Interviews

Four years ago no housing was being built in Spain , and now 90,000 units are being built

“Where There Is Demand There Are No Houses, So Prices Go Up”

Mari Pinardo | Neinor Homes is the first housing promotor to return to the stock market 10 years after the crisis. Its CEO, Juan Velayos, recognises that many things have improved since then: Four years ago no housing was being built, and now 90,000 units are being built”. But he admits there are deep rooted problems in the sector: “Spain is seriously bad at generating supply, we are paying far more for apartments than we could do if there were transparent criteria.”


Trump's trade strategy could work

“Trump’s Strategy Will Work If The World Lets It And Doesn´t Push Back”

Gabriel Felbemayr, since 2010 Director of the Centre for Foreign Economy at the Ifo Institute in Múnich, explains that “the EU has a clear advantage over the US in the old economy: cars, machinery and chemicals. But the US enjoys an advantage in the so-called new economy, in digital and financial services, leisure. This is the target for the EU.”


“Spain’s weight in the luxury market increases

“Spain’s Weight In The Luxury Market Increases: It Grows 8% Compared To World Average Of 3%”

Fernando Barciela | “While Spain today is smaller than other European countries in terms of luxury market, it is growing faster. For example we are very well placed with a hospitality and luxury gastronomy infrastructure, which has the potential to be the platform to lead in experiential luxury. Spain is fifth in the world in luxury gastronomy. We have 187 restaurants with Michelin stars”, says María Eugenia Giron, director of the IE MasterCard Premium & Prestige Observatory.


Bankia's CEO José Sevilla: " Values are most important that objectives"

“I Hope That Greater Banking Competition Does Not Make Us Forget Principles”

Manuel Moreno Capa | “We need to re-think what principles and values we want to manage in the banking sector, and maintain a clear philosophy. We tell our teams that they can not attain their objectives at the cost of principles. The values are most important, and the objectives have to be subordinated to the values of the entity if we want to improve the reputation and image of the banking sector,” explains Bankia’s CEO José Sevilla.


wieland OK

“The German States That Receive Money From The Richer Regions Do Not Grow More”

Lidia Conde (Frankfurt) | “Some German federated states contribute to finance the budgets of other Länder to enjoy a similar living standard, but the experience is that the differences between those who pay and those who receive are consolidated. That’s why this system does not operate in Europe,” says Volker Wieland, one of the five members of the German Government´s Council of Economic Experts.


Germany will have to accept greater responsibility within the EU and in the world

“The “Schism” Between East And West Is More Dangerous Than The One Between North And South”

Ana Fuentes | “The European leaders will also have to deal with insuring and enlarging a multilateral open system for trade, threatened not only by the US policies, which will lead to Germany having to accept more responsibility within the EU and in the world – and this includes not only the fields of economy and finance,” says Joachim Bitterlich, who was advisor to former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and is currently Professor at the ESCP School in Paris.


Spain is not just an exporting country, but also one which invests abroad

“Spain Is Not Just An Exporting Country, But An Investor Abroad”

Ana Fuentes/Carlos Díaz Güell | “We were a very poor country which in the last 40 years has made a spectacular transformation. Today there are over 150,000 companies which export regularly and have exported at least in the last three years”, explains Carlos Espinosa de los Monteros, High Commissioner for the Spain Brand (Marca España), and privileged observer of the economic reality in Spain and how its business class has evolved over the last few decades.


Gigas is a Spanish multinational of storage and information technology trading on the MAB

“Half of the cloud computing is controlled by three companies, the other, by hundreds of thousands”

Gigas is a Spanish multinational of storage and information technology trading on the MAB. The company’s market capitalisation is €19 M. This year their revenues will be up 35% and profits by 126%, without considering any possible corporate deals. “People think the MAB is a secondary market, but it’s an alternative one, for companies which are expanding. In the Continuous Market, there’s hardly any company doing this in the explosive sense,” says Diego Cabezudo, CEO at Gigas.



We need to be capable of making a valuation of the intangibles in the new economy

“Not Recognising Intangible Assets Is Creating Huge Amounts Of Goodwill”

“Goodwill only appears with the acquisition of a company. Not if you just grow organically, which makes comparisons difficult. Skype paid 2.6 billion dollars for eBay and goodwill was 2.3 billion. We need to be capable of making a valuation of the intangibles in this type of company,” explains Anne Jeny, member of the Management Committee of the European Accounting Association.