According to data from the Bank of Spain (BdE) released on Friday, the debt of Spanish public administrations as a whole rose in Q1’21 to 1.392,733 trillion euros, a record high. This figure represents 125.3% ofof Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the last year, public debt has increased by 168.213 billion euros, which represents an increase of 13.7%. It should be recalled that at the end of 2020 this…
In 2011, Telefónica’s liabilities exceeded 56 billion euros. Today, however, after the latest operations (the merger agreement for its business in the United Kingdom, the sale of towers to American Tower…) it has cut its leverage by a further 8.4 billion euros and reduced it to less than half, at 26 billion. Although this amount is starting to become more manageable for the group, the most critical operators point out…
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).
Public debt could rise to 120% of GDP in 2020, due to a reclassification of €35 billion of the Sociedad de Gestión de Activos Procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria (SAREB), the so-called “bad bank” in Spain, reports Expansión. In fact, Eurostat has forced Spain to digest the 35 billion of debt. With this accounting change, the level of Public Debt over GDP, which increased by more than 20 points over 2020 to 117% (1,311,298 M€) from 95.5% in 2019, would rise by about 3 additional points to 120%.
Today Spain issued €1.403 M at a new auction of bonds and securities, within the average range predicted. And it did so selling the 10-year bond with a negative yield for the first time in history. In fact, in the secondary market, the Spanish bond has been marking historical minimums for weeks. Until now, this “anomaly” was something typical of countries like Germany, with well balanced public accounts. Spain and Portugal have already joined this club. The Portuguese bond yield fell to -0.013% on Tuesday.
Edmond de Rothschild | As Warren Buffet likes to say, “You never know who’s swimming naked until the tide goes out. The exogenous shocks generated by the crises throw a harsh light on the real state of the market, and the excessive risks taken by investors are evident. The sub-prime mortgage and sovereign debt crises were good examples of this phenomenon. But while the financial shock of 2008 had an immediate impact on mergers and acquisitions and led to a collapse in valuations, what can we say about the effects of the coronavirus crisis?
Intermoney | There are important reasons for maintaining a prudent attitude with regard to the Spanish economy, situating its full recovery in the year 2023. This would mean that we would lose more than a decade of the fledgling 21st century. On the other hand, there are also reasons to hope the recovery will eventually take shape and not be too far off. These include the encouraging development of the COVID-19 vaccines, the decisive response from the ECB and the EU, and a lesser impact of the crisis than feared on large European partners and customers.
Telxius, Telefónica’s infrastructure subsidiary, will carry out a capital increase of 1.5 billion euros to buy towers from Telefónica Deutschland. Telxius will finance 90% of the acquisition via a capital increase – which will be subscribed by current shareholders in proportion to their stake – as well as internally generated resources. The remaining 10% will be financed through incremental debt.
Bankia Estudios | One of the Spanish economy’s strengths with which to face the devastating crisis unleashed by Covid-19, compared to the previous financial crisis of 2008-13, is the private sector’s healthier starting position. In this respect, families and companies’ consolidated debt stood at 129.7% of GDP at end-2019, the lowest figure in 16 years and 63.5 percentage points below the 2007 level. Corporate debt also falls to a low of 16 years in GDP terms (72.8% vs the previous 75.1%).
Intermoney | In the case of credit, a situation is already beginning to take shape in the US that worries us quite a bit and which will end up spreading throughout the world. Namely, the forced debt sales for companies that lose their investment grade rating. Currently, this would translate into the closest thing to a sale of balances. This situation has already forced Western Asset, a fixed income manager with $460 billion under management, to apply for a waiver for a Fresno County public employee pension fund.