“We will grow in revenue and operating profit. We will grow 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 we will distribute at least 5.1 billion euros in dividends.” This is the commitment that José María Álvarez-Pallete conveyed to Telefónica shareholders during the 2024 meeting yesterday in Madrid.
It is the same commitment that he had conveyed to investors on November 8 during the celebration of the first investor day that the company has held in 12 years. A demonstration that the strategic growth plan looks optimistically at the future of a Telefónica that has been able to weather 100 years of technological innovations. “We are the company that revolutionized and continues to revolutionize communication,” Pallete recalled after reviewing history. The company that was limited to transmitting voice is now focused on artificial intelligence, computing capacity, web3 and next-generation networks, technologies that “are going to generate a wave of change much deeper than the emergence of the voice machine.” steam, electricity, the personal computer or the Internet,” predicts Pallete.
The management of the company was only one of the items 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 them was the renewal as proprietary director of Isidro Fainé, who goes from representing CaixaBank to doing so for Criteria, which, after this week's business movement, are the majority shareholders and who received their express support. “Allow me to express my pride in chairing this board of directors and the pride I feel in all the members who are part of this board. And in a very special way for Mr. Isidro Fainé, who has been dedicated to this house for so many years and from whom we have learned so much,” said ÁlvarezPallete. Less explicit was his reference to those who were new to the board this year as shareholders. One is the Saudi telecommunications company STC, owner of 4.9% of the capital and with the option to name the other 5% that it has in derivatives, and another is the State that, through the State Society of Industrial Participations (SEPI ), owns 3% and has shown interest in acquiring 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 expressly naming them.
In the turn of interventions, the CEO, Ángel Vila, was the protagonist. His position was submitted for ratification at the request of a shareholder and also because he gave clues about Telefónica's actions in the new context. “We see ourselves very capable of continuing to compete in this scenario and we are in a position to negotiate a wholesale agreement with Digi,” he noted. It is a reference to the contract that the Romanian company now has with Vodafone and which is in the process of renegotiation.
