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.
societegenerale

Société Générale, BNP Paribas, Natixis and HSBC under investigation in France in ‘coupon laundering’ fraud probe

Alphavalue/DIVACONS | The headquarters of five banks were the subject of judicial searches in and around Paris yesterday as part of an investigation into aggravated tax fraud, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNJ) said. According to the daily Le Monde, which broke the news, the banks under investigation are Société Générale (buy, P. O. 35.9 eur/acc), BNP Paribas (buy, P. O. 71.3 eur/acc), and its subsidiary Exane, Natixis and HSBC…


Italia fachadas

EC suspends €19-billion Next Generation funds payment to Italy due to sluggish progress on reforms demanded by Brussels

Renta 4 : European markets open higher (Eurostoxx futures +0.5%), with the markets on hold ahead of the inflation data due on Thursday and Friday in Europe and the US, which will determine the extent to which central banks will have to continue to raise interest rates. Meanwhile, the most advanced cycle indicators (German IFO, US Conference Board consumer confidence) show a better than expected performance in March, although the…


Portugal

Sacyr, FCC, Ferrovial and ACS to bid for Portugal’s €3-billion HSR

Spanish construction companies have set their sights on the biggest infrastructure project to be tendered this year in the Iberian Peninsula: the high-speed railway line that will connect Lisbon with Oporto. According to the newspaper El Economista, ACS, Ferrovial, Sacyr, FCC, OHLA and Acciona are outlining the consortiums to bid for the first tenders of the infrastructure, whose development has been structured in three phases to be completed in 2030…


pensioners

Pension spending soars 10% to €12 billion in March as Spain takes on €6 billion a month in debt

Social Security paid out €11,945.6 million in contributory pensions in February, 3 billion more than the 8,946.9 million in March 2018, a few months before Pedro Sánchez came to government. The average monthly retirement pension shot up from the €1,260 it stood at in December 2022 to €1,372 per month, up 9.7%. And since there were no differences by amount bracket, the maximum pension exceeded €3,000 per month for the…


euro area 777x400 1

Eurozone M3 growth at slowest since 2014: +2.9% year-on-year, down from +3.5% previously, below expected +3%

BancaMarch : In the Eurozone, money supply continues to slow down. In February, M3 growth (the broadest monetary aggregate) moderated more than expected to +2.9% year-on-year, down from +3.5% previously and below the +3% expected. It should be noted that this is the slowest pace of money supply growth since 2014. If we analyse the evolution of loans, the slowdown deepened in loans to households (+3.2% vs. +3.6% previously), with…


silicon valley bank

First Citizens’ purchase of SVB confirms importance of avoiding irrational fear and discriminating between institutions, regardless of size

Bankinter : US banks celebrate the purchase of Silicon Valley Bank/SVB by First Citizens (FC) with a +2.5% rise in yesterday’s session. Positive highlights: First Citizens (+53.7%), First Republic (+11.8%), Bank of America (+4.9%) and Citigroup (+3.8%). Analysis team’s view: This is an interesting deal for First Citizens and good news for US banking and the global financial sector. Our reasoning is as follows: (1) FC acquires SVB’s assets (loans…


Germany

German business confidence rises in March to 93.3 from February’s 91.1

Bankinter | IFO Business Climate Survey (March) 93.3 vs 91.0 expected and 91.1 previous. Expectations 91.1 vs 88.3 expected and 88.5 previous. Current Situation 95.4 vs 94.1 expected and 93.9 previous. Analysis: The data bring a positive surprise. However, in the current context, the IFO is less influential. This week the focus is on the financial sector and inflation data in Europe. The downside is that solid economic data give…


dollar rally

US bond holdings fall by $76bn in a week: they don’t want bonds, they want cash

Intermoney | First Citizens finally proceeded to buy SVB for $500 million, assuming $56 billion in deposits and $72 billion in loans. The estimated cost of SVB’s bankruptcy has been set at $20 billion, a loss borne by the FDIC and representing 15% of the fund’s total. Not surprisingly, just a year ago, SVB was worth $40 billion and was the 14th largest bank in the US. Just a month…


Ibedrola hidrogeno

Iberdrola to lead green hydrogen consortium, Atmosphere

Alphavalue / Divacons | The Spanish utility has announced that it will lead the ‘Atmosphere’ consortium, a project that will integrate different companies to innovate in new technologies that can be applied to the critical equipment of green hydrogen generation plants, thus covering the entire value chain, as reported by the company in a statement. The consortium will also include Ingeteam Power Technology, Inerco Ingeniería Tecnológica y Consultoría, ABC Compressors,…


MUJERES CEO 768x442 1

Only 3% of Ibex 35 companies have female CEOs

F.R. | Ibex 35 companies have only 3% female CEOs, 9% female board chairwomen and 19% female presence in senior management, according to the Barometer of Gender Diversity in Governing Bodies in Europe, based on the analysis of the main stock market indicators of 16 European markets and the Stoxx600 as of January 1st this year, carried out by ecoDa, the European Federation of Directors’ Organisations to which the Spanish…