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Markets 28th March 2012

“Most bankers cannot see beyond the daily negative headlines about Greece”

By Begoña Castiella, in Athens |Yorgos Peristeris is CEO at the Greek construction company Gek Terna and chairman of Terna Energy, specialised in renewable energy. Peristeris smiles from his desk at the top floor of the company’s headquarters, an interesting building designed by Michael Hopkins in Athens. Gek Terna is a renowned construction company, while Terna Energy is the first Greek renewable energy company working outside Greece, although both are listed on…

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Markets 28th March 2012

Spanish banks’ return on average total assets unchanged from 2010

MADRID | In the sector’s consolidated income statement, the Spanish Banking association AEB reported on Wednesday a net interest income of €50.725 billion, which is an increase by almost 2% of the amount reached in 2010 and maintains profitability levels over average total assets (ATA) at 2.23%, with just a one hundredth less difference. All with an evolution of ATA by 2.7% higher than those managed in 2010. EAB admitted, though, that the…

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Markets 27th March 2012

Morningstar Europe reports investors’ comeback to corporate debt

LONDON | Morningstar Europe reported Tuesday that February update showed net positive inflows, with investors adding more than €15 billion in new assets to long-term European-domiciled funds. Fixed-income funds attracted the vast majority of investor cash, with some €12.5 billion in inflows, the asset class’ highest inflow figure since August 2010. Equity funds saw a modest outflow of investor capital, while money market funds lost €13 billion. Morningstar research said that funds focused…

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Markets 27th March 2012

The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index’ excessive optimism

MADRID | At Barclays Spain, analysts have spotted an oddity. They say that in the United States market participants seem to discount two elements that appear to be contradictory: on one hand, that the Federal Reserve will keep its expanding monetary policy going on for the time being, something that Ben Bernanke would have made clear last Monday; and on the other hand, that the US economy will grow above expectations. “but the…

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Markets 26th March 2012

Spanish banks safe thanks to liquidity provided by the ECB, Barclays says

MADRID | Barclays analysts said in an investor note on Monday that further worsening in Spain’s case should be very limited, as government policies tackle the key problems with the right solutions, in spite of mistakes being made. Experts remained confident the financial sector has gained sufficient funding at least until 2015 after having taken advantage of the latest liquidity operation carried out by the European Central Bank. The report…

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Markets 26th March 2012

Baring Barometer: only 10% of investment professionals fear a double dip recession

LONDON | Investment professionals in the UK favour a more pleasant global economic outlook than in previous quarters, although the sector still remains cautious. The results from the latest Barings Investment Barometer showed Monday an increase in optimism, with concerns over the risk of a double dip recession reduced by almost two-thirds and number of advisers citing it as a major global macroeconomic challenge at just 10%, down from 28% in Q4…

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Markets 22nd March 2012

Thursday’s US Corp graph: downgrades hike

Ouch. The US corporate sector accumulates 171 credit downgrades in the first quarter, the highest since the 2009. In the balance of revisions (upward/downward), the ratio is 0.69, far from the highs of 2011 when for each rating cut down there were two ratings changing upwards. In the sectoral breakdown, three areas stand out as having a low rate of upward/downward revisions: telecommunications, financials and non-cyclical consumption. In the opposite side, the…

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Ibex 21st March 2012

Group Telefónica would offload more than 50pc of its workforce with Atento sale

MADRID | Telefónica will attempt for the second time since last May the sale of its call centre services Atento. According to El Confidencial, the company has hired Morgan Stanley and HSBC to organise the operation, which last year failed to get enough demand in a partial IPO. The Spanish multinational now aims to do this through an investor auction open to corporations in the industrial sector and private equity firms. Financial…

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Markets 21st March 2012

Behind deposit outflows in Spain: don’t believe the hype about distrust

By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | The volume of deposits of households and non-financial corporations suffered outflows of €120 billion in 2011 in Spain and Italy, adding even more pressure on both countries’ banks. The data come from the last quarterly report of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which analyses European banks’ response to higher capital requirements that the European Banking Authority (EBA) set in October last year…

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Markets 20th March 2012

The US debt is a time bomb

By Luis Arroyo, in Madrid | Here is a consistent interpretation on the Marginal Revolution blog, by Tyler Cowen of Bernanke in 2008. It is consistent with economic and political circumstances. “How is that for self-recommending? Here in a short paragraph is my current take on where Ben Bernanke would differ from Scott. As the shadow banking system was imploding in 2008, due to a downward revaluation of collateral, nominal gdp stabilization…