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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 22nd November 2011

Ferrovial Investor’s Day: “Visibility for the service business can rise hidden value”

Ferrovial held its Investor’s day on Tuesday in London. The event focused its attention on the Spanish firm’s services division (Amey, Cespa and Ferroser). Ahorro Corporación Financiera’s (ACF) analysts expect that Ferrovial will give more visibility to the services business, since “it could surface some hidden value in this unit or even generate new share price catalysts”. Experts argue that “after Swissport and Tubelines sale, 60% of the services’ EBITDA…

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In Europe 22nd November 2011

Clouds over France

France’s economy is coming to a standstill. The Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI) for France declined 0.6 percent in September to 112.8 (taking 2004 as benchmark), following a 0.5 percent decline in August, and a 0.3 percent decline in July. The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index (CEI) for France, a measure of current economic activity, though, was unchanged in September at 105.6, following a 0.1 percent increase in August, and a 0.1 percent…

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World economy 21st November 2011

“Investors are about to realise the US economy is in trouble, too”

Another crystal clear note from Nordkapp analysts in Madrid: “If Germany keeps its ironclad determination of not accept the monetisation of the bad sovereign debt in the hands of the banks, if the holes in the Spanish banks are not monetised, if a haircut is not applied to Greek debt, an exit to the crisis with all its consequences will be delayed. Each day that passes without resolving the crisis…

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Spanish economy 21st November 2011

The PP will control €7 out of €10 of Spain’s public spending

By Julia Pastor, in Madrid | Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party has won the most crushing absolute majority of its history, with 186 seats out of the total 350 of the Spanish Parliament (in 2000, former president José María Aznar achieved 183). On Monday, analysts of the financial City of Madrid expressed their opinions about this shift in the political scene. “The elections results were already expected by the markets, since…

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aggregation line 19th November 2011

Weekend link fest

A curated selection of links we hope can enlighten us all; some come from our corner, some do from other corners of the net. And as always, our comment widgets are anxious to get your suggestions: Humor: What service the next president of Spain should call for… Europe is developing rescue fatigue Get used to the euro crisis: it’s the new normal China worried about banks’ loans to construction companies and…

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Markets 18th November 2011

JP Morgan: “France-Germany spread is the highest of all times”

On Thursday Spain had to pay 6.975% interest to borrow money at 10 years: a spread of 480bp against the German rate. It is the highest rate Spain has had to pay since it became part of the euro zone. However, analysts at JP Morgan remarked that France’s differential compared to Germany’s “is not only the highest since the euro exists, but the highest of all time.” On the other…

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Interviews 18th November 2011

“Our debt is owed to each other, Europe’s fundamentals still are sound”

The chairman of Telefónica César Alierta defended at the opening of the Latibex Forum the strength of the European economy. Here is an extract from the Cinco Días chronicle of the event, with some interesting statements made by Mr Alerta. “César Alierta, chairman of Telefónica, said that the Spanish operator is the largest investor in Latin America, adding that this year it will invest more than €5 billion. Mr Alierta…

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Companies 18th November 2011

Ferrovial reaches to Eastern Europe

Ferrovial has now completed the purchase of Poland’s Przedsiebiorstwo Napraw Infrastruktury (PNI), specialised in civil engineering and railway design, construction and maintenance. The Spanish firm said the cost was close to €51 million euro or 225 million zlotys. Ferrovial, which is the owner of BAA in the UK, carried out this operation through Ferrovial Agroman’s Polish subsidiary Budimex. Alejandro de la Joya, CEO of Ferrovial Agroman explained why the company is interested…