The plunge in the stock market and the recent tariff announcements by Donald Trump have loomed over Banco Santander's shareholders' meeting this Friday, as the U.S. is one of its main future bets. The president of the entity, Ana Botín, has acknowledged that the group is "monitoring" the implications of the measures announced by the U.S. president these days, however, she trusts that the group's diversification will allow them to face geopolitical instability and not alter the roadmap they had set. Therefore, they maintain the growth objectives set for 2025.
"Looking ahead, we expect to continue increasing profitability in 2025. Although we are monitoring the implications of the recent announcements in the United States regarding tariffs, it is in difficult times when the value of our diversification becomes more evident. Our diversification acts as a stabilizer in an uncertain global environment," Botín pointed out during her speech at the meeting.
Botín has also acknowledged the increase in "geopolitical uncertainty" at the beginning of this year, as well as the "high volatility" in markets worldwide, with the consequent impact on the evolution of the economy.
The president, who is also facing her reelection as a director today, has stated that "the recent announcements in the United States regarding tariffs reflect an increase in trade tensions" and that the bank's position is to "help customers cope with volatility." "Our markets continue to show resilience. Employment data, a key indicator of asset quality, is very good," she noted.
"The current forecast for global economic growth over the next five years is 3.1%, the lowest in the last 16 years. Spain is expected to grow by 2.5% in 2025, above the European average, reaching record levels of employment, with nearly 22 million people affiliated with Social Security. In Europe, we have a great challenge, and also a great opportunity, which is to play a very relevant role globally," she pointed out.
Therefore, the bank maintains all the objectives it had previously committed to, after a 2024 marked by historic results that, among other things, allowed them to exceed 12.5 billion euros in profit. "We maintain all our objectives for the year 2025: achieve revenues of approximately 62 billion euros; reduce costs in absolute terms compared to the previous year; maintain a stable cost of risk, with better-performing markets compensating for others, and achieve an RoTE of approximately 16.5% (post-AT1) and a CET1 of 13%," Botín listed.
With just a few weeks left until the unveiling of the first-quarter results, the bank acknowledges that in these first months of 2025, they have maintained the trend they were on, with growth in the number of clients, stable revenues, and a decrease in costs in current euros. "Both costs and revenues are in line with our guidance for 2025 and result in an improvement in efficiency of approximately 50 basis points. Credit quality remains stable, with credit costs within expectations," the president said.
At today's meeting, it is expected that a final cash dividend of 11 euro cents per share will be approved, charged to the 2024 results, to be paid starting from May 2, 2025, representing a 19% increase in the total cash dividend per share with charge to 2024.
Shareholders will also vote on the reelection as directors of Ana Botín, president; Héctor Grisi, CEO; Glenn Hutchins, vice president and coordinating director; Luis Isasi, external director; and Pamela Walkden, external director (independent).