Repsol will increase its dividend by 29% and buy back more shares, following the trend set by most other major oil companies of rising shareholder returns despite lower profits.
The Spanish company (MC:REP)will pay out €0.90 ($0.98) per share to investors this year, subject to approval at its next annual general meeting, and will increase the payment by 3% every year through 2027, according to a statement on Thursday. The total spend on dividends in the period will be €4.6 billion. In addition, it will repurchase as much as €5.4 billion of shares also through to 2027.
Repsol is following the steps of oil supermajors, including Equinor, Shell and BP, which all announced large payments to investors earlier in the month. Oil companies are aggressively increasing share buybacks as they seek to win over investors, and last year alone returned more cash to shareholders than ever before.
“We have delivered €7.1 billion of operating cash flow, the second-highest in our history amid external uncertainty and volatility,” Chief Executive Officer Josu Jon Imaz said in the statement.
Repsol stock rose 4.6% to €14.37 per share at market open in Madrid.
The push to win over investors by paying them more comes at the same time as the Spanish oil producer redoubles bets on growing its clean-energy business. This happens as larger rivals including Shell have cut the proportion of investments earmarked for the low-carbon business to focus on more profitable fossil fuels. Activist investor Bluebell Capital Partners has called on BP to boost its oil and gas spending and cut investment on clean energy.
Repsol is aiming to increase its renewable energy capacity more than threefold, from the current 2.8 gigawatts to 9 to 10 gigawatts in 2027. The Spanish company received in December the first ships carrying used cooking oil in its biofuels plant in Cartagena. It has invested more than €200 million to bring its annual production capacity to 250,000 tonnes of renewable fuels.
The company also said it would prepare its oil exploration and production division for a potential listing in 2026 or 2027 by upgrading the portfolio, in part by focusing on higher margin and lower carbon barrels. In 2022, Repsol sold 25% of the business to EIG Global Energy Partners.
Also on Thursday, Repsol reported a fourth-quarter adjusted income of €1.20 billion, a 41% decrease from the same period of 2022. That beat the average analysts estimate of €986 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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