Iberdrola and Santander Set Records: Billion-Euro Profits and New Strategy for Spanish Giants

The year 2025 proved to be a breakthrough for Spain's largest companies, though each is at a different stage of development and transformation. Iberdrola, led by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, confirmed its dominance by achieving a net profit of €6.285 billion. The key to success turned out to be foreign markets – the USA and the United Kingdom – where the company concentrated as much as 60% of its investments, worth a total of €14.46 billion. This allowed the company to propose a record dividend for shareholders, strengthening its position as Europe's largest energy conglomerate by market capitalization. Meanwhile, Banco Santander, led by Ana Botín, presented an extremely optimal yet ambitious strategic plan for 2026–2028. The institution aims to become the first Spanish bank to surpass the barrier of €20 billion in annual net profit. This strategy is based on digitization using artificial intelligence, further growth of its customer base to 210 million, and the integration of recent acquisitions, such as Webster Bank in the USA and TSB in the United Kingdom. The bank also declared a twofold increase in its cash dividend in the upcoming cycle. The Spanish IBEX 35 stock index, though heavily reliant on the banking and energy sectors, has for years struggled with a high dependence on the situation in Latin America, which is now forcing companies to shift their investment direction towards Anglo-Saxon countries.A completely different picture emerges from Telefónica's financial report. The company recorded a loss of €4.318 billion, but Marc Murtra, Chairman of the Board, emphasizes that this is the result of a conscious "Transform & Grow" strategy. This loss is a direct effect of costly write-offs related to the sale of assets in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, and Ecuador, as well as provisions for a voluntary departure program (ERE) in Spain. „Telefónica cumple.” (Telefónica delivers.) — Marc Murtra Despite the accounting loss, the company showed solid cash flows, which reassured investors and allowed for maintaining financial discipline. In the background of these events, the Spanish government, represented by Minister Sara Aagesen, is introducing new regulations concerning the power grid. This is to prevent a repeat of last year's blackout and enable the connection of new data centers. The transformation of the Spanish economy is accelerating, and companies like Iberdrola and Santander are becoming global leaders in their sectors, exporting capital and technology to the world's most demanding markets.