The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced this Saturday that next Tuesday the Council of Ministers will approve a new Law on equal representation between men and women, which will lead large companies to have at least 40% of women in its board of directors. Given these figures, in 2022 seventeen companies of the selective Ibex 35 of the Stock Market, which means that 49% did not have 40% women on their board of directors, a percentage to which they will be obliged with the new law of the Government of coalition.
This is indicated by the annual report on the female presence on boards of directors presented this week by Atrevia and IESE, a few days before the announcement by the Prime Minister. A rule that will cover the Council of Ministers and also the management of large companies, which must have at least 40% women. According to Sánchez, ten years ago only 13% of women were part of the board of directors on average in Europe, while now in Spain an average of 30% has been reached in both public and private companies.
The law that will be approved on Tuesday establishes that the management of any listed company or public interest entity with more than 250 workers and 50 million annual business volume will have to have 40% women. But that percentage of presence of women on the boards of directors was already a recommendation of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), the supervisor of the securities markets.
In the report presented by Atrevia and IESE this week, it is noted that in 2002 the female presence on the boards of directors of Spanish listed companies, including those listed on the Ibex, increased and reached 32.37% in 2022; while if only the data of the 35 of the selective is taken, the percentage in 2022 reaches 37.47%, compared to 33.94% in 2021.
In the 84 remaining companies in the continuous market there are a total of 227 women on the boards, which places the female presence at 29.48%. In total, the number of female directors in the 119 listed companies was 390 in 2022, compared to 1,205 men, improving the figure for 2021, which was 351 female directors.
18 Ibex companies already have that 40%
In the case of the Ibex 35, 18 companies have already achieved the presence of 40% women on the board of directors, but there are 17 that have not. The companies that do not reach the quota are Fluidra, Sacyr, Naturgy, ACS, Indra, ArcelorMittal, Acciona, Telefónica, Solaria, Repsol, Grifols, Ferrovial, Banco Sabadell, Meliá Hotels, Colonial, Acerinox and Merlin (from lowest to highest share of parity).
Eighteen companies reach at least 40% female representation and Cellnex, with 54.54% (six women and five men), is the only one that has fewer men than women on its board.
In the Redeia electricity and telecommunications networks group, the representation of women is the same as that of men, with six women and six men. Among those that exceed the 40% share, there are also Acciona Energía and Amadeus (both with 45.50%); Bankinter, IAG, and Inditex, with 45.45% each; Aena, with 42.9%; Mapfre (42.86%), and Iberdrola and Rovi (both with 42.85%).
They also comply with the percentage of 40% Endesa and Logista (both with 41.66%); and BBVA, Caixabank, Santander, Unicaja Banco and Enagás, which have 40%. Twelve companies (Merlin, Acerinox, Colonial, Meliá, Sabadell, Ferrovial, Grifols, Repsol, Solaria, Telefónica, Acciona and ArcelorMittal) have between 30% and 39% women on their boards.
Five selective companies with less than 30% women
In five Ibex companies, female representation on the boards is still below 30%: Indra, with 28.57%; ACS (26.60%), Naturgy (25%), Sacyr (23.07%) and Fluidra (16.66%).
In addition to the 35 companies on the Ibex 35, the sample also includes data on the other 84 companies on the General Index of the Madrid Stock Exchange, which, together with the selective ones, form the so-called continuous market. Of the total of 119 companies that make up the latter, only 32 companies met the 40% target recommended by the CNMV last year.
Línea Directa and Cellnex, with a female representation of 57.14% and 54.54%, respectively, have more women than men on their boards, while five other companies (Redeia, Grenergy, Realia, Prim and Libertas 7) reach 50%.
Despite the increase in the female presence on the boards of directors of the selective, in the top positions of the companies the representation is minimal and only three women hold presidencies. Beatriz Corredor at Redeia and Marta Ortega at Inditex are non-executive presidents, and Ana Patricia Botín at Santander is executive president, while there is only one CEO, María Dolores Dancausa at Bankinter.
Women represent only 15.47% of the members of the executive committees of the Ibex 35, which is a much lower percentage than the 37.47% representation they have on the boards of directors.
