Spain Business Brief - Monday November 10 2008

Spain Business Brief - Monday November 10 2008
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By h.b. - Nov 10, 2008 - 12:52 PM

Minister for the Economy, Pedro Solbes (left), with the Socailist Spokesman in Congress, José Antonio Alonso - Photo EFE

Preparations ahead of this weeks economic summit in Washington dominate.

It’s been a day of meetings today in Spain, with the Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, meeting with top bankers, unions and employers to prepare for the G20 summit in Washington on November 15th. The Prime Minister met first with Emilio Botín from the Banco Santander, Francisco González from the BBVA, Miguel Blesa from the Caja Madrid and Isidro Fainé from La Caixa.
In the afternoon he is going on to meet with the unions, the CEOE employers and also the Cepyme organisation which represents small businesses. The latest G-20 meeting which has just ended in San Paulo has called for ‘a new worldwide financial architecture’.

Pedro Solbes, the Minister for the Economy, has called for imagination from the social agents in Spain in the face of the economic crisis, and the ‘complexity of the moment’. He called on both the unions and the employers to forget the ‘traditional formulas’ to overcome the additional difficulties.

Banco Santander has announced a 25% increase in its capital to strengthen its solvency. The bank has announced a rights issue selling 1.6 million new shares at 4.5 € each in a move to raise about 7.2 billion €. Existing shareholders will have the right to buy one share for every four they already own. It comes after Santander has been on a recent spending spree.

Banco Sabadell is reported to be looking at selling 600 of its offices in 2009. The bank thinks that they could raise as much as 600 million in this way.

EDITOR'S NOTE - Please note the bank names on the above two stories have been corrected. They had been interchanged in error. Apologies to all concerned

Hacienda tax authorities has announced it will allow companies to delay the payment of their IRPF income tax on their payrole. However they will need a guarantor and will be also be charged interest.

Meanwhile the Minister for Housing, Beatriz Corredor, has said that when the two auctions of funds destined for financial entities in Spain are carried out – now expected to be in December, the Government could demand that the bank does its job and grants credit to the small and medium sized companies and families. Speaking on Antena 3 TV today, the Minister has called on people to purchase property, given the dramatic falls in the Euribor rate. Latest stats show house prices in Spain are down by 15%.
Meanwhile plans to stimulate the renovation of property to keep people in work appear to have failed, with numbers of flats being improved down by 1.3%.

The Minister for Industry, Miguel Sebastián, has described the request of the National Energy Commission CNE to see a 31% increase in electricity prices in January as ‘barbaric’. He has denied the request which the Prime Minister also said was not even worth thinking about.

And finally,
El Mundo newspaper reports today that Vicente Grande, the President of Mallorca, and who has assets of more than 1.095 billion €, recently declared himself insolvent and obtained a 6,000 € tax rebate.

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