IBEX is moving forward with parity: it is only one female director short of achieving its goal of 40% women on boards.

Presence of women in boards of directors of Spanish companies listed on the stock exchange is increasing year on year. In the case of those IBEX-35 already reaches 39.8% and very close to the 40% target set by the Organic Law on Equal Representation and Balanced Presence of Women and Men, which will enter into force on June 30 this year, 2024.

While in total number of citations, Women’s representation on boards of directors increased by 2.08 points in 2023, reaching 34.49%, despite the gradual reduction of chairs in general.

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number of female directors He stands on 407 (17 more than last year) out of 1,180 members on boards of directors, according to XII Report on Women on the Boards of IBEX 35 and VII X-ray of the Continuous Marketprepared by ATREVIA and IESE, presented this Wednesday by the Director General of ATREVIA Spain, Asuncion Sorianoand IESE Professor Nuria Chinchillarecipient of the Carmina Roca and Rafael Peach-Aguilera Chair in Women and Leadership.

The greatest progress in parity has been achieved by listed companies Capricorn 35. The number of women on the board of directors of the select group increased from 163 to 176, which represents an increase of 2.35 percentage points (from 37.47% in 2022 to 39.82% in 2023). The index remains the same just a consultant to achieve the requirement 40% parity.

According to the study, which included 115 companies, almost 35% of the total, in 2023 they met the parity target of the European directive and its transposition into Spanish law, which requires that at least 40% of board members manage listed companies. – women. Among them, 21 belongs to IBEX 35 And 19 to the rest of the continuum

Thus 60% companies in the main selective coverage or exceed the parity quota and they all have at least two advisors. Bye 14 still They haven’t reached that level.these are: Fluidra, Naturgy, Sacyr, Merlin, Solaria, Ferrovial, Banco Sabadell, Meliá Hotels, Grifols, Bankinter, Acerinox, Indra, Colonial and Acciona. Four companies exceed 45%IAG, Amadeus, Acciona Energía and Mapfre and others. five He fifty%: Cellnex, AENA, Inditex, Logista and Redeia.

As for the remaining 80 companies listed Continuous marketonly 19 meet the recommendation 40%, 5 more than in 2022. Among them, 14 exceed this threshold, and only 3 reach 50%. Among them there are 6 What they don’t have a consultant: Berkeley Energy, Borges, Nextil, Niesa, Pescanova and Urbas.

According to Nuria Chinchilla“For another year, we see the progress of women in the boardroom continuum continuing unabated and at a good pace. It is clear that IBEX listed companies have reached almost 40%, while the rest continue movement towards parity recommended. However executive committees continue to show less progress in achieving this goal, and this is where the need for more effort is evident.

Another important fact of the study is that for the first time the average number of female directors of IBEX 35 exceeds 5 per company. In that rest of the continuous market the average number of female directors continues to rise, assuming that 3.54 women per company, although, as in previous years, it again remains below 4.

Most of directors are independent and they stand at 70.52% across the continuum, up slightly from 2022 when they stood at 69.75%. executive directors They stand at 3.69%, up from 2022’s 2.82%, but still short of the 3.98% reached in 2021. own directors They decline by more than 1 percentage point (1.25) to 22.60%. The same thing happens with external consultantswhich will increase from 3.59% in 2022 to 3.19% of the total this year.

Experts noted that at the current rate of progress between 2022 and 2023, the entire Continuous market could overcome the 40% barrier within 2025thus being able to comply with the new balanced representation law, which enables all listed companies to comply with the 40% parity requirement until 2026.

In the continuous market as a whole the sector the leader in parity is oil and energy, with 39.85% women represented on boards of directors and an average of 4.08 women per company. They follow consumer services and financial serviceswith a parity of 39.19% and 38.93%, respectively.

On the opposite side there is a sector Real estate services which is repeated for another year, since the sector with lower percentage women on their boards of directors, although female representation continues to gain ground, increasing from 25.76% to 27.41%.

As for IBEX 35, then technology and telecommunications has the highest level of parity, on average 6 women for company. This should be done very carefully Financial servicesConsumer services moved up one spot to become the third sector with the most women per company, with an average of 5.50. The remaining industries remain below five, but none have an average of fewer than 4 women per company.

Among the companies on the continuum that have shown the greatest efforts since 2019 in path to parity Among the growing number of female directors, the following companies stand out: Amrest, which had no women on its board of directors, but now has three (42.86%); Audax Renovables, which also had no female directors, and now has 2 (40%); Logistician, the number of consultants increases from 1 to 6 (50%); Prisa, which had just one woman on its board in 2019 and now has 7 (46.67%), and AENA, which has seen its number of female directors rise from 3 to 7 (50%).

As for those that greater regularity and commitment supported efforts to create more equal boards over the past four years include Cellnex maintaining leadership in terms of parity levels (exceeded only by Libertas 7 and Línea Directa, which were not listed on the continuous market in 2019, both were listed in 2021), with female representation of 53.85%. Realia, which lost its director but retained 50% female representation; Redeia, which, while maintaining the total number of members on its board, increased the number of women from 5 to 6 until it reached parity of 50%. Nicholas Correa, who will have three female directors and a 42.86% stake for another year; Unicaja Banco, whose director is a woman and has a 40% stake; and in 2019, Adolfo Dominguez had 50% female representation, and although he has one less director this year, he continues to meet parity requirements with 42.86% female representation on his board.

Cellnex, Linea Directa and Libertas 7 They are the only ones on the list that have more women than men on their boards of directors. The telecommunications infrastructure company remains the only IBEX 35 board with more women than men. Although the presence of women is decreasing slightly (it increases from 54.54% in 2022 to 53.85% in 2023), it is still the only one in the electoral council that has a female majority: 7 women compared to 6 men .

Regarding the rest of the continuous market, Línea Directa remains the listed company with the highest representation of women, joined this year by Libertas 7, both with the same figure (57.14%) and the same composition (4 women and 3 men).

Progress by parity less relevant in positions of maximum executive power, which Chinchilla says is “still in short supply.” Only 4 women lead the company at IBEX 35: Ana Patricia Botín of Santander, Beatriz Corredor of Redeia, Marta Ortega of Inditex and Anna Bouvereau, who joined the list in 2023 when she took over as President of Cellnex in March.

Of the four, Ana Patricia Botín – sole executive president list. These four are expected to be added this 2024 by Maria Dolores Dancausa. At the end of 2023, Bankinter announced that Pedro Guerrero would end his position as president of the board of directors in March and that Dancausa, the company’s CEO, would take the reins. Of the 35 IBEX presidencies, 31 occupied by menwhich is 88.57% compared to 11.47% of women (4).

If the participation of women in leadership positions is low in CEO even lower: Maria Dolores Dancausa (Bankinter) continues to remain the only woman who holds this position in the companies included in the selection.

In the rest of the continuous market we find 8 female presidents. Esther Alcocer Koplowitz of the FCC; Lucia Komengue Valencia from Prima; Adriana Dominguez Gonzalez of Adolfo Dominguez, the only executive president on the list; Saul Daurella, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners; Isabel Reig Lopez from Laboratios Reig Jofre, Helena Revoredo Delvecchio from Prosegur and Agnès Borel Lemmonier from Libertas 7. However, they represent only 10% of the total number of presidents.

The increased presence of women on the boards of IBEX 35 companies means that Spain’s parity is above the European Union average. Occupies fifth position (39.40%), below only France (46.10%), Italy (43%), Denmark (42.40%) and the Netherlands (41%).

This implies promotion in three positions in just one year, overtaking Belgium (38.80%), Germany (38.70%) and Finland (38.30%) in 2023. Only 11 countries are above the EU average, with Spain in the top five.

According to Asuna Soriano, “The results of this edition are once again frankly positive, as, overall, listed companies in Spain continue to move towards parity. IBEX is once again the champion in this race, almost achieving the desired 40% women on boards, but the rest of the companies in the continuum are also steadily moving towards this goal. And, of course, the position Spain compared to other European countriesnot having a mandatory quota is one of the most important conclusions this latest report leaves us with.