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Companies 14th September 2014

Isidoro Álvarez, chairman of Spanish leading retail giant, El Corte Inglés dies

MADRID | The Corner | The head of the retail company, Isidoro Álvarez, died on Sunday at 79 years old. Álvarez managed the Spanish giant since the the death of the firm’s founder, Ramón Areces, in 1989. He began working at El Corte Inglés at the age of 18, while studying Economics and Business Sciences at the Complutense University in Madrid, and at 24 he was already appointed a Member of the Board of Directors. The executive made El Corte Inglés the leading company and the reference within the retail sector. His death happens just few days after another’s national corporate heavyweight, Emilio Botín, Santander’s chairman.

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Companies 2nd September 2014

Spanish bank Santander to issue 2.5bn euros in CoCo bonds

MADRID | The Corner | Spanish biggest bank Santander announced a bond issue contingent convertible (Coco) by an amount of €2.5 billion, which will be directed exclusively to qualified investors. Another Spanish company seeking financing in the capital markets is construction firm ACS, issuing of €500 million debt, which that was forced to suspend it some weeks ago due to the Portuguese bank Espirito Santo scandal.

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Companies 29th August 2014

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. 

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Companies 19th August 2014

Spanish Técnicas Reunidas awarded first contract by oil giant Petronas

MADRID | The Corner | Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) of Malaysia has awarded to Técnicas Reunidas a contract for the engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning (EPCC) of all hydrotreating units, interconnections and torch of the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development Project (RAPID) in Pengerang.

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Companies 1st August 2014

United Kingdom, Santander’s main source of profits

MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | United Kingdom has displaced Brazil, which displaced before Spain as first market by benefit contribution to Banco Santander. Of the 2,750 million € earned in the first six months (+22% over the first half of 2013), 20% comes from the British market. Brazil contributes the 19% of benefits and Spain recovers share until reaching the 13%. And then there are United States (9%), Mexico (8%), Chile (7%), Poland (6%), Germany (5%), Portugal (2%) and other countries from Europe and Latin America (11%).       

                       

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Companies 22nd July 2014

Apple: “There is upside to gross margins” (UBS)

MADRID | The Corner | “Apple became a stalled growth stock that has started to show momentum again,” analysts at UBS believe. The tech giant is announcing its fiscal 3Q results on Tuesday after the markets close. Although 3Q reports have historically been sluggish for the firm because clients don’t want to purchase gadgets until the new ones come out in September, expectations are high. UBS rises their price target from $100 to $115 per share, among others because some new product categories could “put the mojo back in the story.”

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Companies 21st July 2014

Greece sizes up task of restructuring corporate debt

ATHENS | By MacroPolis | The Bank of Greece (BoG) released on Friday the findings of a recent workshop in which representatives from the Finance Ministry, the EU, banks, corporates, international experts and consulting firms participated, generating a clear idea of what kind of debt restructuring would be needed for Greek corporates.

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Companies 16th July 2014

Telefónica sells its Irish business to local rival for €850M

MADRID | The Corner | Spanish telecom giant Telefónica closed the sale of its subsidiary Telefónica Ireland to Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Group (HWG) for €850 M ($1.2 billion). HWG is also known for its mobile firm Three, the fourth operator in Ireland. Antitrust authorities, which have been expressing their concerns about how this operation might impact on the country’s competition, have now given green light to one of the country’s largest ever telecoms groups. 

 

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Companies 11th June 2014

EU’s probe on Apple puts multinationals tax deals under the spotlight

MADRID  | The Corner | The European Union may get tough on its country members having sweetheart tax deals with global corporations. So far Ireland (and possibly Luxembourg and the Netherlands soon) will have to submit information about its fiscal arrangements granted to multinationals like Apple, Amazon or Starbucks. The move came after last year the US Senate accused Ireland of giving a special fiscal treatment to Apple. Where are the loopholes?

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Companies 3rd June 2014

Spanish Repsol is sitting on €10bn

MADRID | By Carlos Díaz Güell | Spanish Repsol’s chairman Antonio Brufau noded the company’s key stakeholders -Caixabank, Pemex, Sacyr and Temasek- by recently approving an extraordinary dividend of €1 per share with a charge to present year results. The Argentinian bonds selling monetization and the sale of YPF provided the company with a juicy cashflow near €10 bn against €27.5 bn of its market capitalization.