ACS has closed the sale of 74% of its stake in a batch of six tranches of ‘shadow toll’ highways in Spain to the Hermes fund. The operation was agreed last November and will generate a capital gain of 40 million euros for the infrastructure firm. The group will keep the remaining 26% of its share in the highways, which it will also continue to manage. Their total and joint value amounts to 950 million euros.
Enagás has signed an agreement with another Spanish firm, Ampere Energy, to jointly develop several R&D projects for hydrogen production with solar energy and batteries. This will be carried out at the regasification plant in Cartagena (Murcia), owned by Enagás.
The European Commission (EC) urged the Spanish government to “carefully” evaluate the potential impact of any modifications to the 2012 labour reform and to “preserve “the most positive aspects of it, which “supported solid job creation” during the recovery phase. Citing a recent study from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it states that “the labour reforms adopted in 2012-13 in response to the crisis have played an important role in promoting a rich recovery in employment which began in 2014.”
The draft law for the digital transformation of the financial system is a long-awaited measure by the banking sector. The project anticipates the implementation of a test bench or regulatory sandbox, which is instrumental in promoting innovation in financial services. It is also a tool for the competition authorities, as it allows for synchronization between supervisory practices and financial regulation and the current pace of innovation and digital transformation.
While Spain’s public debt continues to increase, now accounting for 99% of GDP (1,075 billion euros), private sector debt continues to fall, and stood at 131.2% of GDP in the third quarter of 2019, a level below 133% – the European procedure for macroeconomic imbalances – for the first time since 2003.
Banc Sabadell | America Movil would be open to explore options to buy Telefonica’s (TEF) assets in Latin America, according to statements from its CEO and CFO that have appeared in the press. It is worth mentioning that it was already leaked that Telefonica had hired several investment banks to try to accelerate the sale of its subsidiary HispAm to before June 2020. The idea would be to sell a…
Joan Tapia (Barcelona) | The PSOE-Podemos Coalition Government has not failed to confront its two main challenges: economic policy and Catalonia. However, now comes the most important issue: to approve the national budget for 2020 for which it needs a vote in favour of ERC. This time the abstention of ERC is not enough, as in the case of the investiture, which was achieved in exchange for the establishment of a dialogue between the governments of Madrid and Barcelona.
Merlin Properties’ CEO, Ismael Clemente, said it will take advantage of Portugal’s socimi regime when the country’s legislation is open to the incorporation of the so-called ‘community passport’ for companies from other European countries. Clemente was speaking at the III Iberian REIT Conference. Merlin has been in Portugal since 2015. Together with Spain, it is the firm’s strategic market.
Yesterday, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s published a report where it calculates that China’s coronavirus crisis will subtract one or two tenths off economic growth, both in the Eurozone and in the UK, in 2020. This is due to the impact on exports to China and on business investment. In Spain’s case, the figure may be excessive. This is because the impact on imports from China must also be taken into account and will work in Spain’s favour.