Santander clocked up a 10% year-on-year rise in first quarter net profit to 2.054 billion euros, beating forecasts for 2.01 billion euros in a Reuters poll. The results were driven by strong growth in its largest market, Brazil. But its operations in Mexico and Spain also boosted group performance.
Neoenergia, Iberdrola’s flagship in Brazil, has launched a 1.5 billion euros takeover bid for Eletropaulo Metropolitana Electricida de São Paulo. A few hours later, Italian energy firm Enel also lodged bid, improving the price offered by Iberdrola by 9.7% at 28 Brazilian reals per share.
Spanish property firm Colonial had a good year in 2017, gaining 36.3% year-on-year compared with a drop of 1.56% year-on-year for the office market sector in the rest of Europe, due to the fear of an increase in long-term rates.
The consortium in which Enagas has a 20% stake, along with the Italian firm Snam (60%) and the Belgian company Fluxys (20%) has won the bid to acquire Greek gas operator DESFA, in its privatisation process, for €535 million (Enagás’ contribution will be around 107 million).
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is ready for its initial public offering in the second half of 2018. Bloomberg published on Friday selected data from what it reported to be the company’s 1H17 IFRS financial statement. However, Saudi Aramco said in a statement these were “inaccurate”. If the reported data is accurate, BoAML’s experts make the following observations based on already published fiscal data.
Repsol is making progress with the preparation of its new strategic plan which it will unveil on June 7. It aims to earmark 2.5-3 billion euros for acquisitions, compared with the 3.82 billion which it will obtain from the sale of its stake in Gas Natural to CVC.
IAG has bought 4.61% of Norwegian Air. And according to Bloomberg, the Spanish airline could be considering making a bid for the whole company. IAG’s interest in the low cost long-distance segment (where Norwegian operates) is clear, given that it created an airline last year with these characteristics called Level.
After closing their acquisition of Abertis, ACS and Atlantia’s aim is to cut debt, and to do that it will refinance 7 billion euros via bond issuances and the sale of assets, keeping bank financing of 3 billion euros as a long-term loan.
Inmobiliaria Colonial announced at the market close on Tuesday that its board and that of the socimi Axiare have approved the merger of both companies. The integration still has to be ratified at the respective shareholder meetings. It will be carried out via a share exchange: 1,8554 shares of Colonial for each share of Axiare.
Iberdrola has exceeded 56% of its share buyback programme by up to 1.543% of its capital, after investing over 3 million euros in its own shares in its last buyback operations, according to a statement from the company lodged with the Stock Market Regulator (CNMV).