Business

The world’s main event showcasing cell phone and mobile technology, the Mobile World Congress, is starting the final countdown to open its doors in one month’s time in Barcelona, as it has been doing each year since 2006. In its 8th year in the Catalan capital, the MWC, which is organised by GSMA, will move from Montjuic to the Gran Via venue of Fira de Barcelona, in order to increase its space by 30%. Between, the 25th and 28th of February, this trade fair, expert conference and industry meeting point will host more than 70,000 visitors from 200 different countries, 300 speakers and 1,500 companies, 70 of which are Catalan. The congress will bring in more than €300 million to Barcelona’s economy and will create 6,500 temporary jobs.

Out of the 57.7 million foreign tourists who visited Spain last year, 25% of them went to Catalonia, which was the most visited destination. 14,447,814 foreign visitors travelled to Catalonia in 2012, a 9.9% increase compared to the 2011 figures. This figure is particularly relevant compared to the Spanish average: the total number of foreigners visiting Spain only increased by 2.7% last year. The largest market sending tourists to Catalonia continues to be France. Regarding the data for December, the number of foreign tourists visiting Catalonia only that month was 622,258 people, a 7% increase compared to data from December 2011.

The Barcelona-based brand, which is part of the Volkswagen group, had announced an 8.3% drop of car sales in 2012, compared to 2011, due to the recession in Spain, which is Seat’s main market. The increase of sales in foreign markets could not balance out last year’s results. In order to recover from this drop in sales, the company has decided to slow down the production of new cars and 400 workers are to be made redundant. Seat hired 600 temporary workers a few months ago due to positive results in 2011, two thirds of which will be laid off. The company will discuss its plans with the trade unions.

Trade unions refused to sign the Japanese company’s final offer to increase the competitiveness of Barcelona’s plant by reducing salaries and changing working conditions, so Nissan announced the end of the talks after 6 months of negotiation and meditation by the Catalan Government. Before Christmas, the Japanese company had already warned the unions that talks were coming to an end as the production of the new sedan car needed to be allocated. Back then Nissan presented a final offer, which has however been modified in the last few days. Once the agreement seemed to be imminent, Nissan floated the idea of a two-day reduction in holiday days, which the unions immediately rejected. Nissan warned that its Barcelona plant might now face “a slow-death scenario”.

The main Catalan airport is increasing the number of intercontinental flights in terms of both destination and frequency, one of the strategic drives implementing its expansion plan. Barcelona’s Airport already has 31% of the intercontinental traffic in Spain, despite the fact that the partially state-owned Iberia’s international flights abandoned the Catalan airport years ago in favour of Madrid Barajas. Barcelona Airport has attracted other airlines, such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, and has specialised in connections to the Middle East and Asia, although it also has flights to the Americas. Last week, there was a press release that stated that 35.15 million passengers went through Barcelona Airport in 2012.

Combined with the salary reductions and the taxation increase, the rise in inflation means that Catalans have lost purchasing power. The spending of the average Catalan family increased by some 110 euros per month compared to 2011 in order to buy the same amount of goods and services, while the net revenue decreased. In the whole of Spain, the inflation rate for the last 12 months was 2.9%, affected by the VAT increase approved by the Spanish Government. In Catalonia, it was higher due to fees adopted by the Catalan Government in order to reduce the public deficit: namely those affecting drug prescriptions and university education.

Grimaldi will build a new short-distance terminal in Barcelona Port and run it for a 15-year period, which has the possibility to be extended for a further seven and a half years. The Italian company wants to increase its presence in the Catalan capital, from where it currently runs four regular ferry lines linking Barcelona to Civitavecchia (Rome), Livorno (Florence), Porto Torres (Sardinia) and Tanger (Morocco). The new building will be ready by next summer and will be able to serve 1,800 passengers. It will cover 3,750 m2, have three stories and three boarding bridges, and it will be surrounded by a large esplanade where cars can wait before they board the ferry.

Barcelona-based car manufacturer Seat, which is part of the Volkswagen Group, delivered 8.3% fewer cars in 2012 compared to the previous year. In total, it sold 321,000 vehicles, instead of the 350,000 units of 2011. The decrease is due to the drop in car sales in Spain because of the economic recession. However, Seat sold 22.5% more cars in Germany and 8.2% more vehicles in the UK. The Catalan car manufacturer also increased its sales in Mexico by 16.5%. Overall, the Volkswagen Group sold 9.07 million cars in 2012, an increase of 11.2%. The group obtained positive results in all markets except Southern Europe (-0.3%) and Western Europe – excluding Germany – (-6.5%).

The Catalan bank has issued debt securities for €1 billion that attracted a demand of €3.4 billion. As other multinational companies such as CaixaBank and Gas Natural Fenosa did this week, Banc Sabadell is profiting from the lower spread in order to pay lower interest rates than they were a few months ago. The Catalan private bank has obtained a spread of 250 basis points over the midswap rate, which is a better interest rate than that obtained by the Spanish Treasury in its recent operations.

The number of people travelling through the main Catalan airport reached a new record last year, despite the economic recession. 35,145,176 people travelled through the airport, a 2.2% increase compared to 2011. Madrid-Barajas, Barcelona Airport’s main competitor, saw the number of its passengers drop by 9% to a total of 45.19 million people. Barcelona’s improvement is due to the significant increase in international passengers, since domestic ones dropped by 9.6%. The greatest increase was in the number of passengers arriving from or going to another EU state, which grew by 9.2%. People flying from or to outside the European Union increased by 8.9% and intercontinental passengers by 3.45%.

The operation has rocketed CaixaBank shares in the Spanish stock exchange market, which increased by 11.75% in just one day. The Catalan CaixaBank, which is the largest bank in Spain, successfully issued €1 billion in 3-year senior bonds. The operation has attracted more than 300 orders from institutional investors, representing around €5 billion, which has allowed the Barcelona-based bank to sell its bonds at a better price thanks to the significant oversubscription. 80% of the bonds issued were placed among international investors, confirming the positive recognition CaixaBank has in international financial markets. It was the first time their senior bonds have been issued on the international markets since 2010.

On the 5th of December, the Catalan Executive allocated the tender to privatise the public companies Tabasa and Túnels del Cadí to the joint venture formed by Invicat (owned by Abertis) and the investment bank BTG Pactual. On Friday, the deal was completed and the Catalan Government earned €309.6 million, representing 72% of the total of the €430 million operation. In addition, the two public companies will effectively disappear. The concession will last for the next 25 years and the Catalan Government will continue to own the infrastructures but it will transfer the management and exploitation. The operation includes the tolls at the Vallvidrera highway tunnels accessing Barcelona and the Cadí tunnel, at Cerdanya County, in the Pyrenees.

Catalonia is the second Autonomous Community, behind Galicia, where drug expenditure decreased the most in November. The austerity measures approved by the Catalan and the Spanish Governments to reduce drug expenditure are behind the significant drops in spending in Catalonia and the rest of Spain over the last few months. Pharmaceutical expenditure dropped by 13.11% over the first 11 months of 2012. Besides, the number of drug prescriptions issued in November in Catalonia decreased by 21.27% compared to a year ago.

Nissan is considering allocating the production of a new sedan car to its Catalan plant: a €130 million investment creating 1,000 direct and 3,000 indirect new jobs. However, the company is asking for salaries and working conditions to be adjusted in order to increase competitiveness. Barcelona hosts one of the main factories the Japanese automotive company has in Europe and in May it allocated the construction of a new pickup model, after a previous modification to the working conditions. The talks for the new adjustment have been ongoing since the summer but now they are at a crucial moment, since Nissan is about to make its final decision. The company has just made a counter-offer based on a minor and more progressive salary drop. In addition, it warns unions that without the new model, the company will have to lay off 600 workers as from next year.

Banc Sabadell and Banco Mare Nostrum have reached a definitive agreement over the transfer of Caixa Penedès’ territorial network and business in Catalonia and Aragon to the Catalan bank. After this has been completed, Banc Sabadell will strengthen its retail banking activity and will have the fourth largest network of branches in Catalonia. The bank will increase its commercial network in Catalonia by 92% and will incorporate 462 branches, 900,000 clients and 2,000 workers. Caixa Penedès was a medium-sized savings bank in Catalonia. In 2010 it took part in a ‘cold merger’ with 3 other Spanish savings banks and in 2011 they created Banco Mare Nostrum.