A total of 1,463 companies changed autonomous community to establish their corporate headquarters there during the second quarter of 2026, which implies an increase of 3% compared to the same period in 2025 and 8% compared to the first three months of the year, when there were 1,353, according to data released this Wednesday by Informa. The firm emphasizes that Catalonia is the region with the most negative balance between entries and exits in this interval.
Thus, of every 1,000 operational companies in Spain, 1.07 have opted to relocate their address in these three months, according to their "Study on Changes of Address".
"The relocations of company headquarters between communities increased in the second quarter to reach 2,816 in the first half of the year, a figure similar to that of last year," analyzes the director of Studies at Informa D&B, Nathalie Gianese.
In a note, the subsidiary of Cesce recalls that address movements recorded a "significant" increase in 2017 following the independence referendum, reaching 6,276 in the total for 2018. After the decline in 2019 and 2020, in the last five years the number of relocations has returned to exceed 5,000 operations.
Regarding the start of 2026, the first quarter showed a "slight" downward trend, but between April and June there have been more changes of headquarters, reaching "the highest figure since the first quarter of 2024".
By communities, the negative balance of Catalonia, with 93 fewer companies, represents a "significant" variation compared to the 9 it had in 2025, and keeps this autonomy with "the worst record" of the regional total.
Between 2017 and the second quarter of 2026, 10,335 companies have left Catalonia and only 821 have returned (8%), with most of these returns concentrated in the firms that left the community in 2017 and 2018.
After Catalonia, the autonomous communities that also show a more pronounced cut are Castilla y León, which goes from a negative balance of 9 companies in 2025 to losing 24 in 2026, and Navarra, with 15 fewer, the same decline as the previous year.
On the opposite side, Andalusia leads the positive balances in 2026, with 42 additional companies —improving on the 34 it gained in the same quarter of the previous year—, followed by the Valencian Community, which adds 33 companies (compared to the loss of 1 in 2025), and Madrid, with 27 more —after giving up 56 in the second quarter of the previous year—.
EVOLUTION OF BALANCES
Balearic Islands, Madrid, and Canary Islands are the autonomous communities that accumulate the most quarters with favorable balances since 2021, while Catalonia has only managed to add companies in one of those periods.
Informa details that the Community of Madrid concentrates the largest volume of movements in the second quarter of 2026, with 469 companies settling in the region compared to 442 that leave. Of the companies arriving in Madrid, just over a quarter come from Catalonia and 14% come from Andalusia, while the Madrid firms that leave mainly head to Catalonia and Andalusia —around 18% to each—.
In second place is Catalonia, which between April and June received 178 companies and recorded 271 departures. Among the companies relocating to this community, 45.5% come from Madrid, with Andalusia (around 13%) and the Valencian Community (12%) as other notable origins. For the companies leaving Catalonia, the priority destinations are Madrid (44%) and Andalusia (14%).
Andalusia, for its part, has received 177 companies in the quarter, while 135 have chosen to leave the region. Among the Andalusian companies that are leaving, 47% are moving to Madrid and 17% to Catalonia. In the opposite direction, the entries are mainly from Madrid (46%) and from Catalonia (21.5%).
If we analyze the sales declared by the companies that have changed communities in the second quarter of 2026, Catalonia is the autonomous community that improves its balance the most due to these movements, with a positive result of 1.863 billion euros.
Next is Galicia, with a favorable balance of 720 million euros, while Madrid records a loss of 2.034 billion and the Valencian Community declines by 196 million.
COMPANIES WITH THE HIGHEST TURNOVER THAT RELOCATED THEIR HEADQUARTERS
The relocation of Nexus Energía SA, from Madrid to Catalonia, and that of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Spain SA, from Madrid to Galicia, "largely explains the strong impact" observed in these communities, Informa points out.
In total, the ten companies with the highest business volume that have changed their headquarters in the second quarter of 2026 account for sales close to 3 billion euros.
Leading this list are the aforementioned Nexus Energía (around 1.522 billion euros) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Spain (almost 748 million), along with Admiral Intermediary Services (about 193.4 million, from Andalusia to Madrid).