The situation at present :-
CAM: Unless some courageous private investors can be found to invest capital in the mismanaged entity, it will be completely nationalised.
Catalunyacaixa: It seems the capital needed will be provided partly from private sources and partly from the Government.
Unnim: The same situation as Catalunyacaixa.
Novacaixagalicia: Is searching for private capital, so as not to depend completely on the Bank of Spain.
Caja Espaňa-Duero: Still negotiating a merger with Unicaja.
Bankia: The group that includes Caixa Madrid and Bancaja aims to find new shareholders in the stock exchange in June.
Grupo BMN: The same situation as Bankia.
Banca Civica: Same situation as Bankia.
Grupo Cajastur: Searching for private capital.
Aznar doubts Spanish economy
Jose Maria Aznar, a former Spanish Prime Minister, in a conference at the business school of the University of Columbia (USA) said he doubted the ability of Spain to repay its debts, especially following the European Central Bank's increase in the interest rate, and added, that the decision by the CBE will limit loans to companies and make recuperation more difficult.
Pessimistic business leaders
According to the first quarter of the year's International Business Report, Spanish business leaders are amongst the most pessimistic in the world. Spain ranks 37th among optimistic countries; with Chile being number one. Spanish business leaders are only less pessimistic about the future of their country than their counterparts in Japan and Greece are.
Banesto profits fall 19.9%
Banesto net profits were 169.5 million euros in the first quarter of the year, down 19.9% on the same quarter last year. Their “solvency capital” increased to 8%, however, the bank intends to increase it further before the end of the year. Bad loans represent 4.15% of total loans, up 4.08 in December last year.
Government restricts payment to Bank Directors
The Government has decided to prohibit bonus payments to the directors of banks which are receiving money from the FROB agency of the Government (Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring) unless they have a special permit from the Bank of Spain. This will affect the earnings of almost all the new banks and saving banks, which have resulted from the restructure of the banking sector.
Telefonica wants to reduce staff
Telefonica wants to make 6,400 of its employees in Spain redundant. The reduction of the staff from 32,000 to 25,600 is intended to take part over 3 years. Negotiations with the trade unions have already started, with the company offering generous conditions to the workers who will be laid off. The Government has expressed its displeasure with the plan, but Telefonica argue it is necessary to become more competitive in the market. Telefonica had 75,000 employees at the beginning of the nineties.
Only 8% of local Authorities comply with law
In 2008, the last year for which information is available, only 8% of the 13,456 Local Authorities (municipalities, provinces, islands, minor entities) presented budgets within the legal time limit; the 15th October. 89% of the Authorities worked for months using the drawn out budget of the previous year. At the end of 2009, 2,785 Authorities had not presented any accounts for the years 2006, 2007 or 2008. A total of 159 mayors in municipalities of more than 1,000 inhabitants were fined by the Tribunal of Accounts.
Local authorities manage between 59,400 and 43,000 million euros…….
“Rescued” countries need more money
It is rumoured that Greek will not be able to pay its public debts and requires delays and reductions in the payment of the agreed instalments. The Greek Government has presented a new, and even more radical, austerity program which will be presented to Parliament in June. Public expenses will be cut an additional 13,000 million euros between 2012 and 2015, the income of the state increased 9,000 million and public assets worth 50,000 privatised. Greece's public debt now amounts to 153% of its Gross Domestic Product.
Moody’s has downgraded Ireland's public debt two steps, from BAA1 to BAA3, with a 'negative outlook' and the rating agency anticipates the country may need additional adjustments to reduce its deficit.
The interest rate on public bonds issued by Portugal has reached 9.064% for 10 year bonds and 18.8% for 3 year bonds.
Spanish “country risk” increasing
Only one week ago it seemed that Spain’s economy would not be contaminated by Portugal asking for an EU rescue package and Spain's “country risk” dropped to 170 points, the lowest this year. However, over the past days, the trend has changed and the “country risk” has now risen to 194 points.
Grave diggers in Castellon
The town hall in Burriana, a town hall with 30,000 inhabitants, advertised recently for two grave diggers for its cemetery. It received 86 applications, 43 for each of the posts. Previously town halls have had difficulties in finding anyone willing to take the job.
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