Articles by The Corner

About the Author

The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.
mergers and acquisitions

European banks: Countdown to the M&A ballet

It is only a question of time and the markets are waiting: there will be more consolidation operations in the European banking sector in the next few years, some of them cross-border.


Telefonica ever closer to selling its Central American subsidiary

High acceptance (72%) of Telefonica’s hybrid bonds

Renta 4 | Telefónica has announced the result of the repurchase of the 2 hybrid bonds which it issued on 5 March. The nominal aggregate value which Telefónica will accept to purchase the bonds has reached 934.7 million euros, of which 586.5 million euros corresponds to the bond with maturity in December 2019 and 348.2 million euros with maturity in March 2020.


NPLs BIG

Spanish banks: less Tier1, no skeletons in the closet

Spanish banks are last in Eurozone in Tier 1 and penultimate in regulatory capital. But they have an unquestionable competitive advantage: they are the only transparent ones in the Eurozone for the ECB and for the other investors being the only audited ones. There are no skeletons in the closet even if there is less capital to compensate.


royal navy

Britain’s long history of trying – and failing – to gain independence from European trade partner

Giada Pizzoni via The Conversation |More than 400 years later, the UK is once again dreaming of the unimaginable riches that could be had by breaking away from the old continent. Brexit would have globalisation in trade as the answer, but over the past four centuries as its empire has risen and fallen, it is Europe that provided the UK with many of its most sought after commodities. It’s hard to imagine this changing much in the future.


housing sales

House sales in Spain: First Slowdown in Three Years

Bankinter | The sale of houses in Spain fell in January (-0.2% yoy). It is the first drop in the last 11 months and shows a slowdown (from +3.8% in December, +2.8% in November, +15% in October). It is the third time in three years the rate has been negative.

 


insurance

Sunflower seeds, sweets and chewing gum! Insurance, washing machines, investment funds!

Manuel Moreno Capa | Axa, Mapfre, Mutua and other big insurers have spent years settled solidly in the collective investment market, with their powerful fund managers. But today they are taking a step further: as insurers they are confronting what the experts call a structural fall in profits in their traditional business, they want to grow in others, but not only offering funds through their managers, but directly buying parts of the market, in other words other managers who bring their funds and their clients.


windmills spain

Rural Spain faces a new electoral scenario

Eduardo Moyano Estrada via The Conversation | Spain is an urban country, as shown by the fact that more than 80% of the population live in less than 20% of the territory (and four out of five Spaniards live in municipalities of the more than 30,000 inhabitants). But it also has an extensive rural space, given that around 80% of its territory has an average demographic density of 18.4 persons/km2, with more than half od its municipalities in serious risk of depopulation.


The Corner recession warnings

Recession warnings at a glance

It is impossible to predict a recession with precision, even less when the scenarios are constantly changing and with variables still unknown. But indicators exist that let us calibrate where the risks are accumulating.

 


Ibex

Ibex 35 closes 2018 with an increase in net profits of 4.3%

Santander | The publication of the 2018 results have practically finished, and Europe´s company profits have shown their resilience in a global scenario dominated by the uncertainty generated by the fear of a “trade war”, volatility in emerging markets, currency weakness, Brexit, the increase in populism in the South of Europe…


FRANCISCO GONZALEZ BBVA

BBVA honorary chairman Gonzalez leaves board amid spying probe

One day before the General Shareholders’ Meeting, the former president of BBVA announced on Thursday by letter that he is temporarily leaving the positions that bind him to the entity (he is the honorary president of the bank and the Foundation) until the end of the investigation of the Villarejo case, in which BBVA is related to a supposed espionage of politicians, businessmen and journalists when González occupied the presidency.