The consortium formed by Abertis and Manulife Investment Management, a institutional infrastructure investor, have acquired from Macquarie Infrastructure Partners II and Skanska a 100% stake in Elizabeth River Crossings , in Virginia (US). The deal was closed for a total equity amount of €1bn. Within the consortium Abertis will hold 55.2%.
Following the Brexit deal, IAG has had to implement plans to ensure ownership and control, guaranteeing the EU license of the various airlines. These include the creation of a national ownership structure for Aer Lingus and changes to the existing one in Spain. In addition, IAG is still exploring ways to improve its liquidity position. In this regard, British Airways has received commitments for a 5 year early repayment loan from UK Export Finance valued at £2bn. At the close of November 30, IAG had a liquidity position of £8bn, which did not include this loan from UKEF.
CaixaBank Research (Oriol Carreras Baquer and Javier García Arenas | We expect growth in economic activity to pick up in Q2, when the most vulnerable people should have been immunised and international travel can recover more strongly, with growth in the Spanish economy reaching around 6.0% in 2021. While the pace of recovery is high, this would still leave the economy 6.2% below the pre-crisis GDP level. In fact, we do not expect the economy to return to pre-crisis levels until 2023.
It would be important to undertake and construct a State pact for industry, from which a Law on Industry would emerge, as stated in the report on “Industry in Spain: Proposals for its Development,” that was recently presented by the Spanish Economic and Social Council, a consultative body of the Government. From a conceptual point of view, the field of study of the report has been limited to the manufacturing industry. This represents most of the industrial activity in Spain, with four fifths of the output and 90 % of the employment in the National Accounts.
In the Q2 of the year, household savings reached an unprecedented level in Spain, namely 22.5% of disposable income. Funcas has chosen the savings rate, particularly the one recorded in that period, as ‘The data of the year.’ Through this initiative, its researchers have highlighted a particularly significant figure for the Spanish economy during this year about to end. Before the current crisis, the maximum savings rate for families was 12.1% in Q209, while the average in the period 1999 to 2019 was 8.2%.
The boards of directors of Unicaja and Liberbank finally approved the merger of the two lenders. Unicaja will control 59.5% of the resulting entity, while Liberbank will own the remaining 40.5%. This operation creates the fifth largest national banking group, which will start operating from June, with an asset volume over €108 Bn. For Bankinter’s analysts, the deal a priori makes strategic sense in terms of scale and diversification, as well as financial sense (efficiency and profitability). But the key is in the details.
Almost eleven months after the first case of coronavirus in Spain, the biggest vaccination campaign the country has ever seen has begun. After the first expected batch of 10,000 units that arrived last weekend from Belgium at the warehouses that Pfizer has in Guadalajara, another one with 350,000 unites will follow today. The delivery will be repeated every Monday for the next 12 weeks until the 4,591,275 vaccines bought from this laboratory have been issued, with which 2,295,638 citizens will be immunised.
CaixaBank Research | The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR) for the Spanish economy could be an important catalyst for the real estate sector. With the help of European funds, the government plans to recondition half a million homes between 2021 and 2023, with the aim of improving their energy efficiency and thereby helping to achieve the agreed decarbonisation targets. The General State Budget (PGE) also proposes a notable increase in the funds allocated to housing policies.
Enagás and Naturgy will work together to develop the largest hydrogen plant in Spain in León. The aim will be to produce up to approximately 9,000 tons per year of renewable hydrogen from a 400 MW photovoltaic plant and an electrolyzer of up to 60 MW. The energy generated will not only be used to cover local consumption, but will also be injected into the gas network and be an option for future export to northwestern Europe.
Banco Santander has once and for all launched its land management company, transferring 13,000 assets from the bank with a gross value 4.5 billion euros. These are located in 3,500 different urban areas. Of the total number of plots, 45% have the qualification of finalist land, 40% of land under management, and 15% of rustic. The management company has been renamed LandCo (its previous name was Landmark).