Antonio Banda, CEO of Feelcapital, has already warned of the risk posed by the transposition into Spanish law of the Brussels rule that will allow the entry of pan-European funds. The rule, which comes into force next March, is “the great danger for Spanish fund managers”.
Manuel Moreno Capa | “We need to to act with unity to fight the crisis, preserving the institutional stability around the principles that in the last 45 years have made possible an unprecedented stage of development and progress in Spain,” says José Luis Bonet, president of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce. But in addition to preserving what has been achieved, he believes that “ambitious and consensual structural reforms must be tackled with broad majorities, allowing us to increase our potential growth in the coming years.”
Fernando Rodríguez | “Traditionally, the major correlation in stock markets has been between actual or expected corporate earnings and prices. Right now, for several years, the most direct correlation has been between the stock price of an index and the balance sheet of its respective central (…). Today the market is discounting that there is no limit to this race and futures are assuming a zero rates until 2030. I believe this has a limit and is not what the market thinks about,” explains Juan Carlos Ureta, Chairman of Renta 4.
Fernando Rodriguez | “When the Long Term Investment Directive appeared, analysts at JPMorgan or Fidelity received you in London with a smile… The ‘engagement’ was something already insisted on by the company. Where I hope it will have more impetus – the transposition of the directive – is with Spanish investors or funds, which are very passive. When you want to mobilise their vote, it much more difficult than it is with foreign funds, which have taken it more on board ,” explains Rafael Piqueras, chairman of Emisores Españoles* and a board member of Enagás.
Mari Pinardo | Soltec has launched the first initial public offering in Spain in two years, and with unquestionable success: it was trading at 4.8 euros at the end of October and in mid-December the share price had risen to 7.62 euros. In 2019, the firm supplied 9% of the solar trackers installed worldwide, and it occupies the 3rd position in the global accumulated amount. We talked to CEO, Raul Morales.
Lidia Conde | According to the US political scientist Mark Hallberg, “in bilateral relations (US/EU) there will be no automatic return to Obama’s policy. In trade relations I do not expect a new version of the trade treaty, nor a further version of the TTIP. But the tone will be better… I hope, for example, that Biden and Macron will get along. They have a similar world view.” Hallberg is currently Dean and Professor of Public Management and Political Economy at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.
Fernando Rodríguez | “All the risk committees of every company list them exhaustively in their reports, and nobody had foreseen the risk of the pandemic. Everything was done by looking at the past. Of course the concept of risk has changed,” explains William Connelly, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AEGON, Vice Chairman of Amadeus, Director of Société Générale and Singular Bank. “How do you manage that? There are two parts. One is immediate risk. Then the strategic risk”, he adds.
Tristan de Bourbon | His book ‘Remaking One Nation’ was launched on the first day of the British lockdown, March 23rd. An ideal moment to talk about the many challenges facing the Conservatives, his own party. Nick Timothy, former advisor to Theresa May, is an atypical figure. In the book, he tackles the cultural gap between politicians and the majority of the population. Also the need to recreate a common identity in a socially and ethnically diverse country, which he considers devastated by “ultraliberalism.”
Pedro A. Muñoz | PharmaMar has just announced positive results for its APLICOV trial with Aplidin against COVID-19. This antiviral achieves the primary safety objective and the secondary efficacy goal, as well as a significant reduction in viral load and C-reactive protein (CRP) in hospitalized patients. A few days before this news, the company’s president, José María Fernández Sousa-Faro, gave an interview to The Corner.
María Fernanda Martínez Sierra | “Investment portfolios usually contain positions of different risks, and today covering that part of high risk assets not correlated with the rest is a problem. That is why many investors access this market… many savers only contract bank deposits, because of their low risk, and then buy lottery. The strategies in investment portfolios are not so far removed from that analogy,” says Alberto Toribio’s, whose company was the first Spanish to be set up with crypto-currencies.