Portugal’s high street bank Millennium bcp “star of the stock market” in 2024

For the second consecutive year, BCP was once again the star of Portugal’s stock market, Euronext Lisbon.

Last year the entire banking sector in Europe continued to benefit from high interest rates and the Portuguese bank was no exception.

The Portuguese bank stood out for its performance and topped €7Bn in market value. In the last five years, it was the bank that most recovered terrain and has now stopped trading on the stock exchange at a discount on its book value, reaching a new milestone or “lifeline” as originally established by former CEO, Carlos Santos in 2010.

In 2024, BCP increased in value by almost 70%, with securities that gained the most value on the Euronext Lisbon PSI list of share trading companies last year, listed at almost a nine-year high.

This strong performance was due to the fact that the bank started with a very low price (despite the 87% appreciation achieved in 2023), but at a time when it had already turned the page on the restructuring carried out in recent years.

The high point came at the end of October, when the bank announced to the market a new strategic plan with an ambitious reinforcement of its dividend policy. By 2028, BCP expects to earn an average of about €1Bn per year, with the intention of distributing up to 75% of these results – a plan that analysts said “what’s not to like.”

At the time, Miguel Maya pointed out that BCP was going through a good period “after a decade in which shareholders supported the bank and it was now time to reward them after the bank’s restructuring”.

Shares closed Friday’s session above €0.46 with the bank presenting a market capitalisation in the order of €7Bn billion (a value that it had not enjoyed for 15 years, before the financial crises).