CaixaBank: Spanish government receiving dividend on its holding for first time
Credit: CaixaBank
Onto a good thing SPAIN’S Fund for the Orderly Restructuring of Banks (FROB) has delayed selling its 17.9 per cent CaixaBank stake.
This holding has paid a €335 million dividend, FROB’s first since it was created in 2009 to increase the solvency of Spain’s banks during the financial crisis.
By August 2024, the state’s Caixabank holding was worth €7.1 billion, 50 per cent up on January 2024 and 260 per cent above its €1.96 billion value prior to the merger between bailed-out Bankia and Caixabank announced in 2020.
“Analysts recommend that investors either maintain or even raise exposure, and is one of the reasons why FROB has preferred not to undertake sales,” FROB’s president Alvaro Lopez Barcelo explained.
Clocking on LLOYD’S of London is checking employees’ swipe cards as they enter its City headquarters.
This enables managers to track how often and when they come in to work, Lloyd’s chief executive John Neal told the Telegraph.
The data was being used “constructively and thoughtfully” he stressed.
“We’re not using it from a discipline point of view,” Neal added.
Nevertheless, many other companies are now trying to address the TWaTs problem, where employees take a long weekend by avoiding the office on a Monday or Friday.
Getting closer LIDL is beginning to close the gap that separates it from Mercadona and Carrefour, Kantar Worldpanel figures showed.
The German supermarket chain finished its 2023-2024 fiscal year on February 28 with record sales of €6.57 billion, 8 per cent more than in 2022-2023. It now has a 6.4 per cent market share, an increase of three-tenths of a percentage point on 12 months ago.
Valencia-based Mercadona remains in first place with a 26.5 per cent market share, although it has lot half a percentage point since October 2023. Carrefour’s share rose by only one-tenth to 9.6 per cent, despite acquiring 46 Supercor stores from the Corte Ingles in October 2023.
Record loss CHANNEL 4 posted a £52 million (€61.12 million deficit) for 2023 but the publicly-owned broadcaster said that it would not ask for government assistance.
The annual report published on October 7 stated that ambitious plans which had been announced earlier in the year were challenged by a combination of inflation and high interest rates. These had affected “business confidence and investment in television advertising.”
Expenditure over the year included £663 million (€791.8 million) invested in content and £520 million (€621 million) spent on original content.
Openbank opens in the US OPENBANK, Santander’s online subsidiary which now operates in the US, is offering a savings account that pays 5.25 per cent interest.
Opening a savings account requires a minimum deposit of $500 (€457), although these high-interest accounts are not available for customers with deposit accounts with Santander Bank in the US.
Although the return is currently very high, the bank said it reserves the right to reduce it at any time.
Very Group rumours THE Barclay family, the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph’s former owners, are considering a £2.5 billion (€3 billion) sale of their online retail business,Very Group.
Sources quoted by Sky News revealed that the Very Group board, chaired by former UK Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, has engaged Barclays, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley to handle a full or partial auction.
Insiders also revealed that refinancing the business, whose lenders include the Carlyle investment firm and Abu-Dhabi-based IMI, was another option under consideration.
CAF trams for Italy TRAM, train and bus builder CAF, based in Beasain (Guipuzcoa), has been awarded contracts worth €200 million to supply trams for Rome and Bologna.
Rome’s public transport authority, ATAC, increased an earlier order for 40 trams by a further 20. All will be equipped with CAF’s Onboard Energy Storage System (OESS) eliminating the need for overhead cables.
Bologna city hall’s contract for 33 OESS trams includes the option to increase this to 60 or possibly 70 units in future.
The CAF contacts include maintaining Rome’s trams for five years and those in Bologna for four years, plus supplying spare parts.
