Although since November 2022 the Government, headed by the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, and President Gustavo Petro, had been exploring the replacement of the president of Ecopetrol, Felipe Bayón Pardo, that became official this Thursday, the initial idea was that the process would take more time than was decided by the company’s board of directors.
Portfolio learned from sources aware of the details of this controversial change that, at the beginning of January, the Minister of Finance, José Antonio Ocampo, would have asked that the decision be waited until the middle of the year, with the objective that the dollar market consolidates the reduction that it has been showing since the beginning of the year.
(Felipe Bayón leaves Ecopetrol: he will leave the Presidency on March 31).
Indeed, this Friday the official price of the currency is 4,531 pesos, that is, 278 pesos less than the value shown on December 30, 2022.
And it is that, in November, when the change of the helmsman of the largest company in the country began to move, the price of the dollar experienced strong volatility and exceeded, according to records of the Financial Superintendence, the barrier of 5,000 pesos in several opportunities, touching a maximum of 5,061 pesos.
According to the person consulted, for this reason, at the beginning of the year, Minister Ocampo would have requested that the decision of the board of directors of the state majority energy company be made with a longer period of time.
(Ricardo Roa, the one chosen to be the new president of Ecopetrol).
And he adds that, despite the request of Minister Ocampo, initially from the Casa de Nariño it had been decided that the time that would be given would be about three months but later it was reduced to two, as was known yesterday, when Ecopetrol informed that Bayón will be Until March 31st.
“The board made the decision due to political pressure from the Casa de Nariño and it was not a decision of the Treasury,” assured the source to Portfolio.
Now, the expectation for this Friday is how not only the dollar market will react, but also the stock market, where Ecopetrol’s action is one of its great protagonists.
ÓMAR G. AHUMADA ROJAS
PORTFOLIO EDITOR