I. Isardo (Link Securities) | Almirall (ALM) is a vertically integrated international pharmaceutical group which focuses on the purchase, production, storage, commercialisation and mediation in the sale of specialities and pharmaceutical products and of all types of raw materials used in the production of specialities and pharmaceutical products.
Santander Corporate & Investment | A year after we renewed our coverage of Mapfre (MAP), our opinion remains unchanged. Despite foreseeing a notable operational improvement in 2021, we think that 2019 will probably be a complicated year.
Ángel de la Fuente (Fedea) | One of the most controversial aspects of the 2013 reform of the Spanish system of public pensions has been the introduction of a revaluation index (the so-called IRP) which linked the updating of pensions, once triggered, to the financial situation of Social Security, thus abandoning the traditional reference to inflation measured by the consumer price index (CPI). Given the measure´s unpopularity, once inflation recovered after the crisis, it did not take long for it to be provisionally suspended. Currently, there seems to be a broad consensus among the main politically parties to abolish it altogether, returning to the general indexing of pensions to the CPI.
Repsol (REP) has communicated the timetable foreseen for the capital increase approved by its last Shareholder General Assembly within the framework of the “Repsol Flexible Dividend” Programme
Renta 4 | Arcelor Mittal (MTS) has announced that it will reduce its production in Europe (50% of the total in Q119) due to demand conditions in the market. We are downgrading our forecasts, which already imply a significant fall in EBITDA in 2019 compared to 2018 (R4e -18%).
BancaMarch | The amount of mortgages conceded in March rose +23.2% yoy, which implies a slowdown compared to the +31.2% registered in February.
Market concerns persist, and there seems nothing in the short term that will change this. In fact, the latest ECB Financial Stability Report gave evidence of the nest of problems and risks in which we have found ourselves for some time, while recalling the downside balance of current risks, analysts at Intermoney point out.
Julian Göpffarth via Fair Observer | The Green success in Germany hardly comes as a surprise. While in the past years the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) dominated German politics, more recently the Greens’ consistently strong performance in the polls pointed to a trend almost diametrically opposed to the AfD’s nativism. The Fridays for Future demonstrations for a more determined political action against climate change were particularly strong in Germany. They indicate that a new generation is entering German politics. In opposition to the AfD, this generation is pro-European and anti-nationalist. But, like the AfD, it is a trend against politics as usual.
David F. Lafferty (Natixis) | Volatility has returned and the red hot stock market that began the year has now downshifted closer to neutral. While the macro data continues to be lackluster – consistent with our view that the global economy is decelerating towards potential – much of the recent malaise has been driven by the on-again, now off-again US/China trade negotiations.