Iberdrola Shareholders Meeting 2024 | Iberdrola distributes additional dividends to its shareholders: “We are worth more than the banks”
Iberdola held its general meeting of shareholders with a quorum of over 75% and an average positive vote of 98.2%, with overwhelming support for all agenda items. Thus, it was decided to highlight 3.5 billion … euros to shareholders’ remuneration accrued at the end of 2023, reaching 0.55 euros per sharewith an increase of 10.8%.
This amount consists of €0.202 gross per share already paid in January last year, plus a further €0.348 gross per share to be distributed in July next year. To this shareholder remuneration is added “additional” dividend from participationin the amount of EUR 0.005 gross per share, after reaching a quorum at the meeting of 70% of the share capital.
Iberdrola President Ignacio Sánchez Galán highlighted the energy company’s strategic “success” and “vision” over the past decades, which have made the group “worth 80 billion euros, more than all Spanish energy companies.” ”, and assured that “the wind is blowing” in favor of continuing to set records. In addition, this year the company expects to exceed profits of 5 billion euros for the first time in its hundred-year history.
“We’re worth 80,000”
“I think we should be proud that this company exists in our country. If someone had told me 24 years ago that this company would be worth 80 billion euros… I think many or none of us here would have believed it. We are worth 80 billion, we are worth more than all the Spanish energy companies. We are the largest European energy company, we are worth three times more than the next Spanish energy company, or four times more. “We are worth more than the banks,” he said.
In his speech to the company’s general meeting of shareholders held in Bilbao, Galan, who joined Iberdrola in 2001 as CEO and executive vice president and was appointed president in 2006, confirmed the goal of reaching 11 billion euros in dividend distributions in the next three years. years to reach 0.61-0.66 euros per share, “20% more than the record already this year.”
Roadmap for the future
Galan warned that electrification as “the preferred way to reach more and more energy consumers to millions of consumers around the world” is an “unstoppable process” and noted that electricity will “gradually” replace oil, coal and gas in the world. air conditioning in buildings, which will account for more than 60% of this energy consumption in just 15 years, both in Europe and the US, or will play a key role in data processing and cloud-based application management, e.g. called “data centers” which represent “a process of exponential growth that will continue in the coming years.”
Thus, the manager indicated that in the coming years the energy transition process will be signed with an increase in electricity consumption in the industry by almost 60% by 2040, or with sustainable mobility, where demand will quadruple by 2030 and almost 20 times. by 2050.
He will invest 41 billion.
For this reason, he warned that meeting all this demand would have to face “very large investments and adequate planning of electricity networks by regulators and system operators.” To this end, he focused on the group’s new roadmap, presented to the market a few months ago and involving the “largest investment in the history” of Iberdrola – 41 billion euros gross during this period. “Obviously, record on top of record,” he said.
Speaking about these investments, he noted that the main destination will be the United States, where 35% of investments will be directed, followed by the United Kingdom (24%), the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America (15% each), as well as other countries of the European Union , where the group is present, and Australia.
Iberdrola increased its profit by 86% in March thanks to capital gains in Mexico
E.P.
Also, almost two-thirds of the investments will be aimed at increasing capacity and digitalizing electrical networks. “In renewables, we plan to invest a total of $15 billion, of which more than half will go to offshore wind, in projects we already have under construction, such as Saint-Brieuc in France; Baltic Eagle and Windanker in Germany; Vineyard Wind in the USA; and East Anglia 3 in the United Kingdom,” he said.
Thanks to this new strategy, Galan noted that the group plans to achieve EBITDA of between 16,500 and 17,000 million euros and net profit of 5,600 to 5,800 million in 2026, with growth of approximately 20% during this period.