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Banco Santander office

Santander achieves attributable profit of €5,241m in first half of 2023, up 7%

Santander achieved an attributable profit of €5,241 million in the first half of 2023, up 7% in both constant and current euros versus the same period last year, as strong growth in revenues, particularly in Europe, offset the year-on-year growth in provisions in North and South America. In the second quarter, attributable profit increased 17% versus the second quarter of 2022 to €2,670 million, as the number of customers the…


Naturgy

Naturgy reports €1,045M profit up to June and dividend yield over 5%

Naturgy reported a net profit of €1,045 million in the first half of the year, an increase of 87.6% compared to the same period in 2022, mainly due to the “good performance of the internal business activities” and the good management of purchases in a competitive market. The energy company headed by Francisco Reynés increased its investments to €839 million, 16% more, and investments for the five-year period 2021-2025 will…


BBVA Torres

BBVA to redeem a €1-billion CoCos issue early

CdM| The Spanish bank will redeem early an issue of preference shares convertible into ordinary shares for a total nominal amount of €1 billion, as reported Friday to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). In this way, the entity has informed of its “irrevocable decision” to proceed with the redemption on September 24, coinciding with the first review date. The redemption price for each preference share will be €202,937.50, equivalent…


China interest rate reform

People’s Bank of China keeps lending rates unchanged

Link Securities | The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced early on Thursday morning that kept its lending rates unchanged after the central bank earlier in the week left its medium-term policy rate unchanged. The one-year prime lending rate (LPR), which is the medium-term lending facility used for corporate and household loans, remained unchanged at 3.55%; while the five-year rate, the benchmark for mortgages, was left unchanged at 4.2%, in…


España bancos

Average rate at which Spanish banks granted mortgage loans in June reached 4.045%, highest level since 2009

Alphavalue/DIVACONS| The annualised return on equity of Spanish banks rose to 11.15% compared with 9.86% in the previous quarter and 10.56% in the same quarter last year, according to supervisory statistics on credit institutions for the first quarter of this year published on Thursday by the Bank of Spain. On the other hand, the average rate at which Spanish banks granted mortgage loans in June reached 4.045%, which is its…


Telefonica pantalla

Telefónica joins forces with Celo Foundation to promote open-source blockchain ecosystem

Alphavalue / Divacons | The Spanish telecom has teamed up with the US-based Celo Foundation, which also entails its alliance with the Celo Alliance for Prosperity, which promotes the open-source blockchain-block ecosystem, Celo, and contributes to the decentralisation of the network, it said in a press release yesterday. Telefónica will play a key role in validating transactions, ensuring network consensus, helping stability and maintaining the security of the Celo blockchain.


France

Fortress Europe closed to outside experts

Fernando González Urbaneja| The European Commissioner for Competition, the Dane Margrethe Vestager, wanted to recruit an American expert with good credentials as her chief economist: Yale professor and competition expert Fiona Scott. The American was the best qualified, but her status as a non-European citizen was not acceptable to some governments, especially the French government, which used the concept of strategic autonomy to veto the professor. The informal veto was…


cereales

Wheat prices rise after Russia suspends Black Sea grain export deal

Alphavalue/DIVACONS| Wheat prices have risen following Russia’s announcement that it has suspended a grain export deal across the Black Sea. The White House says that the US will continue to work with other countries to ensure the movement of Russian and Ukrainian grain: “We are not considering a blockade following Russia’s suspension of the grain agreement”.


RealState 1

New outlook for the Spanish real estate sector: slowdown in the housing market

Judit Montoriol Garriga (Caixabank Research) | The Spanish real estate market began to slow down in mid-2022 with the shift of direction of monetary policy. Although the ECB has raised benchmark interest rates by 4 pps for the moment, the pace of the slowdown has been gentler than anticipated, leading us to improve the sector’s outlook for 2023. Nevertheless, we continue to expect a significant slowdown in the Spanish real…


telefonica gran via logo nuevo

Telefónica wins €73m in UNICO programme funding to deploy 5G in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants

Renta 4 | The company has been awarded €73 million in aid from the UNICO programme for the deployment of 5G in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants. The main winners were Lyntia Networks and Avatel Telecom, with €142 million and €132 million, respectively. Adamo will receive more than €82 million and Telefónica will receive €73 million. The rest of the aid is divided between Totem (Orange towers) with €9…