Carax Alphavalue |Santander has made a very strategic move with its recent acquisition of ailing lender Banco Popular, refocusing on its business in Spain as economic growth accelerates. And it’s stock market performance is reflecting this positive story.
Almost 10 years after the big property bubble burst, Spain is once again showing how emotional it can get it with bricks and mortar in all its forms. And emotional is the word, because the ‘revival’ of the real estate sector – something which nobody was betting on three or four years ago – is so spectacular that not a day passes when there is not some sort of euphoric news emerging about it. Of course figures are figures and these are more than amazing. If we focus on the Socimis, the protagonists of the property market in this current phase, the truth is the numbers are really impressive.
Mari Pinardo | Banco Santander reached an agreement on Tuesday to sell US private equity firm Blackstone a majority 51% stake in 30 billion euros of soured property assets and loans it inherited when it bought ailing lender Banco Popular in June.
Despite the risks which some people have highlighted with regard to Santander’s absorption of Popular, neither analysts nor investors seem to have been spooked by the massive rights issue launched by Santander last Friday. All in all, it seems the acquisition could be described as something of a dream deal.
Fernando Rodríguez | In just three years real estate firm Colonial moved from being on the brink of bankruptcy to the preferred stock to capitalize the announced and definitive recovery of the property sector. After joining the Ibex35 and changing into a Socimi, the company’s appeal to investors has increased.
The construction company is studying a possible counter-bid for Abertis in order to improve Italian Atlantia’s offer price of 16.5 euros, but no decission has been made yet even though the Spanish Securities and Exchange Commission CNMV has already been notified.
The metal industry is not performing well on the stock exchange in current year due to lower expectations about the US infrastructures investment plan and fears of contraction in China’s growth. Specifically, Acerinox has dropped around 14% in the last three months, while in the whole year lost near 5%. Analysts have been supporting the company with a recomendation of “hold” and buy”, but Citi has broken the tendency by downgrading to “sell” and cutting target price to €10.50 from previous €14.
Iberdrola is preparing itself to enter the Italian electricity trading market before current year ends, in which the company will offer its own tariffs in the distribution segment. They will compete with operators such as Enel, Eni and Edison and expect to reach a market share of 5%-7% in next six years, namely a million of customers in 2020 and three millions in 2023. Iberdrola is not considering any acquisitions in order to carry out this strategic move.
Starting tomorrow, Iberia and Vueling, both owned by IAG, will coordinate their schedules to allow passengers the option to choose among 26 daily frequencies in each direction (16 Iberia and 10 Vueling) against 18 daily connections of the railway operator Renfe, all taking a less-than-3-hour-travel time.
On Wednesday, Banco Santander completed a senior non-preferred debt issue for a total of 800 million Australian dollars (534 million euros). This is the first debt issue to be executed in Australian dollars by a Spanish bank.