In a year like 2025, with record stock market gains, the main executives of the Ibex companies, the main benchmark of the Spanish equity market, overwhelmingly earned very significant incomes, further widening the gap with the average earnings of their staff. The link between remuneration and stock performance contributed to boosting the incomes of many senior executives. A clear example was Manuel Manrique, president of Sacyr, who topped the rankings by earning 32.6 million euros, 384.59% more than the previous year, thanks to a bonus for the company's stock market rise since the pandemic. As a consequence of this plan, this executive, one of the founders of Sacyr, multiplied his remuneration of around 6.7 million from 2022, 2023, and 2024. The fact is that Manrique's remuneration was 628 times the average earned by the company's staff, which is around 52,000 euros, according to the directors' remuneration report published by this company.

The new strategic plan of Banco Santander for the period 2026-2028, presented this Wednesday, is ambitious: the entity chaired by Ana Botín expects to earn more than 20 billion euros in two years –It already closed 2025 with record profits of 14.101 billion euros– and also plans to more than double the cash dividend by 2028 compared to the last fiscal year. Investors have applauded this plan, which has already boosted the bank's share price by more than 3.5% by midday.

2025 is a record-breaking year for the Spanish stock market. For the first time, five listed companies have surpassed a valuation of €100 billion. These include four companies from the Ibex 35, the country's main stock market index: Inditex (€175.218 billion), Banco Santander (€148.347 billion), Iberdrola (€122.466 billion), and BBVA (€114.055 billion). Airbus (€155.430 billion) joins them on the continuous market, a market that is setting all-time records and is one of the most profitable in the world, according to the latest report from Bolsas y Mercados (BME), the Spanish stock exchange operator. Together, these five companies represent almost half the total value of the 130 companies on the continuous market, three-quarters of which are concentrated in the Ibex 35.

The biggest news this week regarding executive appointments has been at the department store chain El Corte Inglés, which has dismissed its CEO, Gastón Bottazzini, and appointed a new general manager, eliminating Bottazzini's position. Meanwhile, ING has hired Santander as its new head of corporate banking in Spain, and AstraZeneca has a new vice president for its subsidiary Alexion.

The start of the school year has been turbulent in the executive transfer market, mainly overshadowed by a news story worthy of the tabloids: the Swiss multinational Nestlé discovered that its CEO, Laurent Freixe, was having a romantic relationship with a direct subordinate to whom he allegedly granted privileges within a sudden dismissal. Beyond that, however, Nestlé has dismissed its top executive without severance pay, a decision that has impacted the stock market with a fall of more than 3% for the company and leaves its future non-executive chairman, Pablo Isla (who will be appointed in 2026, if not appointed in 2026, to Nestlé), in a complicated situation. For the moment, the company has appointed Philipp Navratil, who managed the company's coffee and beverage business in Mexico, to replace Freixe. Aside from this news, the start of the school year brings significant changes to the executive market. These are some of them:

The acquisition of the British subsidiary of Banc Sabadell, TSB, by Santander for up to €3.4 billion, which was announced this Tuesday, has significant implications for the hostile takeover bid by BBVA. Initially, TSB accounts for 17% of Sabadell's business, so without the subsidiary, it becomes a smaller and less attractive bank for BBVA. However, Sabadell's CEO, César González-Bueno, stated this Wednesday in a press conference at the Sant Cugat headquarters that the sale of TSB "is not a shield" for the takeover bid and is "independent," while emphasizing that it "increases the value of Sabadell."