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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.
Pampilla

World economy 2nd February 2022

Peru Asks Repsol For Guarantees “That There Cannot Be Another Spill”

16 days after one of the worst oil spills in Peru, the country’s environment minister, Rubén Ramírez, announced the suspension of all hydrocarbon loading and unloading activities until Repsol “can offer sufficient guarantees that another spill cannot occur”. The company responded by calling the decision “disproportionate and unreasonable”. Approximately 11,900 barrels of crude oil were spilled at Repsol’s Pampilla refinery while an oil tanker was unloading; this is believed to…

labour market

Spanish economy 2nd February 2022

Spain: Public Employment Does Break Records (+6.8% In Two Years) With A 31% Temporary Employment Rate, 10 Points Higher Than In The Private Sector

The number of public employees has grown by 6.8% since 2019 and is at record highs, while the private sector is still one million short of its 2007 record. It is true that, taken together, public and private employment, the aggregate number of employed (20.18 million) does exceed the pre-pandemic number by 218,000. But it is public sector employment that has broken historical records and is 6.8% higher than before…

Spanish banking health

Spanish economy 2nd February 2022

The FROB Makes A Formal Offer For 100% Of Spain’s Bad Bank

The Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) made an offer to the rest of the entities that have shares in the Asset Management Company from Bank Restructuring (Sareb) to take 100% of the company for a symbolic price close to €200, according to Europa Press. Sareb’s shareholder banks must decide whether to sell their stake in the FROB, which they have already fully provisioned.

eurozone labour market

Spanish economy 1st February 2022

The quality of employment in Spain is 10% lower than the EU-15 average

Funcas | The Spanish labour market has substantial room for improvement in job quality, according to the latest issue of Panorama Social, a publication edited by Funcas. In one of the articles included in this issue written by Rafael Muñoz de Bustillo Llorente and Enrique Fernández Macías, and based on non-monetary variables (such as working hours, contractual conditions and career development prospects, amongst others), Spain is among the EU15 countries…

acsCM

Spanish economy 1st February 2022

The €4.9 Bn euros ACS clocked up from the sale of Industrial Services should be used to simplify its structure; starting with a buyout of Australia’s Cimic

Intermoney | We confirm our Buy stance on ACS, as well as our Target Price of 40 euros/share, to December 2022e. We believe the Group has the opportunity to reverse the drop in its stock price during 2021 if it simplifies its structure. This could be achieved via a buyout of Cimic. The Australian multi-national contractor is majority owned by ACS’ subsidiary Hochtief. The Spanish firm could also put a…

mario draghi italy

European economy 31st January 2022

The Best-Case Scenario For Italy In The Next 12 Months

Annalisa Piazza (MFS IM) | The outcome of the Italian Presidential election (Mattarella re-elected and Draghi remaining PM) is the best-case scenario for Italy in the next 12 months. As such, BTPs should benefit from the expected stability and the integrity of the two major political figures. In the short term, we see chances of a modest tightening in spreads vs Bund. We remain relatively optimistic on Italy’s recovery story…

Cellnex

Spanish economy 31st January 2022

The debate over Cellnex could start focusing on organic growth, which could generate annual revenues of over 6%

Morgan Stanley | The current debate surrounding the company is centred on a hike in interest rates, a slowdown in M&A in the towers business ( it has been 11 months without any announcement of an operation), anti-trust hurdles and consolidation amongst the Telcos. We believe the debate could start focusing on organic growth. BTS or the construction of sites (cheaper than buying them), inflation (60% of the contracts are…

Just Sanchez

Spanish economy 31st January 2022

The Public Sector Owes 90 Billion To Its Suppliers, As It Did In 2011

According to the daily Expansión today, the commercial debt of Spanish public administrations with their private suppliers rose to 7.6% of GDP in the third quarter of 2021: “A study by the firm Estudio Económico shows that the commercial debt of public administrations grew by 19.907 billion euros in the third quarter of 2021, 28% with respect to the same period of the previous year. The total figure would stand…

se alquila

Spanish economy 31st January 2022

Spain Will Provide 100,000 Rental Housing Units From The Bad Bank, Financial Entities And Investment Funds

Intermoney | The State plans to facilitate the promotion of 100,000 affordable rental housing units, half of which will come from Sareb, the Spanish bad bank created in 2012, other financial entities and investment funds, according to the newspaper El Economista. Secretary of State for Housing, David Lucas, said this during a real estate event. On the one hand, the Administration is in negotiations with the funds for them to…

real estate investment trusts in China

World economy 30th January 2022

China’s Real Estate Sector: Size Does Matter

Luís Pinheiro de Matos (CaixaBank Research) | China’s real estate sector is often described as «the most important sector in the world» because of the importance it has amassed in recent decades in the Asian giant’s growth model. We analyse how significant a role it plays in the Chinese economy and the risks of the Evergrande effect.