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.

Sabadell

Sabadell is starting to stabilise

Société Générale |The situation seems to be calming down in TSB and there is more visibility. The IT problems and the negative PR will have an impact on the UK franchise, which we hope will be profitable this year. It looks like Sabadell is beginning to stabilise now, we expect a more limited impact from 2019 and reiterate our Neutral stance.

 


Almirall

Almirall: recommendation raised from Sell to Neutral

Bankinter | Almirall Q1’18 results were better than expected, with sales of 189.3 million euros (-0.1%); Ebitda of 58 million (+5.4%); Net Attributable Profit of 30.9 million (+57.1%) and net debt of 150 million euros. Finally, the DN/PN ratio has reached 7.4%.




Italy's economy entering a crucial period in its Euro membership

The ‘antiestablishment’ pact in Italy augurs a rise in the country’s public deficit

Paula Sampedro (Link Securities) |There are various fronts open on the political front during this week. Specifically, the Italian political parties La Liga (extreme rightwing) and the Movimiento Cinco Estrellas (anti-establishment) are expected to present their programme for government to the country’s president Sergio Mattarella, after reaching an agreement to form a new government in Italy.

 


ECB

EZ: When Greece financed itself cheaper than the US

Ignacio de la Torre | The ECB’s deposit rate, which is now at -0.4%, will move to -0.2% during 2019 and later to 0%. At the same time, during the second half of 2019 the logical thing is for the ECB to begin to raise interest rates. These two factors should fuel a progressive rise in the Euribor from the summer of next year.



Tied hands

The long road towards creating a safe European asset

CaixaBank Research | The European Commission is looking at how the banks can have a more diversified portfolio of public debt securities. It is studying how to obtain a safe European asset without having to establish a tax union to back the issue of said asset.

 


A price-to-earnings-ratio of 12.2x to start 2019

Europe’s irrelevance in the Iran issue is boosting European stocks

Alphavalue | Trump’s capacity for confusing the markets is now a distinctive trait. Tearing up the nuclear agreement with Iran does not seem to be fuelling a new wave of fear about a war breaking out or an energy shock. The markets learned an early lesson with North Korean, when the conversations about nuclear glaciation suddenly led to the handshake on the other side of the border.