Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Monday July 21 2008
By h.b. - Jul 21, 2008 - 12:26 PM
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José María Entrecanales, one of the largest names in Spanish construction has died. The founder and honorary president of Acciona passed away in the Rúber International Clinic in Madrid. He was 75 and had suffered a long illness. He had handed over the presidency of Acciona to his son José Manuel Entrecanales Dómecq in 2004, a position he still holds and combines with being president of Endesa.
It has been revealed that the Martinsa company, which has now applied for bankruptcy protection, accepted down payments for homes in Spain which had not yet obtained building licences. Reports indicate that had been happening since 2004 and it seems that the company will also lose the land concerned if the homes are not completed before the contracts expire. Some 12,500 families are waiting for homes having started to make payments to the company according to reports. Meanwhile talks continue between the company and the authorities on the sacking of 234 workers, with a new meeting with the unions set for Wednesday.
Following the recent filing for bankruptcy for real estate group Martinsa, the man who was key in awarding a credit to the firm from the Caja Madrid bank, Carlos Vela, has announced his resignation from the bank. Vela made it clear that in no financial body did a single person approve a credit, but it is clear that after taking part in the process in Caja Madrid, he was then signed by Martinsa as the company number two. Interestingly he had returned to Caja Madrid a few days before the bankruptcy protection was applied for in Martinsa.
It is also now known that Martinsa denied to the regulatory body, CNMV, The National Council for Market Values, as late as June that the company was in a risky position or had any liquidity problems.
Fashion company, Custo Barcelona, has said it will start legal action against the Desigual company for what it says is the systematic copying of their designs and products. The news was given by the owner of the Catalan firm, Custo Dalmau who said that the copying was now too much, too obvious, and had been going on for too long.
The Spanish Social Security system has announced a 12% increase in its surplus in the 6 month results to June year on year. The surplus now stands at 16.734 billion €.
The Santander Group has announced that it also has plans to sell its assurance activities. Reports say that the bank is looking for 6.5 billion for its insurance and funds divisions. Axa, Aviva, Allianz and Genearali are named by the press as possible bidders.
Discounts of up to 30% are being reported in the last minute offers available at travel agents in Spain in the face of falling demand this summer. Along with the British, the Spanish are those who ask for most credit to pay for their holidays. Travel agents here admit that there is a ‘clear slowdown’ in the industry, with some sources saying sales are down 10% on last year.
The AVE high speed train service between Madrid and Barcelona has reduced air traffic between the two cities by 14.2%. The number of people taking the plane from the capital to Málaga over the first six months of this year compared to last is down by 17.6% according to the new numbers released by the Spanish airport authority AENA.
Iberia has replaced the 200 seater Boeing 757 with the 140 seater Airbus 319 on the Barcelona route to compensate.
Spanish airports as a whole saw 99.1 million passengers over the first six months of the year, up 2.8% on the same period in 2007.
Meanwhile the Ministry for Development has made a proposal to the Ministry for Defence which would bring greater flexibility to passenger air lanes across Spain. The idea is to shorten the routes in order to save fuel, and comes from the Minister Magdalena Álvarez who will be meeting with Defence Minister Carme Chacón. There is also a new European idea to make routes more direct by using airspace which has been reserved upto now for military use.
Latest numbers from the Bank of Spain show that bad debts have now reached the 1.5% level after doubling over the past year.
The volume of ‘doubtful credits’ reached 27.7 billion € in May according to the bank – up 123% over the year.
The Alsa bus company in Spain has announced what it is calling a new ‘tarfia plana – flat rate’ ticket. The new ticket will allow travellers to use any of its bus services for a week or four week period. Prices are 99 € for the week and 299 € for the month and remain in force over the summer.
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