Spanish wine, like European wine, is trembling. Donald Trump has decided to include it in the trade war that the United States is waging with the world and has threatened to impose a 200% tariff on them. This effectively means expelling Spanish wines from the U.S. market, a wine war that would particularly affect Catalan cavas and the wineries of Rioja and Ribera del Duero. This is indicated by the…
For a year now, Catalonia has been a real estate laboratory. This Sunday marks 12 months since the Generalitat decided to adopt the Housing Law and declare “stressed areas” in 140 of its municipalities, later adding another 131. It was the first community to do so – the Basque Country joined later, and so far no one else has – and today 90% of the Catalan population lives in an…
Telefónica has agreed with Millicom to sell all the shares it holds in Colombia Telecomunicaciones, representing 67.5% of its share capital, for approximately $400 million, as reported by the company to the CNMV. This represents an equity value of more than seven times EBITDA and the deconsolidation of debt of nearly €1.2 billion. “This operation is part of the asset portfolio management policy of the Telefónica Group and is aligned…
Alicia García Herrero (Natixis) | China’s most important annual gathering, the so-called Lianghui(两会) will ended on March 11 after over a week of meetings by the legislative body, the National People’s Congress (NPC), but also the most important consultative body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). One of the key objectives of these “Two Sessions”, as they are generally referred to in English, was to offer the key economic…
Crédito y Caución | The UK’s foreign trade remains scarce, and the main sectors of its economy are suffering from rising costs, more complex bureaucracy, and labour shortages. Five years ago, Brexit marked the beginning of a new era for Great Britain. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement introduced new regulatory barriers and customs controls with the European Union, but also the theoretical possibility of a British economy free to trade…
Link Securities | Zurich insurance company has just exceeded 4% shareholding in Banco Sabadell (SAB), according to information included yesterday in the register of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), according to the newspaper Expansión. The Swiss firm controls 4.03% of the Spanish bank, up from the previous 3.96%. Zurich Insurance Group has been making daily purchases on trading days since 21 February. With these acquisitions, it has increased its…
Bankinter | The Bank of Spain (BdE) has revised its GDP forecasts for 2025 to 2.7% year-on-year (up 0.2pp); and unchanged at 1.9% for 2026 and 1.7% for 2027. It has also revised the inflation projections for 2025 upwards to 2.5% (up 0.4pp), due to the rise in energy prices, and maintains those for 2026 and 2027 at 1.7% and 2.4% respectively. They project an unemployment rate of 10.5% (down…
Bankinter | The European Commission has announced the imposition of counter-tariffs on the United States. This is in response to the entry into force this morning of the 25% tariffs imposed by the United States on imports of steel, aluminium and products derived from them, which will have an impact of €26 billion on exports from the European Union (EU). The EU plan has two phases: (i) On 1 April…
Jefferies | ITX’s 5% Q4 EBIT beat confirmed the compounding power of the group’s affordable quality fashion proposition. Of course, it will be the clear miss in current trading at a 4% gain (versus we think buy-side at 7%/8%) which will set the debate this morning. The acceleration to 7% last week (as weather turned more seasonal) suggests that meteorological conditions were especially difficult during a small part of Q1…
Link Securities | The Canadian transport operator TransLink, from the city of Vancouver, has awarded Solaris, a subsidiary of CAF, the contract for the supply of 107 trolleybuses for approximately €120 million, with the option of increasing the number of units contracted. At the end of last year, Solaris announced that it had been awarded its first contract in the USA, specifically for the supply of electric buses to the…