Bogotá — At midnight on Tuesday, Colombia’s Ecopetrol confirmed to the market what had been assumed for months, but of which there was no absolute certainty: Ricardo Roa was appointed CEO of the oil company, a fact that was received calmly by shareholders in both the Colombian and New York Stock Exchanges, with moderate declines by the company’s shares.
Roa was manager of Empresa de Energía de Bogotá, today GEB, during Gustavo Petro’s term as mayor of Bogotá, and headed Petro’s presidential campaign that brought the former guerrilla to power in 2022.
Roa’s appointment had been anticipated by the market since October, but confirmation was only announced on April 11.
Although the company’s board of directors has assured that it hired a headhunting firm to choose the person in charge of the company, the market assumed that the final choice would be Roa.
After the official announcement of his arrival as CEO, the oil company’s shares on the Colombian Stock Exchange began the day with a slight increase of 0.08% and were trading at around 2,582 pesos, before dropping a further 0.19%.
Likewise, Ecopetrol’s American Depositary Receipt (ADR), which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, gained 0.78% at opening, but dropped as trading progressed, down 0.22% to $11.47.