Being listed on the financial markets helps companies grow faster and generate more jobs. This is attested to by the data relating to the variation in turnover, EBITDA and headcount of BME Growth companies over the last decade. Despite the fact that during this time the companies have faced a complicated context with a pandemic, a rise in the cost of financing following the change in central banks' monetary policies and geopolitical conflicts, the companies on the SME Stock Exchange continue to grow, with data at the close of 2023.
The BME Growth companies as a whole have achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR%) in turnover of 28% over the last 10 years. This growth has slowed down during 2023 due to the fact that some sectors, such as renewable energies, which have a significant weight in the aggregate turnover of the SME stock market, have had a difficult year. If this sector is excluded from the sample, the aggregate turnover of the market has grown at a year-on-year rate of 16%, instead of 4%, driven largely by the growth of other more traditional sectors such as real estate, which also represents an important weight within this market.
If we go down within the aggregate income statement, we can observe a similar evolution in terms of the profitability of the market aggregate, measured by the evolution of its EBITDA margins. EBITDA as a whole shows a CAGR of 20%. In 2023 it continues to grow at a rate of over 12%.
Lastly, and as is characteristic of a type of company that is the driving force behind job creation in Spain, the number of workers employed by BME Growth's SMEs has registered an annualized growth of more than 30% during this decade. This confirms that small and medium-sized companies play a key role in the Spanish economy, with nearly 42,000 jobs.
A total of 41 BME Growth companies will participate in the 20th edition of the Medcap Forum, to be held from May 28th to 30th. You can consult the event's program here.