Companies

Companies 12th April 2012

Ferrovial awarded Sheffield €2.4bn infrastructure maintenance contract

LONDON/MADRID | Sheffield City Council in England announced that Ferrovial Services’ subsidiary Amey was the preferred bidder for a contract to maintain the city’s infrastructure in a project worth £2 billion or €2.425 billion in revenues. The contract includes a 5-year programme of upgrade works, followed by maintenance for 25 years. The Ferrovial Services subsidiary will take responsibility for 1,900 km of road, 68,000 street lights, 500 traffic signals, 600 bridges and other structures, 2,400 retaining walls…

Companies 30th March 2012

Santander wins ‘UK Business Bank’ award ahead of Emilio Botín re-election

MADRID, LONDON | Emilio Botin will be re-elected on Saturday as board director and president of the Spanish financial group, currently third in the domestic rank after Caixabank and BBVA. But he got today a special gift via London: Banco Santander was named ‘Business Bank of the Year’ in the UK at the annual Business Moneyfacts Awards for its strategy to become the small and medium-sized companies’ bank of choice. It was the…

Companies 29th March 2012

ACS sends heavyweight to cut Hochtief’s Australian hemorrhage

MADRID | Marcelino Fernández Verdes was appointed Thursday chief operating officer of Hochtief, the German division of the Spanish group ACS. Fernández will sit at the executive committee of Hochtief (Vorstand) with CEO Frank Stieler and CFO Peter Sassenfeld. He will address risk management operations of the entire group Hochtief, but will also face the responsibility of breaking the spiralling downward trend its Australian branch Leighton has fallen into. The move…

Companies 27th March 2012

CaixaBank+Banca Cívica = Spain’s €342-billion leading financial group

Should Banco Santander and BBVA watch out for this one? The absorption of Banca Cívica, approved on Monday by Caixabank’s board, will create the leading bank in the Spanish market, with assets of €342 billion, stock market capitalization in excess of €16 billion, 14 million customers and an average Spanish market share in deposits of 14.0%, in customer loans of 13.4% and in total assets of 10.5%. CaixaBank will become…

Companies 23rd March 2012

Gamesa to set in the UK base for global offshore wind operations

LONDON | The Spanish wind energy firm Gamesa announced Friday it will pursue an agreement with the Port of Leith for the set up of a major offshore manufacturing base in the UK. The project would include blade and nacelles plants, port logistics and operating and maintaining services. The company estimates that the new British manufacturing base could create about 800 new jobs, with an initial investment of about €150 million….

Companies 22nd March 2012

Madrid’s financial City approves YPF dividend payment strategy

MADRID | YPF, the subsidiary in Argentina of Spanish oil company Repsol, will carry out last year’s dividend payment in shares in response to pressure from Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s government. The republic’s authorities have vehemently expressed their desire for the corporation to increase investment activity in the country instead of distributing the cash to stockholders. The board approved this week the transfer of 1.057 billion pesos from reserve for…

Companies 21st March 2012

Inditex plans to increase dividend by 12.5pc to €1.8 per share

For Spain’s Inditex, weathering the crisis isn’t near enough: the company seems ready for a full combat. Inditex board will submit a proposal to the annual general meeting of shareholders in July for payment of a dividend of €1.80 per share, an increase year on year of 12.5pc. This dividend will consist of a €0.9 per share interim dividend payable on 2 May 2012 and a €0.90 per share final…

Companies 15th March 2012

Zara arrives in New York’s 5th Avenue

NEW YORK | In allegedly the most expensive shopping street in the world, Zara inaugurated Wednesday its new flagship store. Fashionistas, entrepreneurs and journalists attended the Spanish clothing retailer debut, which is their US largest bet so far. The company bought the real estate property for $324 million and claims the store to be a totally new concept. Would it be worth the money? Hard to say, but the visit of…

Companies 9th March 2012

US huge corporate cash piles: 41% sits in foreign accounts

NEW YORK | It is the latest mantra on Wall Street: US companies are sitting on a lot of cash, $1,2 trillion, and that’s only counting non-financial companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500, says the Association for the Financial Professionals. This is a record: up 70% from 2007 and 200% for the past 10 years. This huge war chest makes a lot of people wonder: what are they waiting for?…

Companies 8th March 2012

Valencia-based little giant Mercadona makes a 19pc-net profit jump

Spain’s largest supermarket chain increased its turnover in 2011 to €17.831 billion, 8% up from 2010’s figures. The company, whose headquarters are in Valencia, brought some Mediterranean sun over the Spanish economy when it released this week its 2011 results. Mercadona’s productivity growth rate was 2%, earning a profit after tax of €474 million or 19% more than in 2010. Also, the supermarket has created 6,500 new permanent jobs in 2011,…

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