Spanish economy

telefonica

O2 and Virgin Media Merger Puts £5.5 Billion In Telefónica’s Coffers

T.C. | The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s competition regulator, has provisionally cleared the merger of O2, Telefónica’s UK mobile subsidiary, and Virgin, the cable group controlled by US-based Liberty Global, into a company – 50% owned by the two partners – valued by the market at around 45 billion euros (more than £38 billion) and which will become, along with BT, the UK market leader. If BT has 46.3 million customers, the new company will have 46.5 million (32.6 million mobile, 5.3 million fixed broadband, 4.9 million fixed voice and 3.7 million pay TV).


labour market

The Government Proposes Reducing Labour Contracts To Three In Its Recovery Plan

According to the document of more than 200 pages in which the reforms and investments of the Plan that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, presented to the Parliament on Wednesday, the three types of contract would be ‘stable’ for all activities, another ‘temporary’ for those that are of this nature and one ‘training’ for insertion, in particular, in the labour market.


CostaDoradaok

Hunger Strike On The Costa Dorada

T.C. | Eduardo Abenojar, president of the Restaurant and Nightlife Association of Salou (a small tourist town 100 km from Barcelona, considered the capital of the Costa Dorada) began a hunger strike yesterday at 12.30 pm to ask the Generalitat to reopen his business because “we have neither help nor hope”.


CO2

Spain Reduced Its Emissions In The Carbon Market By 21% In 2020

T.C. | According to data from the Sustainability Observatory, Spain reduced its emissions in the carbon market by 21% in 2020 (13% in 2019) in a year marked by the covid19 pandemic, in which the emissions of all the major companies fell, albeit with very notable differences between them: ENDESA decreases by 45%, FCC, EDP or IBERDROLA by around 25%, while the oil companies REPSOL and CEPSA or the gas company NATURGY have presented smaller decreases. The fuel combustion sector has decreased by a historic 26% between 2020 and 2019 while the oil companies, for example, have only decreased by 8%.


spain technologies

The Role Of New Technologies In Spain’s Productivity

CaixaBank Research | New technologies have indeed favoured the growth of Spain’s labour productivity in the past and that they could do so again in this new technological era we are entering. An initial analysis of the relationship between the degree of penetration of new technologies and labour productivity shows that there is a positive correlation between the growth of the two variables in the past 20 years. In addition, this correlation appears to be more pronounced among economic activities in the services sector.


Acciona

Acciona: When The Subsidiary Is Worth More Than The Parent Company

T.C. | Acciona approved yesterday the spin-off of its green energy subsidiary, Acciona Energía, in order to float up to 30% of the capital of this subsidiary, which the press and some Spanish analysts want to value at 12 billion euros, although on 31 March Acciona’s capitalisation on the Spanish stock market was “only” 8 billion euros. The deal could allow Acciona to reorganise and reduce its debt, which currently stands at 6.858 billion euros, of which 2 billion euros matures this year.


CGPJok

2,500 Judges Denounce The Spanish Government In Brussels For Attacking “Judicial Independence”

T.C. | Faced with the impossibility of reaching a sufficient parliamentary agreement (it requires an agreement with the opposition) to renew the members of the General Council of the Judiciary, which has been in office for two years, the coalition government of the PSOE and UP passed a rapid reform that ties the Council’s hands and feet and prevents it from making appointments while it is in office. Thus, it is a Council “in functions” but unable to function.


melia vietnam

Spain: Hotels For Sale

T.C.| The large Spanish hotel chains are seeking liquidity by selling assets and are opting for the ‘sale & leaseback’ option to maintain management. According to Meliá’s director of real estate, Mark Hoddinott, the group is identifying assets worth between 150 and 200 million. NH, the Spanish chain controlled by the Thai group Minor, is also considering the sale and leaseback of several hotels. According to Moody’s, the group expects to generate more than 200 million in additional cash. RIU, a partner of the German group TUI, has three hotels for sale: in Madeira (Portugal), Lanzarote (Spain) and Panama with a combined valuation of around 250 million euros. 


pensioners

The Silent Reform Of Pensions

Fernando González Urbaneja | Spain has a priority, essential employment problem: high chronic unemployment and job insecurity. Both of these are among the essential causes of a blushing inequality, among the worst in Europe. Then, to complicate the solutions, comes the problem of the high public deficit, which has increased over the last decade as an inevitable inevitability. A debt aggravated by its dependence on external financing with a bias towards instability. At the heart of this debt is the chronic deficit accumulated over the last decade in the pension system, which widens its deficit every year.


ACS signs €10 billion contract for the purchase of Abertis with Atlantia

ACS Shows Atlantia Its Interest In Italian Motorways: Offers €10 Bn for Autostrade

Corporate activity in Spain is gaining momentum with ACS’s offer to buy the Italian concessionary group ASPI (Autostrade per l’a Italia) from its partner Atlantia. ASPI has 3,000 kilometres of toll roads. The aim is to create a giant in the concessions business, with the union of Autostrade and its subsidiary Abertis, and ACS would be willing to make the purchase in the company of other investors – there is talk of the Italian group CDP. The offer would be for 10 billion euros, exceeding that presented by the Italian public bank CDP, which has the backing of the Italian government, and the funds Blackstone and Macquarie.