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Articles by The Corner

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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.
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Companies 30th March 2012

Santander wins ‘UK Business Bank’ award ahead of Emilio Botín re-election

MADRID, LONDON | Emilio Botin will be re-elected on Saturday as board director and president of the Spanish financial group, currently third in the domestic rank after Caixabank and BBVA. But he got today a special gift via London: Banco Santander was named ‘Business Bank of the Year’ in the UK at the annual Business Moneyfacts Awards for its strategy to become the small and medium-sized companies’ bank of choice. It was the…

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Spanish economy 30th March 2012

Why such a fuss about Spain’s budget?

By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | The Spanish government will unveil today its budget bill for 2012. In the good old days, analysts and observers bent over its pages to find the clues for public sector priorities in the year. Nowadays you can dispose of such a demanding task. Brussels has unravelled its complexity, reducing the whole exercise to the simplistic aim to meet, no matter how, the deficit…

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aggregation line 30th March 2012

Morgan Stanley: “In the medium-term we are optimistic about Spain and Italy”

MADRID | In a note to investors, Morgan Stanley analysts let go a few words from the bright side of their view on some of the euro zone countries that have endured the worst part of an altogether bumpy week. And here at The Corner, we cannot help but spread the love. Experts at Morgan Stanley maintain their estimates for the general GDP of the European Union, which points at…

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In Europe 29th March 2012

Tough: Britain is experiencing the worst recovery in its history

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | The United Kingdom learnt this week that in 2011 its economy grew by 0.4%, leaving the level of real GDP at 4.1% below the maximum point reached before the recession. The Bank of England, theoretically, has put in place successive programmes of monetary expansion, but what it has achieved is a rise in inflation up to 5%. Meanwhile, many blame budget cuts for the deficit of…

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Companies 29th March 2012

ACS sends heavyweight to cut Hochtief’s Australian hemorrhage

MADRID | Marcelino Fernández Verdes was appointed Thursday chief operating officer of Hochtief, the German division of the Spanish group ACS. Fernández will sit at the executive committee of Hochtief (Vorstand) with CEO Frank Stieler and CFO Peter Sassenfeld. He will address risk management operations of the entire group Hochtief, but will also face the responsibility of breaking the spiralling downward trend its Australian branch Leighton has fallen into. The move…

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In Europe 29th March 2012

Spain is not Sweden, but it could have been

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | In this post of economistsview, by Economics professor Mark Thoma, there is a number of charts of several countries and their evolution post-financial crisis. The aim is to probe whether such crises leave temporary or permanent effects. Here I select the one about Spain, where we can see its GDP. In mid-1973, the first oil crisis came in and Spain’s GDP sort of missed its natural path, which never regained. Well, this is old news, many would say: during the…

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Markets 28th March 2012

“Most bankers cannot see beyond the daily negative headlines about Greece”

By Begoña Castiella, in Athens |Yorgos Peristeris is CEO at the Greek construction company Gek Terna and chairman of Terna Energy, specialised in renewable energy. Peristeris smiles from his desk at the top floor of the company’s headquarters, an interesting building designed by Michael Hopkins in Athens. Gek Terna is a renowned construction company, while Terna Energy is the first Greek renewable energy company working outside Greece, although both are listed on…

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Markets 28th March 2012

Spanish banks’ return on average total assets unchanged from 2010

MADRID | In the sector’s consolidated income statement, the Spanish Banking association AEB reported on Wednesday a net interest income of €50.725 billion, which is an increase by almost 2% of the amount reached in 2010 and maintains profitability levels over average total assets (ATA) at 2.23%, with just a one hundredth less difference. All with an evolution of ATA by 2.7% higher than those managed in 2010. EAB admitted, though, that the…

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Spanish economy 28th March 2012

Spanish banks scramble to avoid salvaging Bankia

By Juan Pedro Marin Arrese, in Madrid | Big banks in Spain have entered the merger race purchasing former nationalised entities. This sudden shift from previous reluctance to get involved in rescue deals is seen by many observers as a move to fence off pressures to salvage Bankia. According to this view, there would be great concern in financial circles over an institution that seems too big both to fail and…

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In Europe 28th March 2012

Bailouts without growth for the euro zone

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | There is talk lately in the euro area about the capacity of our firewall, about what sort of volume it should reach in order to frighten the bond markets. This firewall is, of course, the European Financial Stability Facility, the current bailout fund to be replaced in 2013 by the European Stability Mechanism. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has surprised everyone by saying she is willing to…