Articles by The Corner

About the Author

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.
No Picture

Santander to issue contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) for third time in 2014

MADRID | The Corner | Santander will issue contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) worth up to 1,500 million euros. In order to reach its aim, the bank will start a road show to sound out the market interest and, in case of suitable conditions, it will start the operation on Monday or Tuesday next week with the collaboration of Credit Suisse, HSBC, JP Morgan, Société Générale and UBS. This issue of CoCos will be the third that the Spanish bank carries out this year, after the issue of 1,5000 million euros in March at an interest rate of 6.25% and another one in May when it sold CoCos worth 1,500 million dollars at 6.375%.


edificio telefonica1

Telefónica unseats Telecom Italia in the battle for GVT

MADRID | The Corner | Vivendi board has decided to enter into exclusive talks with Telefónica for the disposal of its Brazilian subsidiary company Global Village Telecom (GVT), preferring Telefónica’s bid over the Telecom Italia’s one. Telefónica will pay a total consideration of €7.45 bn, of which €4.66bn in cash and the remainder in newly issued shares of the combined Telefónica Brazil-GVT entity corresponding to a 12% economic interest. 


No Picture

Eurozone’s credit continues to squeeze in July, especially in Spain

MADRID | The Corner | The ECB published yesterday figures on bank lending that show the  outlook keep being worrying. On the one hand there was an improvement in credit to households and on the other hand a further squeeze on credit to business, especially a pronounced decline in countries like Spain. The overall balance in July is a contraction of 1.6% YoY, which represents a further improvement since it got to the bottom during November, December and January (-2.5% YoY each month). Credit in the private sector continues to contract (-2.3% YoY) in line with last month but improving over July 2013 (-3.7% YoY ) and in general over the monthly evolution in 2014. In Spain the credit contracts € 7bn (-1.2% MoM from -1.04% MoM in June) and it moves back by € 77 bn YoY (-11.7%). In Italy the set-back is even bigger MoM (-3.6%) but is limited to +1.6% YoY.


Economic sentiment indicator

Economic sentiment worsens in Italy, Germany and France, but remains stable in Spain

MADRID | The Corner | In August the Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) fell in the euro area (by 1.5 points to 100.6) and the EU (by 1.2 points at 104.6). Once again the core Europe does not bring any good news, where sentiment dropped in Italy (by 4.1p to 97.8), Germany (by 1.9p to 104.1 ) and France (by 0.6p to 95.1), while sentiment remained flat in Spain (103.).  Among the data published by the European Commission today, the industrial confidence fell in the EA to -5.3 in August from -3.8 in July and construction sentiment dropped to -28.4 from -28.2. Sentiment in the services industry declined to 3.1 from 3.6 and retail trade to -4.6 from -2.3. Consumer confidence remained at -10.


No Picture

Hollande’s new government ready for reforms

MADRID | The Corner | The economy is stagnant, the confidence of businesses and consumers continues to decline and unemployment is touching new highs. France is being forced to carry out reforms from all sides, hence François Hollande and Manuel Valls have chosen the social democrat Emmanuel Macron as Minister of Economy, confirming their willingness to pursue the economic reform agenda.


No Picture

ECB stimulus speculations keep circulating

MADRID | The Corner | The expectation that the ECB will finally announce a QE program after Draghi’s words at Jackson Hole and the confirmation that the ECB would have hired Blackrock for advice on launching a ABS program continue to nurture the Eurozone bond rally and thereby the credit one. Yesterday many bond markets in Europe returned to record lows with improvements in 10 years of 3bp (Germany), 2.5bp (Spain) and 2bp (Italy).


No Picture

China’s antitrust investigation threatening 25% of car industry’s global benefits

MADRID | The Corner | China’s antitrust investigation on over 1,000 manufacturers and foreign suppliers in China (market of € 450,000 million in revenues) threatens 25% of the sector’s global benefits. In particular, German manufacturers are the most exposed (BMW, Daimler, Audi and Porsche generate 50.000 million euros and account for over 80% of demand for luxury goods). According to Morgan Stanley figures, 80% of the market has been influenced by foreign companies. In the short term Morgan Stanley analysts believe the focus of the problem will centre on imports but generalized cuts in luxury markets are also expected.


european earnings season

European earnings: 2Q 2014 the strongest since 1Q 2012

MADRID | The Corner | Now that the earnings season in Europe has finished, Morgan Stanley analysts point out that, excluding small caps, there are 4% more companies that have beaten estimates versus those that have missed them. Therefore, this last quarter has been the strongest since 1Q12. The IT and consumption sectors are those with the best results. Moreover, Europe comes back in the 2Q to the EPS growth (3.7% above the expectations) and the companies start to raise revenue guidance.


No Picture

A QE would be key for Germany, France and Italy to overcome their current stagnation

MADRID | By Francisco López | Are there reasons for such optimism after Draghi’s words in Jackson Hole? Yes, but only if Draghi dares to execute a program of sovereign debt purchases immediately. It happens that not all experts are clear that it will be the case. Especially, because the package of measures adopted by the ECB in June has still not been implemented: two TLTROs auctions and the Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) program. Would it not be better to wait to check the effects of these measures?


UBS Debt to GDP Euro area

Peripheral Europe’s bond rally might soon come to an end

MADRID | The Corner | Peripheral equities and bonds have been strongly favored by Draghi’s speech last Friday at Jackson Hole with intense improvements in sovereign credits from Portugal, Spain and Italy, which have reached record lows. In particular, Spain’s 10-year bonds yields are at 2.12% under the 2.38% of comparable U.S. Treasuries and especially today the Spanish Treasury has reduced sharply the interest rates of three- and nine-months bills in an auction of € 3,500 million at historical lows, without entering in negative territory like on the secondary market. Nevertheless, UBS strategists are starting to change their bullish view on peripheral Europe basing on market and fundamental arguments.