barcelona business

Barcelona-based SEAT, which is part of the Volkswagen Group, has chosen the Geneva Motor Show to introduce its new vehicle in the Leon range, the cars whose sales increased the most in 2013, with a total of 102,000 units sold. This latest creation is the new Leon Cupra, by far the most powerful and the fastest vehicle manufactured by the Catalan company, whose main factory is located in Martorell (Greater Barcelona). With its 280 horsepower, this sports model will hit the market in both 5-door and 3-door versions. Coinciding with the opening of the event this Tuesday, SEAT also presented the Mango version of its Mii city car, a special edition resulting from the collaboration between designers at the SEAT Martorell plant and the Catalan fashion multinational which includes, amongst other novelties, exclusive paintings in beige and black.

The profits of Catalan pharmaceutical company Grífols in 2013 grew by 34.6% over the previous year, reaching €345.6 million, as reported by the multinational to the Spanish Stock Exchange Regulation Authority (CNMV). The turnover of the company, based in Greater Barcelona, amounted to €2.75 billion, representing a 4.6% increase on 2012 figures. The geographical expansion of the pharmaceutical company has helped mitigating the effects of volatility in currencies, especially between the euro and the dollar. The Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) grew by 9.6% compared to 2012 and stood at €864.6 million, driven by an increase in the sales of plasma proteins and the optimization of the expenses for raw materials and manufacturing.

Barcelona-based Gas Natural Fenosa earned €1.445 billion in 2013, 0.3% more than in 2012. The strong international customer base of the energy company has neutralized the “decline in business” in Spain. This fall at Spanish level was due to the fiscal pressure increase and to the impact of the latest Spanish Government’s reform of the electricity market, which led to a shortfall of €455 million in 2013 for the Catalan multinational. The aggregate EBITDA (Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) stood at €5.085 billion, 0.1% more than in 2012. International business accounted for 44.1% of the EBITDA, while it had represented 43.2% in 2012. In addition, the Spanish market contributed to 55.9% of Gas Natural Fenosa’s EBITDA, a 1.6% drop on last year figures.

Chinese Group Platinum Estates has purchased the former headquarters of Telefonica in Barcelona, located in the Eixample neighbourhood, for €56.4 million, according to a statement by Renta Corporación, which managed the transaction. Furthermore, investors will allocate €45 additional million to transform the building, once belonging to the first telecommunications company in Spain, into a block of flats. The building, located on the Roma Avenue, was the propriety of Cerep Investment, a company controlled by private equity Group Carlyle, until it went bankrupt in the spring of last year. The buyer is a family group based in Hong Kong, which is part of Platinum Estates and is led by textile tycoon Harry Mohinani, of Hindu origin.

At ten past twelve this Thursday morning, an Airbus A380 belonging to Emirates has landed at the first terminal of Barcelona’s El Prat Airport. It is the very first of such aircrafts, the largest in the world, to operate on a regular route in Spain. The A380 will allow Emirates to expand by 40% - with 2,200 additional seats per week - the current daily number of passengers flying between Barcelona and Dubai, a route which was launched two years ago. Emirates has decided to introduce the A380 in Barcelona due to increasing demands as well as to reinforce the company's commitment to an “important market for Europe” according to Emirates’ Vice-President of Commercial Operations in Europe, Thierry Aucoc.

The Born Cultural Centre has been selected as the venue to host the latest edition of the 080 Barcelona Fashion Week, from the 27^th until the 31^st of January where the newest collections for Fall/Winter 2014-2015 will be showcased. In the show’s 13^th edition, more than thirty designers and brands are ready to participate from Albéniz to Zazo & Brull to already established names such as Custo Barcelona, Desigual, Mango, Sita Murt, TCN or Punto Blanco. The fashion show will take over different spaces inside the Born Cultural Centre leading to the closure of the cultural and historical centre, which has closed its doors to the public from the 25^th to the 1^st of February 2014.

Barcelona-based SEAT, which is part of the Volkswagen group, sold 355,000 vehicles last year, representing a 10.6% increase on 2012 figures. The Catalan brand has not sold so many cars since 2008. The SEAT Leon car model was the company’s strongest asset, with 102,000 cars purchased in 2013, which is a 44% sales increase on the previous year. SEAT’s President, Jürgen Stackmann, highlighted “the commercial impetus” that the company currently has, “especially in Europe, when in a market context of sales drop, SEAT is growing faster than its competitors”. In Western Europe, which is the brand’s main market, the Catalan company increased sales by 9.4%, selling 273,200, 23,500 more cars than in 2012.

Barcelona’s El Prat Airport has again registered positive passenger figures in November with the number of people transiting through its facilities reaching 2.38 million, 4.5% more compared to November 2012. Furthermore, the number of intercontinental passengers grew by 22.8 %. According to the Spanish Airport Authority (AENA), El Prat is currently on an upward trend. On the other hand, Madrid Barajas Airport registered 2.98 million passengers in November, representing a 5.3 % decrease compared to the same month last year. Since January 2013, 32,903,000 passengers have transited through Barcelona El Prat, a 0.2% decrease compared to the first eleven months of 2012. At Spanish level, the figures registered a 3.9% drop due to the economic crisis.

The telecommunications company Cronos Group, based in Hong Kong, is opening its European offices in Barcelona to offer services throughout the continent and worlwide. According to the Catalan Ministry of Business and Employment, the company is expected to create 25 new jobs in the first year operating from the Catalan capital. Currently 10 people are already working in Cronos’ Barcelona offices. The project received the assistance of the Catalan Government’s programme ‘Invest in Catalonia’, which focuses on attracting foreign investment and international business. Cronos’s Managers explained they have decided to settle in Barcelona because it had become the world capital of the mobile phone and of telecommunications, since each year it organises the main international event in this sector. Furthermore, Cronos Group praised the talent and skills of Catalan workers.

Catalan pharmaceutical company Grífols has purchased 21.3% of Belgian biotech company TiGenix for €12 million through the subscription of a capital increase. TiGenix is a leading company in the field of cell therapy. The agreement settled on the appointment of two Grífols Members on TiGenix’s Board and a preferential right to negotiate the development and commercialization of all TiGenix products, with the only exception of advanced-medicinal product ChondroCelect. Earlier this month, Grífols had already strengthened its therapeutic arsenal by buying part of the Diagnostics unit of Swiss multinational Novartis for $1,675 million.

Vueling will launch 14 new routes from Barcelona El Prat Airport in the summer of 2014, reaching a total of 117 destinations from Catalonia’s main airport. Starting next summer, the Barcelona-based airline will favour German and Russian destinations. The company has also bought 7 new aircrafts, to make the total number of Vueling planes based in Barcelona El Prat reach 50. The Catalan Minister for Business and Employment, Felip Puig, said these new routes coincided with the Catalan Government’s tourism strategy. Vueling currently holds 34% of the market share of the El Prat Airport and the company wishes to control 50% of this infrastructure’s air traffic within the next 5 years. With a total of 240 routes and 14 million passengers a year, Vueling is expected to become the leading airline in Europe for short- and medium-distance flights.

The Catalan pharmaceutical company Grífols, based in Greater Barcelona, has bought part of the diagnostics unit of Swiss multinational Novartis for $1,675 million. Grífols has acquired products and ‘in vitro’ technology applied to diagnoses in the fields of blood transfusion and immunology, along with a production plant in California and offices in the US, Switzerland and Hong Kong. With the acquisition, the Grífols Diagnostic Division will represent $1 billion, 20% of the Catalan group’s total revenues. Grífols is the world’s third largest company in the production of blood-plasma derivatives. In the first half of 2013, Grífols registered a profit of €182.2 million, an increase of 36.9% on the same period of 2012.

Following a public tender, the Port of Barcelona has approved giving the private company Formentera Mar the construction and management of the city’s new yacht marina. The company will invest €30 million within the next 2 years to build moorings for 134 boats measuring between 15 and 40 metres long and a dry dock capable of storing 150 12-metre-long boats. Furthermore, the marina will have a restaurant, a viewpoint and technical facilities. It will be located next to the harbour’s north mouth, the Barceloneta beach and the W Hotel tower. The marina’s water surface will be 50,000 square metres. It will strengthen Barcelona as a cluster for the marine industry.

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.

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.