, executive president of the Luz Saúde group. Francisco Seixas da Costa, Ana Paula Chaves e Sá Ribeiro and Sofia Salgado Cerveira Pinto will remain.

Of the non-executive directors leaving, the name of António Lobo Xavier stands out, who was no longer considered independent because he had over three consecutive mandates. Valente de Oliveira and Vila Cova are also leaving. But they are not the only ones. Two sisters, Maria Manuela Mota and Teresa Mota, the eldest, are leaving the Mota family. In addition, Manuel António da Mota, António Mota’s son, and Carlos Mota dos Santos (nephew of the family patriarch) will remain.

Little is known about the Chinese because the executive committee will be chosen at the first meeting of the board of directors following the general meeting, but everything indicates that the position of financial director will be given to Wang Xiangrong, a manager who has been in the Serbian branch of CCCC group until now. And it is also already proposed to shareholders that António Mota will be the chairman of the remuneration committee, which will also include the Chinese Wang Jingchun.