More than five million shareholders of Spanish listed banks will receive more than €7,000 million in dividends in the coming weeks, according to Expansión newspaper. CaixaBank leads the ranking in terms of amount, with more than €2,890 million that will be distributed among its investors. It is followed by BBVA, with more than €2,200 million and Santander, which climbs to third place on the podium, with €1,500 million. Medium-sized institutions such as Sabadell, Unicaja and Bankinter distributed between €163 million and €97 million.
These payments (one-off or supplementary payments charged to 2023), crown a record year in results that has boosted the sector’s share price by 23% since January. Strong profit growth in 2023 has led the sector to bet on a sharp increase in cash payments, coupled with an avalanche of share buybacks, adding extra profitability.
This week it is the turn of Bankinter, which on Thursday will distribute €0.107 gross per share as a supplementary payment for 2023 results. This is 20.6% more than the same payment a year earlier.
CaixaBank will give its investors €2,890 million on 3 April by paying out the €0.39 expected to be charged in 2023 as a one-off payment. The bank is up 27.17% on the stock market this year and its dividend yield is up more than 9%. In addition, it has announced a share buyback programme for a maximum amount of 500 million shares.
BBVA has also launched a share buyback plan for an amount of 781 million shares. In addition, it will pay a final dividend charged to 2023 of €0.39 euros in cash on 10 April to those who are shareholders at the close of trading on Friday 5 April.
Sabadell’s more than 213,000 shareholders will get their turn on 18 April, when the distribution of €0.03 euros gross per share is scheduled as a supplementary payment for 2023. Investor remuneration will be completed with a share buyback of up to 340 million shares.
Unicaja will pay out €0.049 gross per share as a one-off payment on 19 April, 3% more than a year earlier. The bank will pay out €132 million, 50% of its profit for 2023, which is completed with a share buyback of €100 million.
Santander closed the bank’s payments with a complementary payment of €0.095 gross per share for 2023 on May 2, in addition to the €0.081 paid on account last November. The bank with the largest number of shareholders (3.7 million) achieved a record profit of more than €11 billion in 2023. To this is added a share buyback of 1.5 billion shares.
