Chinese Internet companies such as Weibo, Baidu and Tencent are sophisticating their business models to offer innovative products and services. This crucial change brings to the brands made in China greater value at a global level as they go public on the New York Stock Exchange.
MADRID | By Fernando G. Urbaneja | A Council of 15 members with different sensibilities, experiences, but solid and with personality. The new La Caixa Foundation maintains the character of the old savings bank, and is committed to professional and political independence. A delicate and subtle game of checks and balances.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | It has been a long process plenty of gives and takes but Spanish company Sacyr and Panama Canal authority have agreed in principle over works’ finalisation at the inland waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. The pre-deal is a cocktail mixing proposals of one side and the other: converting the $400 million insurance into a loan to enable the firm obtain external funds, and also an equally divided contribution of $100 million on each part. Furthermore, Panamian administrator will allow GUPC to postpone the repayment of $780 million anticipated in the contract. The international arbitration on $1,600 million in overun costs will continue parallel to project’s termination.
Iris Mir |Chinese brand Haier went from a disastrous inefficient brand to the world’s biggest household appliances manufacturer thanks to its CEO, Zhang Ruimin, innovative entrepreneurial thinking. The ideal scenario for China would be that many local brands could achieve Haier’s reputation and capacity for innovation. And thus they’d become Ambassadors of a new made in China, most sophisticated and exclusive. A substantial consolidation of domestic demand and the development of a new industrial structure may be paving the way for this dramatic transition to happen.
MADRID | By The Corner team | The Argentinian currency’s fall is the biggest in 12 years with a yearly drop of 17%. Although the key for European peripheral countries may be other countries’ contagion like Brazil, Mexico or Venezuela, their exposure to Argentina is moderate. In the case of Portugal it is almost near zero. And what about Spain, specifically?
MADRID| By Julia Pastor| Far from resolving the strife over additional costs to finalise Panama Canal’s third set of locks, actors involved are apparently working on different positions. Spanish company Sacyr, which leads the consortium undertaking the expansion bet on an agreement since the beginning, but the Panama Canal Authority has not smoothed the path, even rejecting EU’ mediation. Last Sacyr’s offer considers to cofinance the project. PCA’s answer has been a different proposal for using the infrastructure’s insurance as a guarantee to get external financing and terminate the works. The deal remains blocked then.
MADRID | By Julia Pastor | Prisa, the symbol of the transition from Franco’s dictatorship to democracy, was born in 1972 as a family-owned business but since the end of 2010, the major company’s owner is US hedge fund Liberty Acquisitions Holdings with a stake of 51%. Prisa has recently carried out a new capital increase and all signs suggest that it could start to disinvest some of its more precious assets with the aim of cutting its overwhelming debt to the minimum. Poor management decisions taken along the way? Many workers don’t hide their disappointment with the firm and say things will never be the same.
BEIJING | By Qin Min at Caixin | U.S. tech giant Apple and Chinese telecoms company have been at loggerheads since the first iPhone launched, but there are signs they are inching toward a deal.
MADRID | As part of its strategy to increase its presence in China, the Spanish lender Banco Santander will buy an 8 percent stake in Bank of Shanghai for 470 million euros. The deal includes a cooperation agreement between both entities and makes Santander the second-largest shareholder in BoS.
NEW YORK | By Ana Fuentes | Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has been getting free advertising for media all around the world since he unveiled his last idea: getting automated devices to deliver packages to their customers. The plan, which won’t materialize before 4-5 years, still needs a lot of work. It will open the door to a different use of the highly controversial drones, currently used by the U.S. army for selected killings in the Middle East, among others. Critics insist the online giant may just be putting on a great farce. In the video above, the fears of the Taiwanese animation company TomoNews, which has been critiziced for the use of clichés, too.