MADRID | Grupo ACS said Tuesday that the company recorded a net profit in the first quarter of 2012 of €207 million. The Spanish firm published its consolidated results today, showing that net sales of ACS in the first quarter of 2012 totaled €9,035 million, 144.8% more than last year. Growth in comparable terms, also considering the sales of Hochtief in the first quarter of 2011, accounted for a 4.9%. ACS…
MADRID | The joint venture team headed by FCC Construction, Shimmick Construction Company and Impregilo won the bid for the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project design-build contract, Port of Long Beach and Caltrans officials announced. Major participants in the proposal included Arup North America and Biggs Cardosa Associates. A decision by the Port’s Board of Harbor Commissioners on the actual award of the contract is expected in late June, with construction kickoff…
MADRID | The severe crisis in Europe and especially in Spain, Italy and Portugal has attracted some of the main actors of the private equity scene. According to Capital Madrid, one of the biggest firms in the sector, Apax Partners, has put its focus on the financial assets accumulated by the Spanish banks and that will shortly be going out for sale. Indeed, the difficult time many Spanish banks go through…
MADRID | The reform of the pension system in Spain is planned to help to improve the outlook for sustainability of the system by reducing pension expenditure as a share of GDP. It should weigh in towards reducing the public deficit, too. At BBVA, analysts have drawn some basic comparisons between the Spanish and the German pension systems. “Given uncertainties about employment, productivity and demographics, it is appropriate for the…
MADRID | Repsol reached an agreement with Disney Spain which will see the entertainment multinational sell its products in the Spanish oil company’s shops through its network of service stations. Following an initial test in 62 stores, Repsol and Disney decided to extend their partnership to a further 770 shops. A Disney Area has been created in shops, which is a specific area for products with pictures of Disney characters and…
MADRID | Fortune 500 company Amazon announced Friday plans to open its first logistics centre in Spain, seven months after the launch of Amazon.es, the Spanish version of the popular online store. The centre will be located in San Fernando de Henares, in Madrid. This is the latest opening within the existing European network of logistics sites of Amazon, which will become operational within a few months. “We are very pleased with the positive response from customers, as well as their interest in our Premium Amazon offer,” said Allan Lyall, deputy president of operations in Europe. Lyall hinted at…
MADRID | The number of unemployment benefit claimants in Spain in April fell by 6,632, bringing the total down to 4,744,235 people according to data released Friday by the ministry of Employment and National Insurance. Although this is the first decline in eight months, analysts pointed out that the little improvement in unemployment figures was mainly due to temporary hiring during Easter and was lower than expected. On average, experts polled…
MADRID | Barclays Capital made a realistic yet not Armageddon-like exercise in which the Spanish banking sector would need a recapitalisation equivalent to 6 percent of the country’s GDP, plus an additional 5.4 percent of GDP as an extra-safety calculation. Its analysts threw in 0.9 percent of GDP in Greek liabilities, and 3.5 percent of GDP in administrations’ accumulated debt payments. The scenario considered included yields on 10-year bonds of…
MADRID | Following German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s instructions, those supposedly at command in Euroland zealously repeat that growth and austerity are not in contradiction. Beware about such a slim talk. Their underlying message is that fiscal compact must be preserved at all costs, growth delivery amounting to a merely cosmetic make-up. Eurocrats are working out ways to sell through financial engineering the same money under a more “à la mode” disguise….
MADRID | Bolsas y Mercados Españoles BME, the operator of all stock markets and financial systems in Spain, said Thursday that equity trading volume on the Spanish stock exchange in April had reached €65.75 billion. This is an increase of 7.25% from the previous month but 19% down on the same period in 2011. The trading volume for the first four months totaled €242.70 billion, down 26% from the same period…