Cellnex buys 100% of Portuguese company NOS’ tower operator. The transaction involves nearly 2,000 sites, with an initial investment of around 375 million euros. But Cellnex has agreed to earmark a further 175 million euros to expand the perimeter by up to 400 more towers over a period of 6 years.
Banco Santander, the leading bank in Spain and the Eurozone, has warned of a slowdown in its business in North America. This is a region which accounts for 16% of group profits, thanks to the contribution from the United States (7%) and Mexico (9%). But the current pandemic led Santander Mexico to announce yesterday that it will not meet its 2020 targests, and that COVID19 will affect results at least until H1’21.
J.P.Marín Arrese | Jerome Powell raises the stakes day by day by making bolder than ever decisions. He shatters the image of shyness, prudence and circumspection he offered when taking over the Fed chairmanship. His last daring move has left markets flabbergasted. No wonder. He has pledged 2.3 trillion to buy ungraded bonds and to set up a massive lending facility for Main Street companies, thus breaking the golden rule of including only high-rated paper in the Fed balance sheet.
Banco Santander assumes that the coronavirus pandemic will force it to change its roadmap for the coming years. For the time being, the lender has announced that it will not pay a final 2019 dividend (0.13 euros/share planned for May) and suspended payment of the 2020 dividend. This is in line with the decision of the European banks which have adhered to the ECB’s recommendation.
Alphavalue | One might wonder why equity investors bet on being long on oil last week when the Brent was reaching new lows. In fact on Tuesday, Brent prices hit 20-year lows in the $22/barrel range. It could be one of the surprising examples of how much risk can be taken when there is talk about, or hopes for, stimulus. At that point, even the strongest fundamentals tend to be ignored.
At Iberdrola’s Annual General Shareholders’ Meeting last Thursday, Chairman Ignacio Galán announced that, for the time being, he expected Net Attributable Profit to grow at a “high single-digit” rate in 2020, thanks to record investments of over €10 Bn. The firm’s dividend is seen increasing in line with profits, he added. Bankinter analysts believe that Iberdrola’s expectations for 2020 may appear “somewhat optimistic, given the current context of uncertainty about the depth and duration of the Covid-19 crisis”.
Ferrovial, through its UK services arm Amey, has been awarded an eight-year, 452.9 million euros contract to maintain and improve roads in southwest Scotland. The company said there is also an option to extend the contract for a further four years, increasing its value to 781.3 million euro.The divestment process of this subsidiary will continue despite the crisis of the coronavirus, the company said. But it recognizes that it will suffer some delays.
AENA has signed new loans with various financial institutions for a total of 1.075Bn euros. The loans have a maturity of between 1 and 4 years and will boost the firm’s liquidity to 2.425Bn euros (from 1.350Bn previously). AENA also has the possibility of increasing it further with the Euro Commercial Paper (ECP) programme up to 900Mn euros, of which 495Mn are still available. Furthermore, the company expects to close additional loans in the coming weeks.
Despite the disruption in the market created by Covid-19, on Tuesday , the German electricity company successfully placed a 5.5-year maturity green bond with a 1% coupon. The funds will be used to finance investments in network infrastructure and energy efficiency projects. There was strong demand for the bond issue, with the order book over 8 times subscribed.
Adam Vettese (eToro) | In the UK on Monday, dividends were in the spotlight as £7.5bn of payments are due from banks including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland over the next few weeks.