Business

Banc Sabadell has managed to integrate the entire network of Caixa Penedès’ branches in Catalonia and Aragón, as well as all the technological and operational platforms. With this last integration, Banc Sabadell has €170 billion in assets, around 6 million clients and 12% of Spain’s banking branches. This means that the Catalan bank is now the 4^th largest retail financial entity in Spain, after the Barcelona-based CaixaBank, Santander and BBVA. Banc Sabadell bought Caixa Penedès’ banking business in Catalonia and Aragón to Banco Mare Nostrum (BNM) in May. In only 5 months, Banc Sabadell has added 376 branches to its network, along with 545 million client registers and 900,000 clients. In the last year, the Catalan bank has doubled the size of its network, since it also integrated the Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM) network.

The Barcelona-based nationalised Catalunya Banc has reached a first deal with unions on the announced mass lay-off. The deal includes voluntary redundancies instead of early retirements, and the possibility for 401 workers over 50 years old to leave the company. The agreement was reached in the early hours of Wednesday morning, after a long day of talks on Tuesday. Catalunya Banc runs the banking business of the nationalised savings bank CatalunyaCaixa, which will be sold in the coming months after a comprehensive restructuring process. Talks are still ongoing in order to close a definitive deal and the definitive agreement has now to be ratified by the bank’s Board.

In addition, CaixaBank declares that “it will take all the opportunities” to grow in the Spanish market. The Catalan CaixaBank, which is Spain’s main retail bank, has sold €1 billion in 3.5 year bonds, after a market demand of €2.8 billion. In fact, the large demand made the issue price drop from 180 to 170 basic points on ‘midswap’, which is the reference index for this sort of corporate bonds. The issue interest was set at 2.5% and the issue cost represents 18.5 basic points over the Spanish Treasury Debt’s price. The new issue by CaixaBank is part of the bank’s financial plan for 2013, which aims to strengthen CaixaBank’s liquidity, set to reach 64.604 billion by 30^th June.

The founder and CEO of technology company GFT announced that they will create 500 new jobs in Catalonia in the coming years. In an exclusive interview with the CNA, Ulrich Dietz, stated that he has “aggressive plans to increase the staff” in Greater Barcelona and Lleida. GFT  specialises in developing technological solutions for the banking and insurance sectors, with a turnover of €231 million in 2012. With several offices in Germany, the company is based in Stuttgart and is present in Brazil, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, US and UK. A quarter of GFT employees throughout the world are based in Catalonia. Most of them work in Greater Barcelona, which is the company’s “hub” for the European market. Dietz explained that he has plans to develop Lleida’s facilities, which currently employ 40 people, “significantly”.

At Spanish level, unemployment increased both in monthly and annual terms. Catalonia is the Autonomous Community with the largest annual unemployment drop in absolute terms and the second highest in relative terms. The number of people registered as unemployed in Catalonia at the end of September dropped by 11,546 individuals compared to figures from a year ago, representing a 1.83% annual decrease. However, in monthly terms, registered unemployment increased by 1.51%, with 9,243 more jobseekers. September is a month with a traditional unemployment increase due to the end of summer season contracts. Last September’s unemployment increase was the lowest since 2008.

The Port of Barcelona will have a new terminal for Carnival cruise ships by 2016. The US company announced on Friday that it will invest €20 million to build a terminal capable of serving ‘post panamax’ cruise ships. These boats can transport 4,500 passengers in ‘turnaround’ operations, which means starting and ending the trip in Barcelona. The new facility will have an area of 10,000 square metres. It will be called Terminal E and located at Barcelona harbour’s Adossat Dock. Carnival Corporation explained that the investment aims to adapt to the sector’s future needs, which point towards larger boats. With this investment, Barcelona strengthens its position as Europe’s and the Mediterranean Sea’s main centre for cruise ships, being also the world’s fourth largest port for this industry.

The Catalan capital’s airport is the world’s third largest centre for low-cost flights. Two thirds of the seats on offer from or to Barcelona El Prat Airport are managed by low-cost companies. All Europe’s main low-cost airlines fly to Barcelona. This confirms Barcelona’s tourist attractiveness. In addition, this type of air traffic has enabled the Catalan airport to become one of Europe’s main airports. For the first time, last August more passengers went through Barcelona El Prat than through Madrid-Barajas, which means El Prat was Spain’s main airport. This might be a key asset when low-cost airlines also operate transcontinental flights.

Willie Walsh, the CEO of IAG – the group formed by British Airways and Iberia, guaranteed that its subsidiary airline Vueling will continue having Barcelona El Prat Airport as its main base if Catalonia becomes an independent country and even if it is forced to abandon the European Union. “We will continue in Barcelona”, he emphasised on Tuesday in a meeting with press reporters from the Chinese city of Chengdu, according to an article published by Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia. Walsh was in China as British Airways was unveiling a new route linking this city with London.

Catalonia has consolidated its position as Spain’s top destination for international tourists, strengthening its leadership during the summer months but also throughout the year. 11.04 million foreigners visited Catalonia between January and August, 26.1% of all the 42.3 million international tourists who visited Spain in that period. The Balearic Islands (19.7%) and the Canary Islands (15.9%) follow Catalonia’s lead. Furthermore, all the historical records at Spanish and Catalan level were broken last August: 8.3 million tourists visited Spain during that month, and 27% of them chose Catalonia as their destination. This represents more than 2.25 million foreigners visiting Catalonia in a single month, a 12.3% increase on data from August 2012. 

The Catalan company has signed an agreement with the Shah Deniz consortium for a 25-year period. The Azerbaijani company will supply 1bcm of natural gas per year. The agreement is conditional on the final decision on the project investment, a step planned for later this year. The development of this project will open a new supply route to Europe through the ‘Southern Corridor’, which will allow Europe to access gas reserves in the Caspian Sea area. Barcelona-based Gas Natural Fenosa will receive the gas in facilities based in Italy, one end of the European gas pipeline passing through Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania, and crossing the Adriatic Sea. The Catalan company said that this supply will consolidate its presence and strengthen its gas supply business in Italy.

Barcelona-based Gas Natural Fenosa (GNF) has signed a contract with the South Korean company Kogas to supply between 1 and 1.5 bcm for the next two years. This is the first deal that Catalan GNF has signed with Kogas, the largest gas operator in South Korea and the biggest importer of LNG in the world. Furthermore, in recent months, GNF has signed contracts with companies in both Japan and India, contributing to its increase in the Asian market, which has a high growth potential in the coming years.  International sales now represent 30% of the total portfolio of the Catalan energy company.

According to data released on Tuesday by the Spanish Airports and Air Navigation Authority (AENA), the number of passengers travelling through Barcelona’s El Prat Airport has exceeded Madrid-Barajas for the first time during the month of August. While Barcelona Airport received a total of 3.9 million passengers during August – representing an increase of 0.8% on the same month of 2012 – Madrid Airport had 3.8 million passengers – a reduction of 11.7%. El Prat also had an growth in the amount of passengers flying in transoceanic flights by 9.5%, which represents 331,578 passengers.

The Board of Directors of Catalonia-based Banc Sabadell has approved a capital increase operation of €1.4 billion. The transaction will take place in the form of two consecutive increases in order to “strengthen capital and allow new important shareholders to join the bank aiming [to reinforce] the future internationalisation process of the bank”. The decision by Sabadell, Spain’s fifth largest bank, to carry out this operation was taken after finding out about the “growing interest” of international investors to acquire stable assets of the Catalan financial entity. It is expected that at least €1.33 billion will be attracted, which will subsequently make Banc Sabadell to one of the best capitalised banks in Europe with a core capital beyond 11%.

Valencia and Barcelona have continued to lead exports by sea in Spain during the first six months of 2013. For the same period of last year, Barcelona exported 5,180,000 tonnes, while in 2013 the figure increased to 5,380,000 tonnes, which represents an increase of 4.02%. However, Valencia has experienced a slight reduction. During the first six months of 2012, 6,236,000 tonnes were exported by sea from the city, while for 2013 this figure was 6,214,000 – a 0.36% decrease.

This Wednesday, the Catalan President, Artur Mas, celebrated the announcement of a rail connection being constructed to the Port of Barcelona, which he says will bring to an end the “historical mistake” of the lack of investment in rail access to the Port. 50% of the funding for the project will come from the Spanish Ministry for Public Works and Transport and the other 50% from the Port itself. “It was a mistake to deny a rail connection from the biggest exporting economy of the Iberian Peninsular with Europe”, said Mas.