The preliminary draft of the parity law that Pedro Sánchez announced this Saturday in Madrid, on the eve of March 8, will have its consequences in a notable part of the main companies in the country, which will have to adapt their boards of directors to this reform during the next months. One of the companies affected is Ferrovial, in the focus of the President of the Government and his ministers this week for the decision to move its headquarters to the Netherlands, which has a 30% female presence. But it is not the only one among the large listed companies where the role of women is less.
The bar that the Government intends to set in the norm that is approved in the first round in the council of ministers next Tuesday is a minimum of 40% of female presence on the boards of directors. A new regulation that will be applicable to all listed companies as of July 1, 2024. In other words, large companies will have practically one year and four months to adapt their highest management bodies. The regulations will mean modifying the law on capital companies and the law on securities markets and investment services, explains the Executive.
Among the listed companies that will have to renew their boards of directors with women in the coming months are also Telefónica, Repsol, Banco Sabadell, Acciona, Indra, ACS, Naturgy or Sacyr, to name some of the companies with the highest level of capitalization .
These are large companies where parity in their highest bodies is still a pending issue. As highlighted in the XI Report on Women on the Boards of the Ibex 35 and the VI Radiografía del Mercado Continuo, prepared annually by the Atrevia agency and IESE, the average number of women directors is currently at 32%. And this despite the fact that in recent years most companies have made progress. As for the presidencies, 91.43% of the companies listed on the Spanish Stock Market are still male domain.
There are even some companies that do not have female directors. This is the case of Berkeley Energía, Borges, Nextil, Nyesa, Pescanova and Urbas. On the opposite side is Cellnex, with 54.54% women on its board of directors, as well as Redeia and Realia, both with half.
The Government will contemplate in its draft parity law that this quota be implemented, by way of recommendation, also in the management committees. The companies "will ensure that this composition also concurs in the senior management of the company", explains the Executive. This is terrain where there is still more to cover. The “executive committees continue to be inaccessible [for women], even in the Ibex 35 where there are only 15.47% of women in senior management positions. It is clear that something is happening and it is not a natural evolution ”, warned this week Asunción Soriano, CEO of Atrevia Spain.
The requirement to have at least 40% of the positions on boards of directors occupied by women comes from a European directive approved in 2022 that the 27 countries of the community club agreed to implement after years of internal discussions. The Government of Pedro Sánchez already defended in 2018, when he held the executive power alone, a rule to have equal management positions in large companies. But it has never been executed.
The parity in the boards will also affect entities considered, according to the auditing law, as of public interest when their average number of workers employed in the year is greater than 250, when the net amount of the annual turnover is greater to 50 million euros or the total of its assets exceeds 43 million. These organizations will have an adaptation period until June 30, 2026.
