Indra wants to go step by step. The new CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos, anticipates that the new strategic plan will have a first priority: to gain much more size in Spain before a potential international leap. The chief executive sets the priority objective of leading the integration of the defense sector through strategic alliances and acquisitions of companies. “We will explore opportunities for international expansion, but we first need to be leaders in the domestic market,” he defended during the presentation of results to analysts, in which he set the first quarter of 2024 as the date for the formal presentation of the ‘roadmap’.
De los Mozos, which has been released with the first financial results of the company, establishes four priorities: the four ‘T’. The first is traction. “We must free up our unique assets to be the first national defense and technology contractor in Spain,” he warns. In that task, the executive has again insisted on the need to rebuild a defense sector “fragmented and with less scale” compared to other European countries. “Indra needs to lead this Spanish integration through purchases and strategic alliances,” he said.
Among these pacts he has pointed out the last two announced: that of Navantia and that of Tecnobit. On the first, he explained that the objective is to integrate Indra’s systems with the public boat manufacturer to “be able to go internationally and face new offers for which we are limited today”. “These are examples of actions that allow us to reduce our investment in R+D and allow us to accelerate the development of new products,” he argued.
The short-term priority should be, according to the new CEO, the Spanish market. “We will explore opportunities for international expansion, but we need to first become leaders in the domestic market,” he says. These statements come in the middle of the complicated negotiations with the US fund Bain Capital for the entry into the shareholding of ITP Aero, the Spanish manufacturer of aircraft engines.
The other three pillars of the new strategy are: transformation, talent and technology. Regarding the first, he again puts on the table the need to simplify internal operations to “compete more effectively”, focusing on high-value businesses and improving the revenue mix. On the technological aspect, as he did at the general meeting of shareholders, the former Renault executive has warned that technology advances at high speed, which forces to propose a long-term strategy.
These principles will govern the company’s new strategic plan that will be presented in society in the first quarter of 2024. It will have three phases until 2035. Until December, the main guidelines, the action plan and the approval by the board of directors will be carried out, in order to be able to present it in society at an Investor Day in the first quarter of 2024.
