MADRID | The Corner | In the second largest IPO in Spanish history, airports operator Aena is due to start trading on Wednesday in Madrid at a price of €58 a share, which values the group´s equity at €8.7bn.
MADRDD | Sean Duffy | Markets are likely to remain volatile in the week ahead as investors await indication on Greek standoff.
MADRID | The Corner | After the biggest banking leak in history, British bank HSBC admitted on Sunday that its Swiss subsidiary systematically helped big fortunes dodge taxes and hide millions of dollars of assets. Switzerland and the whole industry are under the spotlight: long known for its banking secrecy, the country signed a fiscal transparency agreement with Brussels in 2004 which has proved insufficient. A new, enlarged version of the accord is being debated now and expected to be ready in 2018. But will it be enough? And what until then?
MADRID | Sean Duffy | A defiant speech on Sunday in the Greek parliament from Alexis Tsipras has heightened tensions once again. The game of brinkmanship continues apace, but is the Greek Government edging itself towards a euro exit?
MADRID | The Corner | Spanish Industrial Production figures proved disappointing on Friday, with results revealing that the sector had fallen 0.3% month-on- month and 0.9% year-on- year. The figures will be of some concern to the Finance Ministry given that the economy has recorded seven consecutive months of negative inflation.
ATHENS | By Nick Malkoutzis via MacroPolis | If there was any doubt that the negotiations between the new Greek government and its lenders are going to be incredibly tense, there isn’t now. The European Central Bank’s decision on Wednesday night to stop accepting Greek government bonds as collateral from local lenders has minimal practical impact in the short-term but maximum effect in symbolic terms.
MADRID | By Sean Duffy | Thursday brought some positive predictions on the Spanish economy from the European Commission, but buoyancy on European markets may be negated by data due from the US later today.
MADRID | The Corner | Despite the markets’ first negative reaction to the ECB’s restricting Greece access to its direct liquidity lines, Morgan Stanley analysts reminded on Thursday that nobody should be that surprised: in 2012, one third of the Greek balance sheets were financed by the ECB, and most via ELA. Plus, Greek banks can still get ECB liquidity if they use ECB eligible collateral.
By Jens Bastian via MacroPolis | The parliamentary majority achieved by the SYRIZA-led coalition government following the 25 January elections constitutes a strong political mandate in mathematical terms. Among one of the many immediate challenges facing the new administration is trying to translate its numerical advantage into a majority of support among Greek citizens, including those who did not vote for the senior coalition party.
LONDON | Sigrún Davíðsdóttir | Forget economics, politics is key to understanding the Eurozone. The cries of “Grexit” lately have mostly been a repetition of an earlier discourse: in February 2012 Citi’s economists Willem Buiters and Ebrahim Rahbari coined the term “Grexit,” by July 2012 estimating its likelihood to 90%. Cheered on by the media, economists have taken over the debate of the Eurozone which is why much of it has been such a futile exercise: it is not economics, which ties the Eurozone together but the political determination of its leaders to make the euro work. With political will likelihood of any exit is 0. Ergo, Grexit is as unlikely now as it has always been in spite of the EU brinkmanship. One route Greece seems to be exploring is a tried and tested one: the “bisque clause” from 1946.