“We will grow in revenue and operating profit. We will grow in cash generation by 50% until reaching 3,000 million euros. We will continue to reduce our debt to a ratio between 2.5 and 2.2 times and distribute at least 5.1 billion euros in dividends”. This is the commitment that José María Álvarez-Pallete conveyed to Telefónica’s shareholders yesterday during the celebration of the 2024 board yesterday in Madrid.
It is the same commitment that he conveyed to investors on November 8 during the celebration of the first investor day that the company has celebrated in twelve years. A demonstration that the strategic growth plan looks optimistically at the future of a Telefónica that has been able to cheat 100 years of technological innovations. “We are the company that revolutionized and is revolutionizing communication”, recalled Álvarez-Pallete after making a historical review. The company that was limited to transmitting voice is now focused on artificial intelligence, computing power, the web3 and next-generation networks, technologies that “will generate a wave of change that is much more profound than the irruption of the steam engine, electricity, the personal computer or the internet”, predicts Álvarez-Pallete.
The management of the company was only one of the points on the agenda that the board approved yesterday almost unanimously, more than 99%, a percentage similar to that received by the rest of the proposals presented. Among these proposals was the renewal as Sunday director of Isidre Fainé, now representing Criteria and not CaixaBank which, after this week’s business move, are the majority shareholders, and which received his express support. “Allow me to express to you the pride to chair this board of directors and the pride I feel for all the members who are part of this board. And in a very special way for Mr. Isidre Fainé, who has been dedicated to this house for so many years and from whom we have learned so much”, said Pallete.
Less explicit was his reference to those who made their debut this year as shareholders on the board. One of which is the Saudi telecommunications company STC, owner of 4.9% of the capital and with an option to name the other 5% it has in derivatives, and another the State, which, through the State Company of Industrial Participations (SEPI), owns 3% and has shown its interest in obtaining 10%. “We understand all the parties that want to be in Telefónica, because Telefónica is part of the future”, declared the president of the company without naming them expressly.
In the round of interventions, the CEO, Ángel Vila, was the protagonist. His position was subject to ratification at the request of a shareholder and also because he gave clues about Telefónica’s performance in the new context. “We see ourselves as very capable of continuing to compete in this scenario and we are in a position to negotiate a wholesale agreement with Digi”, he pointed out. It is a reference to the contract that the Romanian now has with Vodafone.
