[UPDATE] By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Spain | The Spanish government will disclose on Friday its plans for a massive clean-up in mortgage-backed bad loans from banking balance sheets. This move is indeed highly welcome so long this overhaul doesn’t push too far eating all resources at hand. Once a €50 billion adjustment has been announced, markets will only settle for a substantially higher figure. In many cases, meeting such…
Acciona, Repsol, Iberdrola and Inditex are the only Spanish companies listed in the ranking of the 100 most sustainable companies in the world –’Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World 2012 ‘– that was presented during the celebration of the Davos World Economic Forum and developed by the magazine ‘Corporate Knights’. Acciona is the first Spanish company to appear in the ranking, where it stands at place 37, it is followed…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | The president of the bank Santander Emilio Botín knows very well what he is talking about, and from where he is talking. He has a privileged position. He leads the most powerful and respected bank, not only in Spain but also in Europe. That is why on Tuesday, during the conference press to render and explain the banks’ last year results, he could afford…
By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | The FT has published a very good article by John Authers on the unusual business practice that American companies maintain with their shareholders. As Authers says, at present, non-financial companies possess a cash cushion of 6% of their total assets, something that has never been witnessed in the last six decades. The companies, with large profits (profits have risen to their highest level since the…
MADRID | The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Biomedicine category went in this fourth edition to Alexander Varshavsky of California Institute of Technology. According to the jury, Varshavsky’s research has spawned a whole new field in biomedicine, since it is now known that defects in protein degradation mechanism underlie a wide variety of pathologies. His work, as such, has a bearing on the understanding of cancers, immune…
By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Thirteen big pharmaceutical companies, the small Spanish Chemo among them, have joined forces along with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in order to eradicate ten neglected tropical diseases. It is the major international partnership alliance performed to fight against this kind of affections, which, according to the World Health Organization, hit near 1,400 million people, particularly the most disadvantaged populations of tropical and subtropical…
By Tania Suárez, in Madrid | Banco Santander’s 4Q11 results are better than expected: it has registered attributable net profit of €5.351 billion, down 35%, after extraordinary provisions of €3.183 billion. According to Sabadell’s analysts, Santander “has achieved better results in the UK than expected, despite having suffered the negative effects of the new UK liquidity regulation.” Santander has noted important expenses (€3.180bn) with its property portfolio, with its Portuguese…
By Juan Pedro Marín Arrese, in Madrid | Economics is not a science but rather a common sense attitude. An open mind approach is vital to grasp its core meaning. Policing it shouldn’t be handed over to people too fond of rigid rules. Let the Germans have a go at it and you’ll end up with a neutral fiscal and monetary stance all year around. No policy at all, in fact….
By Fernando Barciela, in Madrid | A small €24 million-turnover metal stamping company has become a €1.5 billion-turnover international corporation in 15 years. Its chairman Anton Pradera says that changing a company’s model isn’t difficult. Indeed. CIE Automotive sells 90% of its production outside Spain. Does this protect you from our domestic crisis? [Our emphasis.] That’s right. We are really happy now that we started our internationalisation at the very beginning of…
By Cotizalia.com | The second biggest event of the year for Spanish listed companies will be taking place on February 1. After the Spain Investors’ Day, that was held on January 11,12, next month will see a classic: the eighteenth edition of Santander’s Iberian Conference. After a 2011 marked by heavy stock market falls that have reduced again the average market capitalisation of the Spanish listed companies, the big news…