Spain Business Brief - Tuesday April 7 2009

Spain Business Brief - Tuesday April 7 2009
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By h.b. - Apr 7, 2009 - 12:51 PM
Pepe el del Popular told that the charges against him have expired

José Pérez Díaz - EFE

The fraudster known as ‘Pepe el del Popular’, José Pérez Díaz, has been released despite a massive 6 billion peseta, 36 million €, fraud he carried out when he was manager of a branch of the Banco Popular in 1991, because the charges against him have been archived for the passing of time.
The judge in instruction court 3 in Santander, dismissed the case and said the only person affected was the bank so there are no aggravating circumstances.
His lawyer said Jóse heard the sentence in tears, but the lawyers representing the Banco Popular have announced an appeal to the Cantabria Court and have ten days to do so.
The judge’s decision cancels the extradition warrant for the man who escaped to Mexico after the fraud.
Pepe says he would like to return to Spain.

Brussels has confirmed today that 14 countries in the Eurozone are now in recession. Eurostat has increased the forecast of recession for the area to have reached 1.6% in the last quarter of 2008.
The European Central Bank, ECB, has meanwhile criticised the measures agreed at the G-20 summit. The bank has described the agreement as ‘the mere creation of money’ and warned they will lead to an increase in inflation, despite other forecasters thinking there will be a fall in prices until after the summer.

Caja España and the Caja Duero are reported to be putting the final details on their merger.
Both the savings banks are in the Castilla y León region and reports say that the final proposal will be approved in a month’s time.
If it goes ahead the merger would follow the Bank of Spain model under which both trading names would be preserved.

Figures for February show that Telefónica lost fixed line clients over the month to Jazztel, Orange and Vodafone. The number of clients who changed operator was up 8.4% as the number of fixed lines fell by 70,098, as families make savings and companies go bankrupt. Despite the shift, Telefónica still holds 79% of the market share by income.

Banco Pastro has announced it is to re-purchase its own bonds, to the tune of 150 million €. They say the objective of the operation is to reinforce capital and give more liquidity to institutional investors.

For the third consecutive month the price of imports and exports fell in February. Provisional data from the INE National Statistics Institute, show a 1.4% reduction in export prices year on year for industrial products.

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