CriteriaCaixa – the business holding of the Caixa Group, with stakes valued at €30 billion in a wide range of companies (Naturgy, Telefónica, ACS…) – and the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation have returned their headquarters to Catalonia almost seven and a half years after relocating to Palma. CaixaBank will remain in Valencia, where it moved during the same period. The Banking Foundation Caixa d’Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona has agreed to return its tax domicile to Catalonia, which has prompted the expected applause from its Catalan partners and political parties. The relocation occurred during a time of political instability in Catalonia, stemming from the so-called ‘procés‘ and the application of Article 155 by Mariano Rajoy’s government.
The new tax domicile will be located in Tower II of the entity’s headquarters, between numbers 621 and 629 on Diagonal Avenue in Barcelona. Criteria moved its headquarters to Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands) on October 7, 2017, in order to “preserve its business and social interests, as well as its normal operations,” following the ‘referendum’ on October 1.
The government has expressed that the return of Criteria and LaCaixa Foundation’s headquarters to Catalonia is “very good news,” according to sources from the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Business. It stated that this move is “another sign of the positive impact of normalizing the political and economic situation in Catalonia.” The President of the Generalitat de Catalunya has indicated that this move reflects that “we are on the right track.
