Héctor Grisi (Banco Santander) breaks a spear in favor of share buybacks

2023-10-10 17:37:49

Héctor Grisi, the CEO of Santander Bankhas defended this Monday, October 9, the convenience of share repurchase operations with respect to shareholder remuneration, while the titles of the entity chaired by Ana Botín continue to trade below their book value.

This was stated by the CEO of Banco Santander this past Monday during his speech at the XIV KPMG and Expansión Financial Meeting. “As long as we are trading below book value, it makes a lot of sense to do share buybacks,” the executive specifically indicated.

Regarding the decision to allocate half of the profit charged to results to repurchases, compared to other banks that repurchase against reserves, Héctor Grisi has stated that at current price levels “there is nothing more valuable for shareholders.” .

Likewise, he has indicated that, given the high volume of minority and individual shareholders that Banco Santander has, the entity will continue to pay part of its dividend in cash.

Banco Santander made the decision at its last ‘Investor Day’ to increase the distribution of profits among its shareholders from 40% to 50%, in equal parts between cash and buybacks, although Héctor Grisi has opened the possibility of this distribution being modified in 2024. In this sense, he commented that “The council [de administración] will decide whether to maintain that policy or not for next year.

The CEO of Banco Santander took advantage of his intervention at the KPMG and Expansión Financial Meeting to criticize the extraordinary banking tax, since, in his opinion, it is not “the most appropriate” for Spain, also pointing out that “There is nothing “more important for a country that has a cheap, efficient credit engine that works in the best way.”

Hector Grisi has rejected the requests made by public organizations to increase the remuneration of deposits, stating that it does not comply with what the market demands.

The CEO of Banco Santander recalled that Spain has the cheapest mortgages in Europe, and that Spanish entities, including his own, never charged for deposits when interest rates were negative.