Telefónica is continuing with its plans for cutting group debt – estimated at 50 billion euros – by divesting stakes in some of its subsidiaries and ruling out any major new acquisitions. On the one hand, the company is still preparing to list a minority stake in its UK mobile subsidiary O2 towards year-end, on the other they are considering to sell Telefonica Argentina.
Like any unaware retail investor, CEOs buy high and sell low. So now that markets are up and, even though big European corporates have been flush with cash over the last 5-7 years, “the buzz word is about buy-backs again,” says Carax-Alphavalue’s analysts.
J. L. M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) |What is the main concern for Spain’s SMEs? The lack of clients. This is what they have revealed in the latest survey published by the ECB, covering the period from October 2016 to March 2017. And what about financing? It was once again the least of its worries, something which has been the case since the start of the year.
Abengoa is trying to finalise the details which will allow it to go ahead with the sale of Atlantica Yield (Nasdaq:ABY) which manages electricity assets and has an approximate market value of $2.16 billion (around 1.93 billion euros). Abengoa has two options for closing the sale: Firstly, the direct handover of its 41% stake in ABY to the funds, including Brookfield, secondly placing blocks of its shares on the market.
Tapering will come anyway, largely because of technical/ political constraints around QE. The ECB will still have to justify this with a macroeconomic narrative. This is what the ECB President has set out to do.However, experts at BoAML believe that what he said yesterday in Sintra central bankers summit is also consistent with a very slow exit.
The so called populist uprising in the west is a rejection of one aspect of globalisation, the power of the supra-national institutions and their policies. “An alternative system has appeared to offset or undermine the existing one and, it is for the many outside the political class rather than the few inside, “summarises Mark Tinker head of AXA IM Framlington Equities Asia. Technology is offering new platforms to do what the elite used to control.
AlphaValue’s experts are worried about the lack of stocks in the Stoxx600 universe that match the requirement of “post Uber” business models: ones where capital intensity is light, where green is more than a buzzword and where businesses can bank on forever free money. As they comment “somehow, the revamped Siemens fits the bill”. Why?
Benjamin Cole | The U.S. Federal Reserve is tightening its noose on the U.S. economy, despite being below its 2% PCE inflation target, and despite the sluggish wages that define the American job scene: real hourly wages are down in Q1 (the latest reading) and are up 3.1% in the last 10 years.
The board of directors of Bankia and Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN) have approved the merger of the two lenders via a share exchange of 1 Bankia x 7,82. Furthermore, Bankia values BMN at 825 million euros. The deal is expected to be closed in December this year, and will give rise to Spain’s fourth largest bank, bigger than Sabadell.
J.L.M. Campuzano (Spanish Banking Association) | According to IMF data, the pace of growth of productive investment has slown in economies which are emerging and in the process of developing from levels of 10% in 2010 to 3.6% at the moment.