Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Monday March 15 2010
By h.b. - Mar 15, 2010 - 2:55 PM
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Gerardo Diáz Ferrán - EFE archive
Seguros Mercurio dissolved by the Government
The Spanish Government has ordered the dissolution of the insurance company owned by Gerardo Díaz Ferrán, the Chairman of the employers’ organization, CEOE.
It has ordered the immediate dissolution of Seguros Mercurio in order ‘to avoid a possible loss of confidence among those insured’ by the company.
El Mundo reports that the cabinet has waited until the very last moment before taking action, but the assets of the company and its lack of liquidity forced the issue. The dissolution is handled by the Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros, dependent on the Ministry for the Economy, which will cover all the company’s obligations with its clients.
Díaz Ferrán has many troubled business interests including the Marsans travel group, reported to be up for sale after the collapse of his airline, Air Comet.
Deputy Prime Minister, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, has accused the Partido Popular of electioneering in its campaign to halt the IVA/VAT increase set for July 1. She said ‘a responsible party does not call for rebellion, when what it should do is make a calm call on the citizens’ wisdom.
The PP says that CiU will vote with it against the increase in Congress on Tuesday, while the Government hope the PNV and CC will vote with them to get the measure through.
Meanwhile the person who started the calls for rebellion, the PP regional leader in Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, has today attacked the equality Ministry. ‘Tell me what the ‘igual-da’ Ministry serves for’, she said making a pun implying the name of the ministry is ‘couldn’t careless’.
The Standard and Poor’s rating agency has reduced the classification for Spanish banks down to level 3. It takes them down to the same level as the United States, the UK, Chile and Portugal, following concerns here at their exposure to the real estate collapse and delays in plans for restructuring, especially of the caja savings banks.
Meanwhile the Moody’s rating agency has said that Spain is facing a ‘prolonged and painful’ fiscal adjustment. However Moody’s still thinks the country is well positioned and has no intention of reducing the current AAA rating.
The Deputy President of the European Commission, Joaquín Almunia, has said that he thinks Spain’s predictions for the reduction of the deficit are optimistic. He considers that the calculations from 2011 are not likely to be met.
Bad debt in shops fell in January for the tenth consecutive month according to the National Statistics Institute. The INE say it fell 37.3% compared to the same month in 2009 at 416,871 €.
And finally,
Santander has calculated that with Fernando Alonso’s win in Bahrain it has already recovered the 25 million € it cost the bank to sponsor the driver. In fact all three drivers on the podium on Sunday carried the bank’s logo on their chest.