Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | When Turkey catches a cold, Greece gets the shivers. It’s always been the way. When there is political instability in Turkey, Greece starts to worry about Ankara externalising the crisis and turning against a weaker neighbour to divert public opinion.
Italian lender Unicredit has announced the cancellation of an agreement reached in November with Spain’s Santander to create a new asset management company by combining their respective subsidiaries Pioneer Investments and Santander Asset Management.
Abertis’ key figures improved in the first half of 2016, with growth in net profit (+9% like-for-like) to €510Mn , EBITDA (+7% like-for-like) to €1,502Mn and revenue (+5%) to a total of €2,243Mn, in a period featuring a resilient recurring business, traffic increases and the addition of new assets to the consolidation scope following the acquisition of 50% of Autopista Central in Chile.
Cellnex Telecom is the leading independent operator of wireless telecommunications’ infrastructure in Europe and is a newcomer to the Spanish stock exchange (it made its debut on June 9). In the first half to June, the company obtained revenues of €338 million and EBITDA of €134 million. Net income reached €24 million compared to €18 million a year earlier. At end-June, Cellnex had a portfolio of 15,135 towers located in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and France. Cellnex is a subsidiary of Abertis.
FCC’s story this year has been marked by the mandatory takeover bid by Carlos Slim’s fund Inversora Carso. The bid was launched in March and completed on July 15. Grupo Carso now owns 61.11% of FCC and is the largest shareholder, while Esther Koplowitz is the second biggest with 20%. The company has just left the Ibex 35 blue chip index.
Julius Baer Research | We share the view of Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, that his ultra-accommodative monetary policy stance alone cannot push the eurozone economy out of its current weakness but needs to be complemented with fiscal impulses.
Huang Zhilong via Caixin | Chinese policymakers have turned to domestic consumption as a new force to drive economic growth, as debt-heavy businesses and local governments face growing pressure to deleverage. But as the nation’s economic expansion and wage growth cool, it will be difficult to encourage ordinary people to increase spending if that means borrowing more.
The EU Comission has decided not to fine Spain and Portugal for its deviation in the public deficit in 2015. Both countries, which have been traditional fiscal sinners since the crisis began, did not take effective actions last year. Although symbolic, Brussels could have imposed fines of up to 0.2 percent of GDP on Madrid and Lisbon, around 2.1 billion euros in the case of Spain.
Banco Santander registered attributable profit of EUR 2.911 billion in the first half of 2016, a 32% decrease compared to the same period of 2015. This decline is affected by one-offs and the depreciation against the euro of the currencies of the main countries where the Group is present.