Spain Business Brief - Monday July 14 2008

Spain Business Brief - Monday July 14 2008
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By h.b. - Jul 14, 2008 - 1:01 PM

Archive Photo EFE

Grupo Santander reaches agreement to purchase the Alliance and Leicester Bank.

Grupo Santander has reached an agreement to purchase the British Alliance and Leicester bank for 1.575 billion €, according to a statement to the Spanish stock market regulator CNMV. Allliance shareholders will get a Santander share for every three A&L shares held. It means a strengthening of the Spanish bank’s position in the U.K., where it already purchased Abbey in 2004. The new plan would see the Alliance and Leicester merging with Abbey

The real estate company Martinsa-Fadesa has been suspended from trading on the Spanish Stock Market today after a fall of 24% in the company’s shares, on top of falls of 33% suffered on Friday.
It’s thought the company could now be forced to present a suspension of payments, the Spanish form of filing for bankruptcy protection.
It comes because of finance problems in the group which has caused an emergency meeting of the board this evening. Last week they asked their creditors for more time to pay for a 150 million € credit. The major creditors for the group are La Caixa (1 billion €), Caja Madrid (1 billion €) and Banco Popular (400 million €).

The number of returned unpaid payments by families and businesses has increased by 85% in a year, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute. The average amount of the unpaid debt is now 2,978 €, up 47.4% compared to a year ago, and is increasing at the fastest rate since 2002.
The data refers to items such a televisions, holidays or business machinery which are being paid for with monthly payments, and it is the Spanish savings banks which are taking the greatest hit.

The number of new companies being created in May is down 33% on the year according to the new numbers.

Ferrovial has reached an agreement to refinance the debt of its BAA British Airports Authority. BAA bonds will help to refinance the 12 billion € debt, and this is being described by the company as a ‘significant advance’ in the process of refinancing. Ferrovial intends to establish a long term finance scheme to guarantee the 6.1 billion € investment which it plans to spend on British airports in the next five years.

Spanish travel group Marsans has decided to sell the Austral and Aerolineas Argenitinas airlines to the Argentine Government, according to local press reports. Discussions are reported to be underway on the value of the shares and how the deal can be done.

The Magazine ‘Euromoney’ has named the Banco Santander as the best bank in the world. The magazine praises its capacity for growth in today’s context of a difficult market. It comes after Santander won the best bank in Spain award in six of the past seven years. Abbey, owned by Grupo Santander, was named as the best Bank in the U.K.
Banesto is also praised as the best bank in Spain this year.

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