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António Mexia and João Manso Neto, who were suspended by court order from their positions at EDP in July, announced that they are not available to do a new mandate at the electric company. In a statement to the Securities Market Commission, the company informs that an extraordinary general meeting must be held in January to elect new directors.
The shareholders represented by the general and supervisory council invited Miguel Stilwell de Andrade, who temporarily replaced António Mexia, to form the new team of the executive committee.
In the letter that Observaor had sent to the general and supervisory council in which he communicated the “most difficult decision” – but expected – that he had to make in his professional life, the manager is amazed at the development of the research that was born based on anonymous reports and has been going on for eight years.
António Mexia is executive president of EDP and Manso Neto is executive director and president of EDP Renováveis. Both were suspended from their duties following the judicial investigation known as the EDP case.
MP advances to the suspension of functions of Mexia and Manso Neto in EDP
The mandates of Mexia and Manso Neto ended at the end of this year and, given the judicial uncertainty about the possibility of resuming their functions, they chose to announce their departure, which allows the company to anticipate the clarification of its management bodies. António Mexia spent 15 years at the helm of EDP, having been appointed for the first time in 2006. He was the manager who spent the longest time at the head of a Portuguese public limited company. He served five terms at the head of Electricity, he is currently 63 years old.
João Manso Neto, for his part, assumed the management of EDP with António Mexia and was president of EDP Renováveis since 2012, being appointed as the right arm of the chief of the electricity company. Manso Neto was also responsible for EDP’s energy production operations that are at the center of judicial investigations on suspicions of favoritism by governments.
Manso Neto and Mexia give way to Miguel Stilwell
In addition to the suspended mandates, the two managers were prevented from contacting EDP employees and entering the company’s facilities, following the coercion measures issued by Judge Carlos Alexandre at the request of the lawyers conducting the process that involves the power company and in which the managers are suspected of crimes of active corruption.
António Mexia’s successor, Miguel Stilwell de Andrade, was also part of EDP’s management team for several years.
He “developed himself” abroad at age 18 and has been with EDP for 20 years. Five facts about Miguel Stilwell, Mexia’s successor
In the statement announcing the decision to leave the two directors, EDP “recognizes the indelible contribution of Dr. António Mexia and Dr. João Manso Neto to the growth and creation of value for the Company and for its stakeholders in the past . 15 years and expressly noted the importance of the leadership of Dr. António Mexia and the very relevant contribution of Dr. João Manso Neto in meeting EDP’s objectives in this period ”.
António Mexia definitively abandons functions with harsh words for the development of the judicial investigation known as the EDP case, questioning the “incomprehensible facts” that occurred in July of this year when the exercise of functions was suspended.
“It is with deep indignation and astonishment that in the last more than three years I have continued to observe the development of the process based on insinuations and suspicions based on a fanciful and purely speculative construction without attachment to the truth of the facts.”
In the letter he sent to the EDP bodies, António Mexia highlights that the judicial decision to suspend his mandate was taken “without new facts”, and against the wishes of the shareholders of a private company such as EDP, since 2012. This “Unjustified request” for the new coercive measures, which “legally prevents me from working and exercising my current mandate since last July, and we are one month from the end, added to an artificially lengthy investigation, they lead me to consider that it is time to change”.
And there follows “a deep reflection”, which communicates the unavailability to be part of a new list of corporate entities. A decision that, it guarantees, does not depend on the decision of the Court of Appeal on the appeal to reverse the suspension of functions ordered by the judge.
The executive president of EDP also defends the performance he had at the head of the company and that of his team. The “awareness of what we have done and the reality of the facts justify our feeling absolutely calm regarding the resolution of this process, which is still under investigation.” And it highlights the support and clarity of the company’s corporate bodies that, after an exhaustive analysis of all the investigated issues, “confirmed the absence of an illegitimate benefit for the company.”
It also takes note of the results achieved by the company during its tenure, highlighting the adversity experienced in the last three years due to the judicial investigation, but not only. EDP faced several negative political and regulatory decisions that had an impact of hundreds of millions of euros in Portugal, fights with the government that went to court, a parliamentary investigative commission for its so-called “excessive rents” and a tender offer. of failed acquisition of its largest shareholder, China Three Gorges.
The letter addressed to Luís Amado, president of the general and supervisory council, begins by comparing his leadership of the EDP group with an “extraordinary journey”, in which some important aspects are remembered, such as the passage of one of the world’s leading companies in production of renewable energies and energy transition, doubling of the market capitalization and investments made. This trip was interrupted by the judicial investigation where António Mexia and João Manso Neto were indicted as of 2017, being suspected of crimes of active corruption linked to the so-called EDP income.
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