Ferrovial has teamed up with the Australian company Plenary to bid for motorway and other infrastructure concessions in Australia and New Zealand. They will create a joint venture (the Netflow consortium) through Ferrovial’s concessionary arm Cintra. This market is a priority one for Ferrovial, basically because of its high profitability.
Emilio Saracho will be appointed as Banco Popular Chairman at today’s Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting. The new chairman (ex-deputy chairman at JP Morgan) will very likely revise the bank’s strategic plan, avoiding a new capital hike at least in the short-term.
Returns in offshore wind projects have come under pressure with intense competition and aggressive assumptions. As the technology matures, Citi analysts believe falling costs should support a 7-9% project return in the long ter. The case of Gamesa.
The joint venture formed by Leandlease and Turner (subsidiary of ACS) has been awarded a project to extend the Jacob K. Javits convention centre (New York) for a total of 1.5 billion dollars (approx. 1.4 billion euros).
CaraxAlphavalue has revived the idea of investing in Telefonica, one of the most international profiles in the telecom sector with nearly 75% of the business outside its home market and a reference point in the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking markets. Indeed, if this global position allowed to deliver modest organic growth in the early 2010s despite a sluggish European market, it has caused a devaluation of Telefonica’s market cap since 2015 with the collapse of almost all the South American currencies vs the euro.
BBVA said on Wednesday that net attributable profit rose 31.5% to 3.475 billion euros in 2016 from a year earlier, the highest figure since 2010.
Abertis’ French subsidiary, Sanef, has reached an agreement with the French government to implement a new €147 million investment programme to modernise its network. It exchange, it has secured anual tariff hikes from 2019 to 2021.
Spanish Prime Minister announced on Wednesday that there will be a 11% cut in airport tariffs until 2021. This means a reduction of 2.2% each year in 2017-2021, the period during which the new Air Regulation Document is valid. Aena estimates that a decrease in tariffs would reduce its revenues by €850 million.
Banco Santander posted net profit of 6.204 billion euros en 2016, up 4% from a year earlier and its best results since 2010, supported by a decline in provisions. The bank attributed these results to the “strong” growth in commission revenues and improved credit quality. These factors were contrasted by some currencies’ weakness against the euro and increases in taxes in Poland and the UK.
Santander will not have to take the Fed’s qualitative stress test. From this year, only those banks with over $250 billion on their balance sheet. Its US holding has just $142 billion in assets. Not having to take the qualitative part of the test will increase Santander’s flexibility for implementing its plans to reward shareholders (dividends and/or share buybacks).