Acciona admits it has “studied” the transfer of its headquarters, but says it is not interested “at this time”.

He president of Accione, José Manuel Entrecanales assured that the relocation of the company’s headquarters to another country was studied, as Ferrovial did with its transfer to the Netherlands, although it assured that it was an option which “for now” is out of the question. “Yes, we have studied it, logically, but we are not thinking about it,” he answered a question from a shareholder at the company’s general meeting about whether the group considered the transfer in the same way as Ferrovial because of its important international presence.

Entrecanales previously defended Ferrovial’s move to move its headquarters to the Netherlands, insisting it was a “legally flawless” possibility. Later, at the press conference, the manager specified that the option of moving Acciona’s headquarters to another country is not part of the strategy since the company currently has a “fairly stable” situation in Spain, which it estimated that “the costs do not compensate for the effort.”

In addition, he added that, unlike the Ferrovial case, Accion’s operation is not as large in North America, so listing it there “wouldn’t make as much sense” for them. As for the dividend for this year, the president of Accione decided on a “prudent and continuous growth” of the compensation to his shareholders, “as long as the circumstances allow it”. “So the aspiration is, as I said, a prudent and gradual dividend growth,” he said.

In this regard, Entrecanales pointed out at the press conference that the trend in recent years in the dividend has been an increase between 5% and 10% per year, “regardless of the fact that there were years in which the growth of results was higher and years in which the increase in results it wasn’t that.

Exclude buying or selling assets

On the other hand, the president Mr Acciona also ruled out that the group is “looking” at the assets of other competitors, “Not because they are not good, but because they cover our capacities and would be redundant”, and he denied selling his own assets.

He also referred to the alliance with Nordex for hydrogen projects and stated that locations in Chile, Argentina, Morocco, Oman, Brazil and the United States are being studied, where “the numbers are coming out”.

Europe cannot “lose leadership”

In his speech before the Entrecanales committee He also urged Europe “not to lose its lead” in decarbonisation, since it is something that is necessary for society and also “one of the biggest factors of competitiveness and one of the most valuable industrial forces of the coming decades”, although he warned of the danger of “excessive intervention” by governments on the Old Continent.

The director, who presented to the shareholders “the best results in the history” of the group with a profit of 441 million euros, He stated that the world is immersed in change, such as decarbonisation, with 50% of global investment going towards sustainability in the future.

In this regard, he highlighted the opportunity that climate challenges represent for the company, along with the development of renewable energy sources and decarbonization technologies. “The world has the technology and the means to fight climate change,” he said.

However, he pointed out that this path is “naturally full of challenges”, resulting both from the situation in the global economy and from regulations, along with, in his opinion, “excessive intervention” by governments in Europe.

The danger of “undermining” investor confidence

In this regard, he cited the example of Spain, where there were 130 regulatory changes in the last two years, “which undermines investor confidence even with aggressive initiatives,” he added.

So, warned of the danger that these investments would ultimately go to countries with a more attractive environment, like the United States with its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). He also emphasized that the effects of climate change can be perceived as “seemingly accelerating faster than expected.”

However, he assured that “there is encouraging news”, such as “a turning point” consumption of fossil fuels, the peak of which is “coming closer every day” or the group’s progress in renewable energies, where already this year “largely” exceeds the levels of construction of new facilities in 2022, “which were already a record in our history”.

“Therefore, we are progressing on our forecast to practically double our installed capacity by 2026,” he said, despite acknowledging difficulties in maintaining the expected pace due to logistical issues in the supply chain.

He also emphasized that the group invests in more than 12 sectors of activity and that almost all of its investment, 98%, is “aligned with the European taxonomy”, which makes Acciona “the most sustainable provider of infrastructure solutions in the whole world”.