Francesco Saraceno | Munchau recently argued that central banks’ choices are increasingly political in nature, especially if their mandate is broad, as is the case for example of the Fed. His argument is that a broad mandate implies tradeoffs, and as such it does not go well with central bank independence.
Telefonica posted profit of 2.369 billion euros in 2016, up 3.8% from a year earlier. Last year’s figure reflected non-recurrent items, mainly a 1.290 billion euros charge in the fourth quarter related to restructuring costs. Excluding that charge, profits rose 4.8% to 4.038 billion euros year-on-year.
The European Commission has published its evaluation of the progress made by different countries towards their economic and social priorities. The report highlights that the Spanish economy is growing at a good pace and is gradually correcting its weaknesses. But there continue to be huge imbalances, like still high unemployment and the high levels of both public and private debt.
Iberdrola has signed a loan worth 500 million euros with BBVA to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. The so-called green loan offers the company more advantageous conditions (no details have been provided on the cost or maturity).Furthermore, the company…
Nearly six months after Telefonica announced the IPO of its infrastructure affiliateTelxius, venture capital firm KKR said it plans to buy 40% of the company for 1.275 billion euros, or 12.75 euros per share. So one headache less for the Spanish telecommunications giant.
Spain’s trade deficit declined 22.4% to 18.754 billion euros in 2016, the second smallest figure since 1997, thanks to record exports.
Ferrovial has teamed up with the Australian company Plenary to bid for motorway and other infrastructure concessions in Australia and New Zealand. They will create a joint venture (the Netflow consortium) through Ferrovial’s concessionary arm Cintra. This market is a priority one for Ferrovial, basically because of its high profitability.
The volume of M&A in the European banking sector has gone from 39 billion euros in 2008 to scarcely 9.5 billion in 2015. And in the first half of last year, it was little over 1 billion euros. Why has there not been more consolidation in the sector? It’s an important question for the European authorities who want to promote banking union to answer.
The price-inventory apparent mismatch of crude oil matters to the extent that going long crude appears to be a crowded trade so that the risks are on the downside if it were to happen that the “confirmed” cuts have been more paper ones than real ones.
Emilio Saracho will be appointed as Banco Popular Chairman at today’s Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting. The new chairman (ex-deputy chairman at JP Morgan) will very likely revise the bank’s strategic plan, avoiding a new capital hike at least in the short-term.