At 31 December 2019, the Group had 374,464 own shares, compared to 600,000 own shares at 31 December 2018. The reduction in treasury shares over the period can be explained by the following movement:
- In the first half of 2019, the third cycle of the long-term incentive plan was settled (see Note 14). This second cycle was settled by the delivery of 226,067 shares valued at 1,670 thousand euros.
- On 10 April 2019, the Group signed a liquidity contract to manage its treasury shares with Banco Santander, which entered into force on 11 April 2019. The total number of shares allocated to the securities account associated with the new Liquidity Contract is 82,645 shares and the amount allocated to the cash account is 400,000 euros. At 31 December 2019, the number of shares assigned to the liquidity contract was 83,176 shares. The negative effect recorded in reserves for operations carried out in the first half of the year was 87 thousand euros.