MADRID | Analysts at BNP Paribas’s broker Cortal Consors in Spain said in an investor note that their scenarios for the situation of the unemployment levels would not register any improvement until the second half of next year. Occupation is still under a heavy destruction trend in Spain, with a -4.1 percent during the second quarter of 2012. Unfortunately, data released today by the Spanish institute of statistics backed pessimistic…
BARCELONA | CaixaBank reported Friday a poor attributed January to March net income of €166 million as a result of provisions enforced by the Spanish government, set to clean up the balance sheets of the country’s banking sector. For the Catalan entity, the figure means an 80.1-percent cut down comparing to the first quarter of 2011 and bears the scars of large write-downs of €3.735 billion. CaixaB ank said that, as…
MADRID | There will be no dividend from Telefónica over the next fifteen months. The decision is not surprising but consistent with the situation. Yet, it has a devastating effect on many investors the company had promised to pay 77 cents in December as a second dividend in the year, and again in May. The company will now retain its full profits within the 2012 balance sheet (€4-€5 billion) to reduce…
MADRID | Banco Santander announced Thursday a net attributable profit of €1.704 billion in the first half of the year. The figure brings a cut down of about 51% compared with the same period in 2011. The Spanish bank pointed out that the decline is a result of setting aside €1.304 billion for provisions for real estate exposure in Spain of the second quarter ordinary profit of €1.404 billion. As a…
MADRID | The Spanish government had good reasons to avoid Mr Ordóñez’s appearance in the parliamentary committee reviewing Bankia’s plight. His cold determined performance flatly exposed gross government failure in addressing the financial crisis. His indictment was based on the nagging fact Spain risk premium ranked last December markedly lower than Italy’s and now even Ireland shows a better record. He accused the government of leaving aside the Bank of…
By CaixaBank research team, in Barcelona | Although the first half of the year has ended with a negative balance for most international stock markets, the latest months has been characterised by a relative improvement in indices. The reduction in fears that Greece will leave the euro and the euro area’s assistance in recapitalising Spain’s banking system marked a turning point in the trend for investors’ appetite for risk. Although…
MADRID | The chain of default warnings is getting larger. If the regions of Murcia and Catalonia confirm they need help from the €18-billion central fund to repay its debt maturities, as Valencia explicitly did on July 20, the autonomous bailout would reach so far €7.7 billion. Of them, €6 billion could be made available with almost immediate effect, as Loterías del Estado would be the lender. The regions’ short-term…
MADRID | BFA-Bankia Group said Tuesday it had closed ‘Operation Hispania’, disposing of a large portfolio of failed loans. The deal involves a total of €800 million. The Spanish troubled bank, which is in need of a multi-billion public capital to maintain its activity, sold the loans to two north European investment funds. They are Aktiv Kapital in Norway and Oko Investments in Luxembourg. The operation has been structured in two…
MADRID | Irritation is high in Madrid for partners’ lack of support in enforcing a curfew, let alone a truce, in the raging battle it holds against overwhelming market forces. As leaders go on holiday they leave Spanish assets exposed to utter onslaught. The massive sell-out of sovereigns, securities and shares cannot continue for long without throttling any chance of survival by the time Brussels returns to normal business. Desperate attempts…
MADRID | The hotel sector in Spain has released its June data. It’s mainly positive news, in line with the optimistic expectations of the financial City of Madrid and efforts of the industry to reactivate the domestic demand without missing foreign tourist interest. Year on year, tourist visit rate increased by 4.7 percent to six million. Accumulated growth in the first half of 2012 was of 2.9 percent to 25.1…