The boss of Australia’s biggest construction group, Juan Santamaria, will soon travel to Madrid for a shareholder vote on his promotion to run the global operations of Cimic’s Spanish parent, Grupo ACS.

Mr Santamaria has been nominated to become the next CEO of ACS, with a shareholder vote expected to confirm his appointment at ACS’ May 6 annual general meeting. He will attend the Madrid AGM in person.

It is unclear whether Mr Santamaria, who has been running Cimic since early 2020, will return permanently to Madrid to run ACS.

But if he does, he is expected to remain closely involved with Cimic, which is a core part of ACS’s global business, contributing 19 per cent of its €27.8 billion ($41 billion) global turnover.

The Spanish group has been trying to delist Cimic from the Australian Securities Exchange so that it can assume full control of the Australian group.