Botín: ¿villano o una bendición para los accionistas?
El último número del prestigioso semanario "The Economist" trae un artículo sobre la citación de Botín, Amusátegui y Corcóstegui. Como podreis leer, destaca que a pesar de estas movidas los accionistas del Santander deberían estar contentos con Botín. En 1986, cuando tomó el mando del Santander de su padre sólo era uno de los siete grandes bancos españoles. Ahora, después de múltiples adquisiciones e inversiones en España y Latinoamerica, es el número 15 del mundo por valor de capitalización. Los beneficios han alcanzado los 2.600 millones de euros en 2003.
Lo reproduzco completo a continuación porque sólo es accesible para suscriptores:
Fun and games
Apr 29th 2004 | LONDON AND MADRID
Another day, another executive on trial
"IN THE spirit of the times, another boss finds himself heading for court. On April 27th, a judge in Spain ordered that Emilio Botín, head of one of the country's most powerful families and chairman of Santander Central Hispano, its biggest bank, be tried for misappropriation of funds.
Mr Botín is accused of harming shareholders by bestowing severance packages totalling €164m on two former bosses of Santander Central Hispano, José María Amusátegui and Ángel Corcóstegui, who are due to stand trial with him. The payments ended a bitter power struggle following the 1999 merger of Santander, run by Mr Botín, and Banco Central Hispano Americano, of which Messrs Amusátegui and Corcóstegui were bosses. The duo's departures (and fat paydays) cleared the way for Mr Botín to consolidate control of the newly merged bank.
By European standards, the severance packages are exceedingly big—dwarfing the contested €57m in bonuses at the heart of the trial in Germany of board members of Mannesmann, a telecoms company bought by Britain's Vodafone in 2000. Whether the payments were illegal is another matter. Two months ago, the then head magistrate of Spain's High Court, Jesús Cardenal, recommended to the prosecuting judge that the case be dismissed.
Spain's stockmarket regulators believe they have nothing to fret about. The Bank of Spain has found nothing illegal in the payments. The markets are unperturbed: Santander's share price has barely budged. Many in Spain's cosy banking world doubt a full trial will ever take place, and not only because Mr Botín is an influential man. He did not act alone: Santander's board unanimously agreed to the payments and the bank's bylaws allow for them.
As important, it is difficult to argue that Mr Botín has hurt shareholders. In 1986, when Mr Botín took the reins from his father, Santander was just one of Spain's seven leading banks. Now, after a string of acquisitions and investments at home and in Latin America, it is number 15 in the world by market capitalisation. Profits have ballooned to €2.6 billion in 2003, from the equivalent of €133m when Mr Botín first took over; assets have grown to €349 billion. “The bank's transformation is due, in great part, to Botín's leadership and vision and stamina,” says Davide Serra of Morgan Stanley.
Along the way Mr Botín has made enemies as well as friends. Some Spanish bankers think the lawsuit is partly personal. It is one of 26 suits against Mr Botín or his bank in which Juan Francisco Franco, a shareholder, and Rafael Pérez Escolar, an erstwhile executive of Banco Español de Crédito (Banesto), which was bailed out by the Bank of Spain in 1993 and bought by Santander in 1994, have had a hand. Mr Escolar went to prison for his part in Banesto's implosion.
Seven of the 26 lawsuits have been dismissed without charges and the rest are in legal limbo. Whether this action will meet with more success is still an open question. But it is unlikely to be the last launched by shareholders disgruntled by the scale of executive pay."