The general shareholders meeting of Gas Natural yesterday approved the change of name of the company, baptized Naturgy Energy Group. The group thus relaunches itself at the moment when it wants to take part in the corporate dance taking place in the energy sector. Gas Natural is passing through an historic phase, with drastic changes among its shareholders and leadership and with the design of a strategic plan for 2022.
Ferrovial is going to transfer the headquarters of its international holding company from Oxford to Amsterdam in order to maintain the company under European law when the UK leaves the EU.
New Telefonica’s commercial brand in Spain O2 will aim to cover all segments of the low and medium cost market where the entry of Masmovil has caused competition. Masmovil gained 201,000 new lines in April, while Telefonica gained 1,200 new connections, Orange lost 1,900 lines and Vodafone 4,500.
Sacyr did well out of the housing bubble in Spain: its Ebitda was multipled by 2.9 between 2001 and 2007. Now the new Sacyr is building its business around concessions, aiming to mimic the business models of the French companies Vinci and Eiffage.
Repsol and Macquarrie, the fund that controls Viesgo, have agreed the principle points of the agreement for the acquisition of the Cantabrian electricity company combined cycle gas power plants and retail business. The operation is valued at over 500 million euros and involves near 730,000 customers.
After reaching a low point in 2014, house prices in Spain have now been on the rise for several years. As noted by CaixaBank’s strategists, this notable increase in house prices in major cities, especially if compared with the price trends in other areas, is a common phenomenon in many countries.
Renfe could be working on opening an office in the US to pursue opportunities to enter the passenger train market. The initiative is part of the public operator´s internationalisation strategy, aimed at securing new sources of income in case of possible losses in the Spanish market when passenegr traffic is opened to competition in 2020.
World’s biggest clothing retailer Inditex reported improved profitability (+2%) for the first three months of its financial year despite negative currency effects.
Ofelia Marín-Lozano | The Spanish financial sector has made an unprecedented effort to sanitise its books: since the beginning of the crisis in 2008, sanitising and provisions (amounting to some 260 billion euros) have reduced profit margins by two thirds, according to figures from the latest annual meeting of the financial sector. The role of digitilisation replacing branches was one of the recurrent themes of the meeting.
Repsol´s new strategic plan up to 2020 envisages dedicating 2.5 billion euros to drive the growth in energy businesses with low carbon emissions and a dividend of 1 Euro by 2020. It will use the “scrip dividend” formula, combined with a programme of share buy back.