Frequently asked questions

Galp was created as a publicly-owned limited company on 22 April 1999, under the name of Galp - Petróleos e Gás de Portugal, SGPS, S.A., and, on 13 September 2000, changed its name to the current Galp Energia, SGPS, S.A.

At the time of its incorporation, Galp grouped the direct state holdings in the companies Petrogal, the Portuguese state holding company for the oil business, and Gás de Portugal and Transgás, responsible for the natural gas business in Portugal.

For more detail on Galp´s main historic events, please check About Us page.

Galp business segments are: Upstream, Industrial & Energy Management, Commercial and Renewables & New Businesses. To know more about each business segment, please refer to the About Us section.

For details on financial and operationalperformance, please refer to the history of reports and presentation of results.

Galp Group’s consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards, as adopted by the European Union.

The said standards include the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and the International Accounting Standards (IAS) issued by the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) and its interpretations - SIC and IFRIC, issued by the International Financial Reporting Interpretation Committee (IFRIC) and the Standing Interpretation Committee (SIC) that have been adopted in the European Union.

Galp's financial statements were prepared in accordance with IFRS standards, with the cost of goods sold and raw materials used valued at Weighted Average Cost (WAC). When prices of commodities and raw materials fluctuate, the use of this valuation method may lead to volatility in results through gains or losses in inventories, without reflecting the actual operating performance of the Company during the period. This effect is called the inventory effect.

Other factors which may influence results are special items, such as gains or losses from the sale of assets, impairments or restructuring provisions.

In order to provide a better assessment of the Company's operating performance excluding the aforementioned effects, Galp also discloses its consolidated results on a Replacement Cost Adjusted (RCA) basis, excluding special items and the inventory effect, the latter of which due to the fact that the cost of goods sold and raw materials consumed was determined using the Replacement Cost (RC) valuation method. Galp's IFRS results are audited, RC results are reviewed by the auditor, while RCA results are neither audited nor reviewed.

Since its listing on the stock exchange, Galp has reported its consolidated results on a quarterly basis. To view the quarterly financial and operational information, please refer to the Reports and Results section.

If you would like to know the dates for the next quarterly results report, check our financial calendar.

Galp's fiscal year corresponds to the calendar year.

Galp's IFRS results are audited, RC results are reviewed by the auditor, while RCA results are neither audited nor reviewed.

Galp´s auditor is Ernst & Young Audit & Associados, SROC, S.A.,

The Galp shares have been admitted to trading on Euronext Lisbon since 23 October 2006.

To access more information about Galp shares, view the Galp Share section

Out of the 773,082,725 shares that make up Galp’s share capital, 715,003,211 are admitted to trading on Euronext Lisbon. The remaining shares are indirectly held by the Portuguese State through Parpública and are not listed for trading, but only registered with Eurolist by Euronext Lisbon.

The symbol of the shares admitted to trading is GALP with ISIN PTGA0AM0009; SEDOL B1FW751 and WKN AOLB24.

Galp’s guidelines for distributions to shareholders foresee buyback programmes whenever Galp’s Net Debt to RCA Ebitda remains below the Company’s target of 1x. Total distributions to shareholders (cash dividend + buyback) are limited at 1/3 of the adjusted operational cash flows (OCF).

For detailed information about the programmes on acquisition of own shares, view the Acquisition and disposal of own shares section.

Galp shares are listed on Euronext Lisbon and are in the form of common, nominative and book-entry shares. Shares can be purchased through any brokerage service provider. In order to purchase shares, you need to hold a securities custody account, where the shares will be deposited in. It is not possible to purchase shares directly from Galp. To access more information about Galp shares, view the Galp Share section.

To view an updated list of Galp’s shareholders, please refer to the Shareholding structure section.

Click here to access Galp’s financial calendar and to know more about Galp's General Shareholders Meeting

Only shareholders with voting rights can participate in the General Shareholders Meeting.

For the purpose of participating in the General Shareholders Meetings, only shareholders with at least one registered share in their names at 00:00 (Portugal time) of the fifth trading day prior to the meeting are allowed to participate in the concerned meeting.

Shareholders without voting rights and bondholders are not allowed to participate in General Shareholders Meetings.

Shareholders with voting rights have the right to one vote for each share they own.

In accordance with the Law and Galp’s Articles of Association, the conditions of participation in the General Shareholders Meeting are exclusively set in reference to the shareholder holding shares that confer voting rights under the said Articles of Association. Anyway, it should be noted that, with regard to all persons not directly addressed by Law or the Articles of Association – excluding, consequently, shareholders, bondholders and members of corporate bodies –, their presence at the General Meeting depends on the authorisation of the chairman of the Board of the Shareholders Meeting, pursuant to article 379, paragraph 6, of the Portuguese Companies Code.

The following are the types of participation in the General Shareholders Meeting:

- Direct participation of the Shareholder, in person or by telematic means;

- Through representation. 

Pursuant to article 377, paragraph 6, b), of the Portuguese Companies Code, unless otherwise expressly stipulated in the Articles of Association, the General Meeting can be held by telematic means, being the company entrusted to ensure the authenticity of the declarations and the security of the communications, registering their content and the respective interveners.

The conditions for Galp´s shareholder participation and the exercise of voting rights are defined in the notice of the General Meeting itself.

Shareholders (either a legal person or a natural person) may be represented at the shareholders meetings by any person with full legal capacity. The designation must be made by any written means, accompanied by a national or foreign identification document;

Shareholders wishing to participate or to be represented at the General Shareholders Meeting must state it in writing to the financial intermediary in which the individual registration account is open, by the end of the day before the fifth trading day prior to the date of the General Shareholders Meeting and in compliance with the law.

Shareholders with voting rights may exercise them by postal mail on every item on the agenda by means of a letter containing a voting declaration.

The letter must bear a signature identical to the one on the identification document and must be addressed to the Chairman of the Board of the General Shareholders Meeting and sent by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt to the Company's registered office, in accordance with the previously mentioned deadlines. Shareholders may also exercise their right to vote electronically, if so determined, for instance, by decision of the chairman of the board of the Shareholders' Meeting.

The letter must be accompanied by a legible photocopy of the shareholder's national or foreign identification document and, in the case of a shareholder that is a legal entity, it must be signed by the legal representative, with the signature recognised in that capacity. The letter should also contain proof of the inscription, on behalf of the shareholder, in a book-entry securities account, of the shares with which he/she intends to exercise the right to vote.

The sending of this letter with the voting declaration does not exempt the shareholder from sending, in writing (i.e. by letter or email), his intention to participate in the General Meeting within the period published for due purposes, and a declaration issued by the financial intermediary entrusted with the service of registering the shares in an account must be sent until the end of the fifth trading day prior to the date of the General Meeting,.

Only the vote declarations expressly and unequivocally stated shall be considered valid:

- The indication of the item or items on the agenda to which it refers;

- The specific proposal to which it refers;

- Precise and unconditional indication of the vote for each proposal;

- Postal votes count as negative votes in relation to deliberative proposals presented subsequent to the date on which those votes were issued.

If the vote is exercised by post, the description of how it is done, including the address, physical or electronic, the security conditions, the deadline for the reception of the vote declarations and the date of their calculation are included in the notice for the General Meeting.

Postal votes will be scrutinised by the Board of the General Meeting, in addition to the votes expressed at the Meeting

Yes, you may, provided you do so within the period determined for that purpose.

Yes. However, your presence at the General Shareholders Meeting, or the attendance of a representative on your behalf, and the exercise of your voting rights, implies the revocation of the vote issued by post.

Pursuant to article 23-A of the Portuguese Securities Code, if a shareholder or shareholders hold shares corresponding to at least 2% of the share capital, they may submit a proposal or proposals, within five days of the publishing of the notice for the General Shareholders Meeting, along with the information that must accompany the proposal for a resolution. Such proposals for a resolution and information shall be disclosed as soon as possible to the shareholders, in the same manner used for the disclosure of the notice until 10 days before the date of the General Shareholders Meeting.

It is calculated by the sum of the shares held by the shareholders who have voted by correspondence and the shares held by the shareholders that are present and represented at the General Shareholders Meeting.

Once the General Shareholders Meeting is closed, the shareholders who participated therein or who voted by correspondence or electronically, may request a copy of the minutes of that meeting from the Chairman of the Board of the General Shareholders Meeting, which shall be provided to them as soon as it is available. After that moment, all shareholders seeking other clarifications and information about Galp should request it from the Investor Relations Team, through the advertised means, namely via e-mail to the address ag@galp.com.

For detailed information on the dividend distribution policy, please refer to the Shareholders Distributions section

Only shares held up to the third business day immediately prior to the date of the dividend payment (ex-dividend date) are entitled to receive the dividend.

For detailed information on the dividend distribution policy, please refer to the Dividends section.

For potential tax exemption, exclusion from withholding or reduction of the withholding tax rate, shareholders must confirm their tax status with the financial institution at which their shares are deposited.

Shareholders resident in Portugal and subject to personal income tax (‘IRS’) are charged with a final tax rate of 28%, unless an option for aggregation is made, to the extent that they are not obtained from entrepreneurial or professional activities (if dividends are obtained within the scope of an entrepreneurial or professional activity, the aggregation is mandatory).

The final withholding tax rate shall be 35% if the dividends are paid or made available to: (i) omnibus accounts, unless the beneficial owner of such dividends is disclosed or (ii) non-resident entities without a permanent establishment in Portuguese territory, which are domiciled in a country, territory or region subject to favorable tax regime, according to the list approved by Decree|Ordinance of the Ministry of Finance.