Spain Business
Spain Business Brief - Thursday March 18 2010
By h.b. - Mar 18, 2010 - 1:58 PM
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The TVE studios at Prado del Rey - EFE archive
New file opened on the funding of TVE by the European Commission
The European Commission has opened an investigation into the financing of the state broadcaster RTVE, the second file it has opened on the case since the broadcaster removed advertising at the start of the year.
Spain now has two months to answer the objections which are based on the possibility that the income for the channel, obtained by a tax on other broadcasters, may be incompatible with EU law.
2009 saw considerable restructuring in the Spanish banking industry, with 1,634 branch offices or 3.5% of them closing over the year. 783 offices were for cajasavings banks. There are now 44,431 bank branches across the country. Other financial companies cut their office numbers over the year by 14%.
Meanwhile bad debt levels in the banks rose by two tenths in January to reach 5.3%. It’s the highest level since May 1996 according to the Bank of Spain.
Bad debt in real estate companies is now over 10% for the first time on record.
Enel and Endesa say they will launch their renewable energy subsidiary on the stock market this year. The Spanish company and its Italian shareholder are confident of an end to the recession, and have created a joint company to integrate their green activity.
The value of industrial orders in Spain has registered their first increase since July 2008 up by 1.1% in January on the same month the previous year. The improvement has come thanks to the stimulation of car sales.
And finally,
A judge in the Madrid First Instance Court 36 has ordered the Mediapro company to pay 97 million to Audio Visual Sport after it considered that a contract between them signed in 2006 on football TV coverage, had not been kept. Mediapro is to appeal.