ATHENS | Via Macropolis | Unpaid private debt in Greece is estimated to have reached around 160 billion euros, which corresponds to 88 percent of GDP, but was largely ignored until the last few days, when it became a key issue in the discussion between the government and the troika. Apart from the outstanding amount, the dynamic, which clearly shows a steady upward trend, is also a worrying factor.
MADRID | The Corner | Spanish telecom giant Telefónica closed the sale of its subsidiary Telefónica Ireland to Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Group (HWG) for €850 M ($1.2 billion). HWG is also known for its mobile firm Three, the fourth operator in Ireland. Antitrust authorities, which have been expressing their concerns about how this operation might impact on the country’s competition, have now given green light to one of the country’s largest ever telecoms groups.
MADRID | The Corner | Citi will be the senior advisor in the business, whose preliminary assessment goes up to €3 billion. The major stakeholders would be Energía Villar Mir, EDP and several funds (such as KKR, Riverstone, Brookfield, Blackstone and JPMorgan’s infrastructure fund).
ZURICH | By The Corner | Based on the results of the 20th quarterly survey of the UBS Global Equity Research department, UBS analysts expect M&A activity in the second half of 2014 to remain strong. 50% of respondents believe M&A will increase and 45% believe the pace will remain unchanged. Only 5% of analysts expect the pace of deal activity to slow in Q3 and Q4.
MADRID | By The Corner | The number of trade assets obtained on deferred terms and returned unpaid by households and companies plummeted by 25.2% in May, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE). Thus, defaulting in commerce puts together 25 months of year-on-year drops.
MADRID | The Corner | The disappointing German ZEW together with the worsening of the Portuguese lender Banco Espirito Santo (BES) crisis weighed down on the markets on Tuesday. And that about today? Indeed, the banking sector will continue to be the main player in Europe with the BES drama as backdrop, although the calmness within the peripheral bonds markets is a positive sign and indicates the limited extent of such crisis.
MADRID | The Corner | New York-based British comedian John Oliver, well known for his hilarious parodies of economic issues (if you haven’t seen his Dodd Frank Act impersonation, you definitely should- sorry for the poor quality of this video), has digged in US growing wealth gap and why it may be a problem in the future. Indeed, income flows are becoming increasingly unequal and that’s undermining growth.
ATHENS | By Manos Giakoumis via MacroPolis | Having completed capital increases of 8.3 billion euros, which more than covered the capital needs identified by the Bank of Greece (BoG) under the baseline scenario, the single most important risk for Greek banks remains the non-performing loans (NPLs).
MADRID | By The Corner | Experts at JPMorgan think that it is largely due to positioning, regulatory concerns and profit-taking post ECB announcements in June. However, their funding costs have barely moved in the meantime and remain near historical lows. This is likely to have helped their earnings further in Q2.
MADRID | The Corner | He praised budget contention and austerity, and yet his first announcement as the European Commission new president has to do with investment: Jean Claude Juncker called for a 300 bn euro public-private investment reindustrialisation programme over the next three years.