As in the Spanish Constitution, the right to information is one of the fundamental pillars in the rights of all the shareholders of a company. As the National Securities Market Commission (CMNV) points out, “listed companies are obliged to communicate to the market and to the CMNV all information that may influence the value of their shares. To this end, they must have on their website website of a section called Information for shareholders and investors”.
Information whose maximum objective and purpose is transparency within the company and which, moreover, becomes essential in crisis situations such as the current one. Given the extreme volatility that the market sows, listed companies must increase their efforts to offer the best and clearest information to shareholders who, in moments of uncertainty, may resort to reducing their positions on the value.
In an attempt to find out what is the main concern of ordinary investors, elEconomista has carried out a survey of the communication offices of the seven largest Spanish Ibex companies in number of shareholders, all of them with more than 100,000 investors among their ranks. . These are Banco Santander, Telefónica, BBVA, CaixaBank, Iberdrola, Repsol and Mapfre. They alone bring together close to 8.3 million investors.
The result: information on the dividend is the most sought after and, therefore, the one that most concerns the shareholders of these companies. A dividend that, in times like the present, becomes a refuge in the face of high inflation.
In relation to dividends, the most interesting company surveyed is Mapfre. In 2021 it paid a gross dividend of 0.1463 euros and it is expected to reach 0.15 this year. With this, in charge of 2021, it becomes the firm with the highest profitability of Ibex shareholder remuneration. For its part, BBVA offered a gross dividend of 0.31 euros in 2021 plus a share repurchase of 3,500 million euros, representing a 15% return. Among the seven, they offer on average for this 2022 a 5.9% return on remuneration.
Santander Bank
Nobody removes the throne of being the Spanish listed firm with the most investors. This is demonstrated by those who own titles of the entity.
For the shareholders of the bank chaired by Ana Botín, satisfaction with the information provided by the company itself is “high”, as indicated by the financial institution itself.
Within the shareholder information portal, the most visited sections are those related to the share price and dividend and those related to the company’s results and the benefits of being a shareholder.
The bank’s investors value very positively the rapid and continuous updating of the information, as well as its usefulness and interest. In addition, he greatly appreciates the easy understanding of the communications offered. For them, in general, Banco Santander responds “in a notable way”, according to the company itself, to the needs for information on the share and of investors and shareholders.
As a gift for the firm’s investors, the company has donated €2 for each participation to the Spanish Association Against Cancer and the ONCE Foundation, up to a maximum of €60,000. In addition, it has delivered 380,000 wireless headphones and a draw for 25 iPhones 13.
telephone
It has traditionally been another of the great Spanish values with a powerful shareholder base. The teleco brings together around 1.2 million investors among its ranks.
For these, Telefónica has enabled two communication channels, both with a very positive assessment, in his opinion: the website, through which reports, presentations, the quarterly magazine, newsletters, information on the action or frequently asked questions are offered. , among others; and the microsite for the General Meeting, which is the main source of legal and logistical information, as indicated by the company.
Among these channels, the form that allows shareholders to subscribe to the communications system and directly receive the Acción Telefónica magazine or any relevant communication stands out. However, for the company’s shareholders, the information they most seek and value is that related to the holding of the Shareholders’ Meeting, the data on financial and operational developments and, lastly, on the channels that allow direct contact. with the company itself for possible requests for information or resolution of doubts, as examples of what they tend to demand.
The shareholders of Telefónica have received a bluetooth speaker as a detail at the General Shareholders’ Meeting.
BBVA
The sections most visited by the shareholders of the Basque bank -which brings together more than 800,000 investors- are those relating to the dividend and the share, in the first place and followed by those containing the quarterly and annual reports, as well as all the information that is directly related to the General Meeting of Shareholders.
The investor community highly values the large amount of information that the banking firm offers and its effort to achieve greater transparency.
CaixaBank
The bank also works to provide transparency and present clear and quality information to its shareholders. An example of this is that during this 2022 it has been recognized with the Rankia Award on the Stock Market in the category of Best Shareholder Service for a listed company in 2021. This award was granted to the firm for its online Shareholder Space, which is located in the company itself. corporate website, and for the task of financial disclosure carried out both in person and digitally, according to reports from the bank itself.
In addition, it celebrates the first anniversary of the corporate website, whose design was improved in order to make the page more visual and with a much simpler navigation structure that allows and facilitates access to information. This new space has also been awarded various prizes.
For the entity’s shareholders, the Shareholder Space sections, where you can find information regarding the Shareholders’ Meeting and the different initiatives that CaixaBank carries out; the Investor Agency, with the main relevant dates for both the bank and its shareholders; and Us are the ones that generate the most interest.
iberdrola
the largest Spanish energy company -and currently the largest in capitalization on the Ibex 35, t- brings together around 600,000 shareholders.
Its investors value the information provided by the energy firm “in general, as very good”, as indicated by the company itself.
At a more specific level, the sections related to the dividend program and the shareholder remuneration calendar, the price data or the page dedicated to the Shareholders Club are the sections that generate the most interest throughout the year, according to the data provided by the own company.
However, investor concerns change during the Board period. At this time, the integrated report, together with the 2020 sustainability report and the resolution proposals of the board have been the most visited by Iberdrola’s shareholders.
Repsol
The energy and petrochemical multinational closes the large Spanish companies that exceed 500,000 shareholders. Around 600,000 investors have Repsol securities in their portfolios.
For them, according to the data provided by the company, the most relevant information they are looking for is that related to the share price and the dividend. Within the specific portal for investors that it enables, the information in which they are most interested is that related to the advantages, events and everything related to their investment in the company.
Repsol’s relationship model with its shareholders was recognized as “the Ibex’s most complete approach to small investors initiative” – as indicated by Repsol – a distinction granted by the Good Governance and Ownership Forum.
Repsol also has an advisory committee -created in 2014, it was a pioneering initiative among listed energy companies, according to the company- whose program is based on two pillars, which from the energy company they value as “fundamental”: information and the advantages.
mapfre
It is another of the large companies in number of shareholders on the Spanish stock market. In total, it brings together 217,422 investors. For investors interested in this listed company, the issues of most concern are those related to the dividend, the financial report and the annual accounts and they value the information offered “very positively”, according to Mapfre.
The insurance company claims to have “significantly” improved information and communication channels with its shareholders in recent years.
Since the number of shareholders was taken as a reference for this survey, elEconomista also contacted Banco Sabadell and Endesa, but they ultimately declined to participate.
loss of investors
Since 2017, it has experienced a notorious loss of investors who bet on having titles in their portfolios. Telefónica “has left” more than 123,000 shareholders along the way since then. Four years ago, the shareholding of the telecommunications firm even exceeded 1.3 million. The bank also loses. In these years, at Banco Santander they have been reduced by almost 81,000 -in 2017 it brought together more than four million shareholders among its ranks- and close to 61,000 shareholders have moved away from the Basque bank, BBVA. The Mapfre insurer is also following the same route. In his case, more than 24,000 investors no longer have shares. On the other side of the coin, only CaixaBank manages to attract new investors. In four years, it managed to increase its shareholding by almost 25,000 people, after the merger with Bankia. Iberdrola and Repsol have had a similar number of shareholders since 2017.
Facebook Comments
Disqus