Santander Raises Cash Dividend by 50% per Share for 2023 and Initiates a Fresh €1.5 Billion Share Repurchase Program
Santander Announces New Directors and Share Buyback Programme
Santander, the Spanish banking giant, has made several significant announcements, including the appointment of two new independent directors and the launch of a share buyback programme worth €1.5 billion.
The new directors, Carlos Barrabés and Antonio Weiss, will fill the vacancies left by Bruce Carnegie-Brown and Ramiro Mato, who are stepping down and not standing for re-election, respectively.
Carlos Barrabés, a Spanish native born in 1970, is an influential e-commerce pioneer with vast experience in the Spanish market, digitalization, innovation, and socio-economic development. He is the president and founder of Grupo Barrabés, offering advisory services in digital transformation, innovation, and e-commerce. On the other hand, Antonio Weiss, born in New York in 1966 and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Italy, brings extensive experience in the US market, particularly in the financial sector and relevant public policy matters. Weiss served in the Obama Administration as Counselor to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He is also a partner in investment firm SSW and a research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center.
The AGM is expected to approve the appointments of Barrabés and Weiss. The total cash dividend per share for 2023 will be 17.60 euro cents, an increase of approximately 50% compared to 2022. The final cash dividend will be paid on 2 May 2024.
In addition to the new appointments, Santander also announced a share buyback programme. Once the new programme is completed by June 2024, Santander will have repurchased approximately 11% of its outstanding shares since 2021. This move is part of Santander's commitment to increasing shareholder returns while continuing to invest for future growth. After record performance in 2023, Santander has returned more than €5.5 billion through dividends and buybacks, which represents an equivalent yield of approximately 10%.
The Santander board of directors, which provides a broad variety of professional expertise and diversity in nationality and skills, has submitted these appointments and the share buyback programme for approval at the AGM. The bank's shareholder remuneration for the 2023 results will total over €5.5 billion, representing an equivalent yield of approximately 10%.
The supervisory authority proposed the persons who were suggested for confirmation to replace Carnegie-Brown and Mato, but the specific names of these proposed individuals are not provided in the available search results. The Santander board currently has 15 members, two-thirds of whom are independent, and 40% are women, with Ana Botín serving as the executive chair.
Santander's payout ratio increases from 40% to 50% of attributable profit, consistent with the new remuneration policy announced at its Investor Day a year ago. The bank's shareholders will be pleased to know that the final cash dividend of 9.50 euro cents per share has been submitted for approval at the AGM on 22 March 2024.
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