Santander is the second largest bank in Europe with a value of 170,000 million dollars, only surpassed by the British HSBC Holding with 275,900 million dollars. Four years ago, the Cantabrian bank was worth 33,973 million euros and now it is worth 162,877 million, almost quintupling its value in this period.
BBVA has also made a quantitative leap since 2022. Despite the frustrated hostile takeover bid for Banco Sabadell, the new size and strong profit growth (will be known tomorrow, the 5th) also support new financial operations. The entity chaired by Carlos Torres has gone from being worth 34,000 million euros to now having a capitalization of 125,000 million of euros, which places it as the fourth most valuable European bank, very close to the Swiss UBS, which surpasses it. The entity is preparing an ambitious shareholder remuneration plan for the coming years, close to 40,000 million euros. Now, its good rating also makes it a clear candidate to enter other financial entities. In purchase operations with exchange of shares, its price is an option to acquire at a good price.
Caixabank appears as the ninth European bank above ING Group and a few million worth of Barclays. In In 2022, the entity had a stock market value of 29,000 million euros and currently exceeds 80,000 million of euros.
Banco Sabadell and BankinterAlthough they play in the middleweight division, they have also had an excellent evolution that has multiplied their value. The entity chaired by Jordi Oliú has a market capitalization of 17,060 million euros, compared to 4,956 million in 2022. Bankinter, for its part, has managed to almost triple its capitalization in this period and now stands at 13,000 million euros.
Make capital profitable or return it
Managers of banks or any other listed company always have the dilemma of expanding or rewarding their shareholders, that is, their owners. When it is considered that the expected profitability does not compensate for this growth, it is best to return that money through dividends or share repurchases from their owners. It is also possible to combine both directions of capital as Santander has just done.
The purchase of the American Webster BankAccording to Javier Cabrera, “it is a better allocation of capital than the repurchase of shares.” Experts consulted consider that the large companies will continue to look for acquisition opportunities that generate profitability and synergies without giving up keeping shareholders happy.