Under-fire business chief bowing out, colleague says

With his business empire crumbling around him, the head of Spain's biggest employer group, Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, is unlikely to present himself for reelection as chairman of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), one of his colleagues said Tuesday.

Arturo Fernández, a vice chairman of the CEOE and head of the Madrid Business Confederation (CEIM), said in remarks to RNE state radio that he believes the CEOE would have a new chairman by the end of this year.

Díaz Ferrán is due today to formally announce elections for the chairmanship to the organization's management board and clarify whether he intends to stand again. "I don't think he's going to put himself forward," Fernández said.

Díaz Ferrán was a partner in Air Comet and Marsans before they went belly up

Díaz Ferrán was a partner in Air Comet and travel business Marsans before they went belly up, leaving workers clamoring for unpaid wages. A judge has seized part of the assets of his to cover possible damages if he is found responsible for driving Air Comet into bankruptcy.

The administrators of Marsans believe irregularities also took place in the voluntary receivership of the company, which could lead Díaz Ferrán to have to put up his own money to cover debts. Díaz Ferrán on Tuesday denied any wrongdoing in Marsans filing for voluntary receivership.

Fernández named a number of possible frontrunners to replace Díaz Ferrán, including the heads of Catalan and Andalusian chapters of the CEOE, Joan Rosell and Santiago Herrero, businessman and former chairman of power group Endesa, Manuel Pizarro, and Jesús Banegas, the head of AETIC, which groups together electronics and telecommunications firms.

The head of the CEIM said the head of the CEOE needs to "think like a businessman, and know what it's like to open a business and pay wages."