Iberdrola represents 25% of the investment of the entire IBEX
It is enough to take a look at the Madrid Stock Exchange's stock market tables to understand why Iberdrola has become the leading company in terms of capitalisation, even ahead of the massive Inditex.
The shares of the Basque electricity company are climbing on the back of the company's good prospects for the future and the absence of administrative obstacles. This is how investors see it and explains the record share prices it has been reaching in recent days.
And this is a consequence of its bold investment policy with a presence in numerous countries. Investments that represent a quarter of the total investment of all, absolutely all, IBEX companies.
The war in Ukraine has highlighted more than ever the need for European governments to back companies like Iberdrola. Entities that fit the energy transition suit like a glove and already have plans on the drawing board to be the world's leading 'green energy company'. Hearing this from the mouth of any other energy giant may sound like bravado, but the Spanish electricity company has credibility. Credibility.
Twenty years ago, its chairman, Ignacio Galán, saw clearly that the future of energy lay in green generation, in the decarbonisation of the planet. Translated into numbers, the company has invested 130 billion euros in renewables, grids and storage over the last two decades. If it has been able to make such an outlay, it is because it is in a dominant position in this business model that has demonstrated to its investors that it is profitable for them and for society itself.
Today it is one of the four largest electricity companies in the world and the largest in Europe in terms of capitalisation. Just to give you an idea of what this company represents, its value is ten billion more than that of the Italian group ENEL, 15%, which includes its Spanish subsidiary Endesa. Iberdrola is already 10% bigger than Inditex. It is 50% larger than Banco Santander, twice the capitalisation of BBVA, almost three times Telefónica or Naturgy and more than three times Repsol.
During 2021, the company made 5,500 new hires. It has specific employment programmes in the best universities in the world to incorporate young talent into its ranks. In addition, wherever it is based, it manages to be an economic engine for development. It employs 400,000 people worldwide and its fiscal contribution amounted to 7,836 million euros. It made purchases worth 12.2 billion euros from its more than 22,000 suppliers around the world.
In short, if the different milestones marking this Spanish electricity company are lined up one after the other, it is perfectly clear why it now has a market capitalisation of more than 29 billion euros on the Ibex and why it has put a distance of 4 billion euros between itself and Amancio Ortega's textile empire.
At this point in the century, it is clear that the health of the planet is either green or it will not be. If we add to this circumstance the need for energy self-sufficiency of countries and Iberdrola's leading position in this sector, the future is full of certainties rather than unknowns. Iberdrola can only grow. It has everything in its favour: to sow and then reap; to invest and then, as now, to be the biggest.