Realia Appoints Gerardo Kuri As Its New CEO

13 October 2015 – El Mundo

Realia has appointed a new CEO in the form of Gerardo Kuri, one of the real estate company’s directors, as a representative of its majority shareholder, Carlos Slim.

Kuri is also a director of FCC and Cementos Portland, the real estate subsidiary where he is also the CEO. Similarly, he has been performing CEO functions at Inmuebles Carso, the real estate division of businessman Slim’s conglomerate, since 2010.

Realia appointed its new CEO after appointing Julio Rodríguez Torres, also a close advisor of Slim, as the new non-executive Chairman.

Rodríguez Torres and Gerardo Kuri take over from Ignacio Bayón and Íñigo Aldaz, as the Chairman and CEO of Realia, respectively. The former is going to retire and the second recently resigned from the post.

Realia is restructuring its board and governing bodies after Slim took control of the company in June 2015 – he won the takeover war waged during the first half of the year with Hispania, a company in which George Soros holds a stake. After that takeover process, the Mexican businessman secured control of the company, since he added the 25.1% stake that he then acquired in the company to the 36.8% stake already held by FCC.

Realia, whose share prices has risen by 53% on the stock exchange so far this year, owns property covering 419,000 m2, worth around €1,400 million, including the Torres Kio in Madrid. Its residual housing and land business comprises a portfolio of land with a surface area of 1.87 million m2 and a stock of 650 homes.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake