Santander clocked up a 10% year-on-year rise in first quarter net profit to 2.054 billion euros, beating forecasts for 2.01 billion euros in a Reuters poll. The results were driven by strong growth in its largest market, Brazil. But its operations in Mexico and Spain also boosted group performance.
Neoenergia, Iberdrola’s flagship in Brazil, has launched a 1.5 billion euros takeover bid for Eletropaulo Metropolitana Electricida de São Paulo. A few hours later, Italian energy firm Enel also lodged bid, improving the price offered by Iberdrola by 9.7% at 28 Brazilian reals per share.
Spanish property firm Colonial had a good year in 2017, gaining 36.3% year-on-year compared with a drop of 1.56% year-on-year for the office market sector in the rest of Europe, due to the fear of an increase in long-term rates.
What does Latin America’s bumper election year hold in store for the continent? It is unclear, but as the 2018 regional report on Latin America from Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) stresses, “structural transformation takes time and patience, which many citizens no longer have to spare.”
By Alicia Garcia Herrero and Jianwei Xu via Caixin | It is not the first time that the world has been caught in the China-U.S. crossfire, but the US protectionist move looks different this time. In fact, they are broader-based both as they involve a much larger number of products and in that they also target the global competition for US companies and not only the US market.
The consortium in which Enagas has a 20% stake, along with the Italian firm Snam (60%) and the Belgian company Fluxys (20%) has won the bid to acquire Greek gas operator DESFA, in its privatisation process, for €535 million (Enagás’ contribution will be around 107 million).
Yesterday, April 19, after being flat for months, with no pulse, the Euribor finally showed signs of life. It moved from the range of -0.190% (average for April) to -0.189%. One basis point.
According to a note to clients, Morgan Stanley believes that UBS, HSBC and Société Générale should perform well during the quarter. Compared with the US Banks, they have a downward risk due to investment banking fees and upside due to the outlook for equities.
The Public Works Minister, Íñigo de la Serna, said the ministry will launch “before the summer” a record 2.717 billion euros investment programme for AVE high-speed train and roads.
The market behaviour in Q2 continues to be one of de-risking, says Mark Tinker Head of Framlington Equities Asia. “It is clear that the noise traders who came so enthusiastically into equity markets around the turn of the calendar year have gone again before the start of the new financial year, taking their leverage with them”, he explains.