MADRID | The Corner | The European banking industry has already increased capital for €25.7 bn this year. According to an Ernst&Young’s poll they could continue doing it after next October’s stress tests. Of those 294 European financial entities surveyed, 30% say they can not rule out a capital increase at all- mainly Spanish and Austrian-, while 8% affirm they will probably need to do it.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Prisa, the symbol of the transition from Franco’s dictatorship to democracy, was born in 1972 as a family-owned business but since the end of 2010, the major company’s owner is US hedge fund Liberty Acquisitions Holdings with a stake of 51%. Prisa has recently carried out a new capital increase and all signs suggest that it could start to disinvest some of its more precious assets with the aim of cutting its overwhelming debt to the minimum. Poor management decisions taken along the way? Many workers don’t hide their disappointment with the firm and say things will never be the same.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Telecom Italia needs to reorganise its balance sheet via a capital increase, a dividend cut or a sale of assets. Spanish Telefónica, which has a 22.4% stake of the Italian firm through Telco, may be willing to help the company by a convertible securities issue or the participation in that capital increase.