Santander’s Iberian Conference opens to major listed companies

By Cotizalia.com | The second biggest event of the year for Spanish listed companies will be taking place on February 1. After the Spain Investors’ Day, that was held on January 11,12, next month will see a classic: the eighteenth edition of Santander’s Iberian Conference.  After a 2011 marked by heavy stock market falls that have reduced again the average market capitalisation of the Spanish listed companies, the big news is that the organiser has opened the doors of the conference, that until now was restricted to small and medium quoted values, to the major quoted values.

This modification will prevent numerous absences among the mightiest of the Ibex. Even so, the four largest banks are not included –Santander itself, BBVA, Bankia and Caixabank– nor Inditex, or the major quoted value of the Spanish market, Telefónica. Some of the other significant absences from the Ibex are those of Abertis, Endesa, and Mapfre.

For two days, 55 Spanish and 10 Portuguese companies will hold personalised meetings with investors. And ten –Indra, Mediaset, BME, Tubacex and Pescanova on Wednesday and Ebro, Jazztel, DIA, Meliá, GAM, Técnicas Reunidas and Antena 3– will be giving presentations. The list is huge and two-thirds of the Ibex 35 is included, among them such heavyweights as Repsol, Iberdrola and Gas Natural.

And, also, all the medium-sized banks, in the middle of the restructuring process of the sector. Construction companies like ACS or Acciona will also be present. All these companies, because of their size, did not fit within the format of the previous 16 editions promoted by the bank presided by Emilio Botín; in fact, only a dozen companies who were part of the Ibex 35 could participate.

This time, executives of the likes of Iberdrola’s chief financial officer, José Sainz, or Banesto’s CFO, Juan Delibes, or ACS’s corporate general director, Ángel García Altozano, will participate in the meetings with investors starting on Wednesday.

The celebration of the renovated and revalued Santander Iberian Conference comes just three weeks after the Spanish Investors’ Day, which allowed more than 200 major international investors to have contact with the managers of the major Spanish companies. The only important absence was precisely that of the first Spanish bank.

Unlike the first big meeting of the year between investors and companies, the conference organised by Santanderwill be more locally oriented. Although there will be some large foreign institutions, it will be the Spanish funds which will carry the weight of the face to face conversations with companies.