The year 2023 marks the return of dividends for Ibex 35 components and other equities listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange. Just days before year-end, the Spanish Stock Exchanges and Markets (BME) announced in its market overview that dividend payments will total about 30 billion euros across the year. This figure represents a 19% rise from the prior year and sits near the annual highs seen at the start of the last decade.
Dividend distributions are expected to align with pre-pandemic levels, though they still trail the all-time peak reached in 2014 when shareholders received around 43 billion euros. “These numbers reinforce the Spanish Stock Exchange as a global standout, especially in dividend yield, which stands at roughly 4.1%,” BME notes. The historical average over three decades hovers around 4%, the strongest among its peers.
The market’s leadership stance is strengthened by ongoing shareholder remuneration and value-adding strategies. A senior executive at BME suggested that if a further fifteen payout events were reported by Spanish-listed firms through year-end, the total would approach €2.055 billion in additional shareholder returns. That would bring the year-end total to roughly €30 billion in dividend distributions, with shareholders’ remuneration alone at about €29.498 million.
In line with its policy of enhancing investor returns, BME highlighted that listed companies continued to operate steadily through 2023. Share buybacks and depreciation plans complement dividend returns, contributing to overall shareholder value. Through November 2023, the exchange’s listed companies sustained a buyback trend, with market activity totaling €11.823 billion across 27 operations, a year-over-year increase of 7.3% versus the same period in 2022.
The rise in buybacks has been driven by actions within the Spanish banking sector, including CaixaBank, Santander, and BBVA, which collectively reduced capital by approximately €4.687 billion. Yet when both dividends and buybacks are combined, the year-end total surpasses €40 billion, a figure not seen since the 2014 peak when the sum reached around €44.315 billion.
Capitalization trends point to a five-year high
BME noted that the capitalization level of the Spanish stock market is approaching the highs observed in the past five years, with around 1.2 trillion euros seen at the start of 2018. By late November, total market capitalization stood at about €1.18 trillion, up roughly 14.6% from December 2022. The rebound was supported by an 11.65% rise in the capitalization of Spanish securities and a 19.21% gain in the value of foreign-listed companies on BME platforms.
Banking remains a key driver of this progress, with the sector nearly reclaiming its historic leadership in 2023 as the top- valued group on the Spanish exchange after a period where utilities and energy also carried notable weight during the pandemic year. Currently, the financial sector holds about €189.775 billion in market value, accounting for nearly 23% of Spain’s listed-company total. That share is up by seven percentage points from three years ago and sits just three points below the level seen before the 2012 financial crisis.
Overall, BME’s data suggests that, even amid broader market challenges, the combination of dividends, buybacks, and rising capitalization has supported a resilient, investor-friendly landscape on the Spanish exchange, with implications for international investors in Canada and the United States who monitor European equity allocation and yield opportunities.