T.C. | The world leader in the textile sector, Inditex, today announced its foray into the world of cosmetics from Wednesday 12 May, with the launch of a new cosmetics line, Zara Beauty. It “will be integrated as another section and will be available online in all European markets, USA, Canada, China, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.” Later, it will be incorporated in all countries and have…
A hypothetical merger between Banco Santander and BBVA would mean the largest merger in European banking. It would also have a high return on investment and low integration risk, according to the services firm Alvarez & Marsal and reported by Europa Press. In its latest report called ‘The Pulse of European Banking’, the firm has analysed merger and acquisition opportunities amongst the major European banks in terms of investor return,…
Oriol Carreras Baquer (CaixaBank Research | We are all well aware that the impact of the pandemic has varied widely from sector to sector. Those linked to tourism and leisure have suffered disproportionately. At the other end of the spectrum, some sectors, such as agriculture, forestry and fishing, or public administrations, education and health, have seen their activity increase during the pandemic. In this article, we focus on all the other sectors: the ones which, while having been dealt a heavy blow, have suffered less than those hardest hit. We will call them the «intermediate» sectors.
Scope Ratings | European house prices increased on average by 6.2% in 2020. That was twice the annual rate of the last decade and even higher than growth in the economically very favourable last five years. Few banks have so far amended their underwriting criteria and, in most countries, previous macroprudential measures have been reduced and/or halted. As such, this may be the right time for regulators to become proactive.
Marcus Weston (La Française Group) | Back in June 2020, India’s sovereign credit rating was hit by a double downgrade. First, Moody’s lowered its rating from Baa2 to Baa3. Two weeks later, Fitch lowered its own BBB- India rating outlook, also from stable to negative. Given that the COVID outbreak was one of the catalysts of the June 2020 rating actions, there has understandably been rising market concern that the catastrophic growth in COVID cases on the subcontinent in recent weeks could now trigger the downgrade of India below its critical investment grade status.
T.C. | The global IPO market saw 430 deals in the first three months of the year, raising $105.6 billion, up 85% and 271% year-on-year, respectively, according to EY’s Global IPO Trends Q1 2021 report, which notes how attractive market conditions have led to the best start to IPOs in the last 20 years.
T.C.| Yesterday, the Spanish stock market closed at a twelve-month high, with the selective Ibex 35 above 8,800 points. The good results of some of the companies that have already presented their first quarter figures (Santander, Repsol, Naturgy, Indra, Viscofan…) pushed the index but did not prevent, as Morgan Stanley analysts explain, “Spain continues to have negative EPS (Earnings Per Share) and DPS (Dividends Per Share) revisions relative to the market… although it continues to trade at a 30% discount to the MSCI Europe”, when “the historical average is 20%, making it one of the most undervalued countries in the region”.
T. C. | The Spanish economy fell by 0.5% in the first quarter of the year, returning to negative values after having registered rates of 17.1% and 0.0%, respectively, in the third and last quarter of 2020. Analysts had expected a decline of 0.4%, so the figure is almost in line with forecasts.
Luís Pinheiro de Matos (Caixabank Research) | Headline inflation rebounded to 2.2% in April (1.3% in March). The figure is above CaixaBank Research’s forecast (1.6%). On the other hand, core inflation moderated to 0.0% (0.3% in March), a rate not seen since 2014. The new high in inflation can be explained entirely by the performance of energy prices, while the underlying components have not yet shown signs of recovery.
Fernando Alberca | Germany has just passed legislation allowing institutional investment fund managers, known as Spezialfonds, to allocate 20% of their funds to cryptoassets. This law will come into force on 1 July this year. It was passed by Germany’s federal parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday 22 April, and the German Federal Council must ratify it in the coming days for it to become effective.