Naturgy has assured that this decision by MSCI "has no relationship with its current operational and financial performance"

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), a global reference for institutional investors and numerous investment funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has announced the exclusion of Naturgy and Acciona Energía from its indices in the February quarterly review.

As Naturgy communicated this Tuesday to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), its exclusion is due to the lower value of its floating capital, which does not exceed the minimums established by MSCI.

The exclusion of both companies will take effect "from the market close on the last business day of February."

This decision by MSCI is based on the market value of the free float, below the minimum thresholds for inclusion in these indices.

The exclusion of the two Spanish energy companies was decided in the February review carried out by MSCI and with which changes were made to the composition of several of its indices.

Naturgy has stressed to the CNMV that its exclusion from the MSCI indices "has no relationship with its current operational and financial performance."

In this sense, the Spanish company recalled that on February 8 it reaffirmed its objectives for 2023, which involve obtaining a gross operating result (Ebitda) of around 5.4 billion euros, around 8% above the 5,000 million euros in fiscal year 2022.

Naturgy, which decided last year to present only semi-annual results, will communicate its accounts for the full year of 2023 on February 27.

The company chaired by Francisco Reynés, which announced MSCI's decision at the same time that the markets opened, fell more than 1% at the opening of the stock market, leading the declines of the Ibex 35. However, after At 10:00 a.m. it moderated its decline to 0.7%, to 23.44 euros per share.

For its part, Acciona Energía rose 0.8%, to 22.32 euros per share.