Another option for Talgo Spain’s train manufacturer Talgo has an Indian suitor.
Jupiter Wagons, which also produces trains and is based in Calcutta, is reportedly in talks with private equity firm Trilantic, which owns approximately 30 per cent of Talgo.
The presence of the Indian company, 19.24 per cent-owned by the Czech rolling stock company Tatravagonka, would increase Talgo’s manufacturing capacity.
At the same time, Jupiter Wagons would contribute its services, not capital, as Talgo’s industrial partner and would not make a public purchase offer.
Should Jupiter Wagons’ talks with Trilantic prosper, this would be in line with the wishes of the national and Basque governments which want a major portion of Talgo’s capital to remain inside Spain.
Asda maths ASDA has borrowed £155 million (€187 million) to settle impending debts as it allays worries regarding its financial position,
The supermarket chain co-owned by TDR Capital and Mohsin Issa has a current debt pile of £6 billion (€7.2 billion) which in 2023 cost £441 million (€532.5 million) in interest alone.
The latest loan supplements an existing loan due in 2031 and, together with £155 million of cash from Asda’s balance sheet, means it can pay off £310 million (€374.3 million) in 2025 and 2026.
Thanks to this strategy the supermarket, will no longer have obligations due this decade, Asda sources said.
Four times better DANONE reported a €48.4 million profit last year, its highest in three years and quadrupling 2022’s.
Although sales have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels in Spain, last year’s rose to €891.7 million, an increase of 6 per cent on the previous year and the company’s highest since 2012. They were also 16 per cent up on 2021 before prices began to soar owing to inflation.
Sales improved for practically all Danone products, apart from yoghourt and plant-based milk drinks.
The latter accounted for 10 per cent of Danone’s sales, three percentage points lower than in 2022. In contrast, yoghourt drinks were responsible for 76 per cent of all sales.
Yes to Shein THE Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) cleared the way for Shein’s £50 billion (€60.4 billion) debut on London’s Stock Exchange.
The FCA’s chief executive Nikhil Rathi explained that decisions on listings were based on the company’s disclosures.
That did not cover every aspect of their corporate behaviour, Rathi told the Financial Times, aware that human rights groups had hoped the UK would, like the US, snub the Chinese fast fashion retailer.
Seven years on CEMENTOS MOLINS announced on December 3 that it was relocating its corporate headquarters to Cataluña.
The company, which has a strong international presence, explained in October 2017 that it wished to continue ensuring normal operations by moving to Madrid following Cataluña’s pro-independence referendum and separatist unrest.
Molins nevertheless stressed at the time that it remained committed to maintaining its activities inside Catalonia.
The company was one of around 4,500 Catalan businesses that left the region after 2017, including CaixaBank, which moved its headquarters to Valencia.
Jobs axed WEALTH management company St James’s Place intends to cut its 3,200 corporate staff by a sixth.
This will result in approximately 500 redundancies in offices across the UK, the London-listed company revealed in a leaked internal memo, although the job cuts will not affect its 4,800 financial advisers.
St James’s Place said in July this year that it would save an annual £100 million (€120.8 million) over the next two years, and expected to have made savings that totalled £500 million (€604.2 million) by 2030.
Doing well THE Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) expects Spain’s growth to have reached a healthy 3 per cent in 2024.
This is two-tenths of a percentage point higher than previous estimates and almost four times the OECD’s 0.8 per cent prediction for the eurozone.
Spain’s momentum is expected to slow in 2025 but at 2.3 per cent, its advance will still be higher than the eurozone’s average of 1.3 per cent, and one tenth above the OECD’s earlier forecast.
