Spain Business Brief - Wednesday July 8 2009

Spain Business Brief - Wednesday July 8 2009
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By h.b. - Jul 8, 2009 - 12:50 PM

President of Banesto - Ana Patricia Botín - EFE

Banesto sees fall of nearly nine percent in profits for the year to June

Banesto has announced a 8.9% fall in profits for the year to June compared to last year. Despite the number the bank said that in the second quarter there was an improvement in the growth of generating income.
The bank returned a net profit of 409.5 million € for the first six months of this year.

The CECA, the Confederation of the Spanish Savings Banks, has called for measures to stop banks from getting too big.
The President of the organisation, Juan Ramón Quintás, thinks that a restructuring needs to take place among Spanish Savings Banks, because some of the banks are already too big to be rescued apart by becoming national entities. He said that chaos would return to the sector in 15 to 20 years unless there were profound changes in the system.
Meanwhile the Bank of Spain says that mergers are inevitable in banks and savings banks here, and has made a call to avoid national strategies in the fight against the global crisis.

Mayors from the cities of Bilbao, Barcelona and Santander, have been discussing the economic crisis and how it is affecting them at a forum organised by the Caja Madrid savings bank.

The second largest cement manufacturer in Spain, the Swiss company Holcim, has said they see no signs of any recovery in the country. A statement says that they expect a difficult year in the United States, Spain and Europe, while emerging markets in Asia and Latin America have a ‘satisfactory’ activity.

Metalworkers in Pontevedra are considering calling more strike action unless there is a quick agreement on the next wage round. For now workers have gone back to work after 23 days on strike. Unions say they are preparing another ‘calendar of demonstrations’.

Reservations at the very last minute are saving the tourist season according to Spanish travel agents. They say they expect to end the year with a cashflow similar to that seen last year, although profits will fall because of the cheaper prices in the sector and the offers which are being applied to attract the clients.

And finally,
The telecommunications regulator, CMT, has admitted that the price of SMS text messages will not be coming down in Spain – remaining at 15 cents. They claim that is because in fact there are ‘hidden offers’ in the marketplace which take the average cost of messages down to 11.85 cents. It comes after the EU ordered SMS messages across borders in Europe cost no more than 11 cents.
The CMT notes however that mobile phone tariffs have fallen by 5.2% over the past year.
Meanwhile Vodafone has been ordered to remove a campaign which says ‘We will give the gift of the land line at your home forever’. The ruling considers that the service offered by Vodafone is not a land line as such, but a flat rate cost for calls to land lines when the call is made from your home.

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