Bolsas y Mercados Espaoles (BME) voted in favour of a proposal to pay an extraordinary dividend of EUR100 Million(EUR1.20 Million per share gross). Bolsas y Mercados Espaoles’ share capital currently stands at EUR334 million.
BME has paid an ordinary dividend of EUR37.8 million and an extraordinary dividend of EUR50 million so far this year. With this new dividend, total funds paid since the group was set up will stand at almost EUR307 million putting BME in an extremely favourable position vis–vis its international counterparts.
The agenda of the meeting was the reappointment of the ten Board members whose four year mandates are nearing expiry and who have been members since BME was founded in February 2002.
“2005 is proving to be a good year for BME and the positive stock market performance has prompted strong growth in the Company’s business areas,” said Antonio Zoido, BME’s chairman, in a speech. He added “to continue to reward shareholders” and that “this extraordinary dividend has been made possible thanks to the company’s good performance during the first ten months of the year and its strong financial position”.
To September, Bolsas y Mercados Espaoles reported consolidated pre-tax profit of EUR111.05 million and net profit of EUR72.7 million, 37% more than in the same period last year. This was 5.1% higher than the year-earlier figure.