BBVA shareholders and the bank's shareholder distribution policy
Shareholders are the owners of the securities issued by an enterprise that has been organized as a corporation. BBVA has more than 750,000 retail shareholders. As individual savers, they are one of the bank's key stakeholders. BBVA is firmly committed to creating value for all of them.
BBVA has more than 750,000 retail shareholders—families and small individual savers—who hold 39.3 percent of the bank's shares. The remaining shares belong to institutional investors, mainly investment and pension funds.
These are the holders of BBVA's capital stock, which at September 30, 2023, comprised more than 5,965 million shares (carrying the same number of voting rights).
As to the distribution of shareholders by holding size, the largest group is made up of holders of 501 to 5,000 shares, followed by holders of fewer than 500 shares.
Commitment to rewarding shareholders
BBVA shareholders benefit from a shareholder distribution policy that consists of paying out 40 to 50 percent of the company's regular earnings in cash dividends and share buybacks. In addition, BBVA may increase the reward through extraordinary share buybacks.
In total, BBVA has distributed €8.2 billion to its shareholders in the form of dividends or share buybacks from 2021 to September 2023. Add to this the 2023 interim dividend (of 16 cents per share, up 33 percent from a year earlier) paid on October 11, together with the recently completed extraordinary share buyback, and BBVA is set to have paid its shareholders close to €10.2 billion between 2021 and 2023.
BBVA's shareholder value creation is also reflected in tangible book value per share plus dividends paid, which increased 18 percent from September 2022 to September 2023.
BBVA's relationship with its shareholders
One of the milestones of the year for BBVA is the shareholders’ Annual General Meeting (AGM). In fact, when the shareholders hold an AGM, they constitute one of the main governing bodies of a corporation. Shareholders are consulted on the resolutions on the matters determined by law and the company's bylaws. In the case of listed companies, an AGM must follow a structure defined by the Spanish statute on corporations.
The BBVA AGM is held every year in Bilbao, the city where the bank has its headquarters. The event is one of the bank's key meeting points with its shareholder base. BBVA aims to make the event as sustainable as possible. For this reason, the bank's AGM has been certified as a sustainable event by AENOR for the sixth year in a row and, for the fourth consecutive year, it was certified as carbon neutral.
Other than at the AGM, BBVA keeps in constant touch with its shareholders. The Shareholder and Investor Relations area hosts conferences and meetings where the Group's financial and business performance and other aspects of interest are presented, and comments and questions are addressed on a personalized basis. The bank also has a website aimed at shareholders and investors to provide extensive institutional and financial information on the Group. BBVA shareholders also receive the digital magazine Ábaco, which can be viewed on the Group's website.
Quarterly earnings presentations and other key communications can be followed live and on-demand via a streaming channel.