business

The Catalan fashion retailer Mango closed 2014 with a profit of €107 million, 11.2% less than in 2013, when the multinational based in Greater Barcelona earned €120.5 million. However, sales last year increased by 9.3%, reaching some €2.02 billion, with 82% coming from foreign markets, and the remaining 18% from the Spanish market. Online sales turnover now accounts for 9.1% of the company's total sales. In 2014, Mango created 2,331 jobs worldwide, representing a 17% increase on 2013 figures, and 28% of those jobs were in Spain. The company currently has over 15,700 employees worldwide. In 2015, it plans to invest €300 million in opening new stores, renovation work on existing stores, and logistic and IT systems.

B-Travel is a Barcelona-based tourism show bringing together some 215 exhibitors from across the industry and more than 50 different destinations. The event, one of the most important of its kind in Europe, kicked off on Friday at Fira de Barcelona's Montjuïc venue, taking over Catalonia's International Tourism Fair after 23 years. Conceived as a new meeting point for travellers and tourism companies seeking enriched customer experiences, it aims at tailoring the tourist offering to each visitor's needs. This year, attendees can sign up to the B- Travel Internet Community upon their arrival and receive customised information on the vast array of tourism offers on display, focusing on specific types of tourism such as cultural, gastronomic, shopping, rural, and adventure sports, among others.

The 33^rd edition of the Barcelona International Comic Fair opened its doors on Thursday. The event is an initiative organised by FICOMIC, a non-profit entity aimed at spreading comic and Japanese manga culture. This year it is taking place from the 16^th to the 19^th of April at the Fira de Barcelona’s Montjuïc venue. The fair has increased its exhibition surface from 32,000 square metres in 2014 to 36,000 this year, and the number of exhibitors has grown from 161 to 165. The Joker and Captain America will be among the main characters at the event and different genres of comics will be on display: from science fiction to heroic fantasy comics, through to humorous comics. In total, the event will host 19 exhibitions by national and international authors. Patrici Tixis, FICOMIC President, has declared that he hopes that the fair will attract 100.000 visitors in its 2015 edition.

As was expected, the Constitutional Court has accepted the Spanish Government's appeal against the Catalan Law on External Action and Relations with the EU, which was approved last November and was already foreseen in the 2006 Catalan Statute of Autonomy. The Court's acceptance of a Spanish Government appeal automatically represents a temporary suspension of the legal measure for an initial 5-month period. The temporary suspension does not mean that the law will ultimately be suspended, but that there are enough reasons to study whether the Catalan law fits within the Constitution or not. According to the Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy, the law goes beyond the Catalan Government's attributions and invades the Spanish Executive's exclusive powers regarding international relations and the direction of Spain's external policy.

The 38^th edition of the Barcelona International Motor Show (SIAB) will be held between 9 and 17 May at the Montjuïc venue of the Catalan capital's trade fair. This year, the event will host at least 38 brands and others could be added in the following weeks. This is the biggest number since the economic crisis started. According to Mario Armero, ANFAC Executive Vice President, "the show coincides with a clear recovery of the sector, where 2-digit growth rates have been registered in sales, production and exports volumes". Organised by Fira de Barcelona, SIAB is the only motor show in Spain recognised by the International Organisation of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers. The coming edition will also coincide with the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix, transforming the Catalan city into the world's motor capital for a few days.

In front of the foreign affairs ministers of 22 European Union Member States, those of the southern Mediterranean countries and the Spanish PM, Mariano Rajoy, gathered in Barcelona for a summit on trade and the fight against jihadism, the Catalan Government President, Artur Mas, said in his opening speech that "Catalonia and Barcelona were born as Mediterranean and have developed as both Mediterranean and European". The Catalan President, who addressed the audience in Spanish, English, Catalan and French, also stressed that Catalonia's future horizons are "always Mediterranean and European", underlining "the umbilical cord with Europe and the Carolingian Empire that has never been broken". "We have the vocation of being a Mediterranean and European capital city", he added. In turn, Rajoy highlighted that Barcelona is "the Spanish capital of the Mediterranean".

The Catalan Government earned €41 million last year thanks to the tourist tax, which represents a 6.56% increase over the figures from 2013. Since this tax was created in November 2012 with the aim of increasing revenue for reducing public deficit and having greater resources for tourism promotion, €82.3 million has been collected. Catalonia has been increasing its number of foreign visitors over the last two years, posting record figures of 15.6 million in 2013 and 16.7 million in 2014. Tourists pay the tax, which ranges from €0.50 to €2.50 per night per person, in relation to the type of accommodation, and the location. The tax includes several exceptions, such as for children, and it is not paid on stays of over 7 nights.

Sónar+D is an international professional conference for creativity and technological innovation, which coincides with Barcelona's Sónar Festival of electronic and advanced music. The 3^rd edition of the professional event will take place in Barcelona on the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th of June 2015, at the same time as the popular and prestigious music festival. Its main aim is to bring together international experts presenting initiatives and tools that will shape future creative experiences in the fields of music, visuals, and interactive content and transmedia platforms. This year, 4,000 professionals and 2,000 companies from all over the world will take part in the event, a remarkable leap forward on last year's figures. "It is not just a fair or a conference", Sonar co-Director Ricard Robles said on Thursday. "It is a 360-degree, all encompassing event, a point of interaction between the creative and technological communities".

Air Canada announced on Thursday that it will be linking Barcelona El Prat and Toronto Pearson airports all year round, expanding its activities in the winter season. The Canadian airline currently offers seasonal flights connecting the two cities on a daily basis, only available in summer. As from 1 November 2015, it will also offer 3 non-stop flights per week in each direction - on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays – served by a Boeing 767 aircraft.  The flights connecting Barcelona to Montreal will remain seasonal (only during the summer) for the time being. Santi Vila, Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, has hailed Air Canada's announcement as "excellent news", which will foster the competitiveness of Barcelona El Prat Airport, increasing its intercontinental services, which will be added to a vast network of short- and medium-distance flights.    

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, met on Wednesday with several think tanks and financial investors based in New York City, where he is paying an official visit. Mas stated that through holding the meetings he wants to "clarify doubts, provide them with information, take responsibility, explain Catalonia's advantages and virtues, and, obviously, explain the political process we are facing, in which many places throughout the world and particularly a city like New York I know are interested". In the evening, he will hold a conference at the University of Columbia with the title 'Catalonia at the crossroads'. The conference is today's "main event", he said, but he also organised meetings with people from think tanks because they "create opinion".

The GDP of Catalonia increased by 1.5% during 2014, according to the definitive figures released by the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat) on Friday. However, on the same day, the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE) published its economic growth figures for 2014 and announced that the Catalan economy had grown by 1.4% last year, the same rate as Spain. In any case, both figures are quite positive after many years of economic crisis and slowdown. In fact, 2014 has been the best year since 2007, when the Catalan economy grew by 3.2% according to the Idescat. The final figure for 2014 is higher than the provisional 1.2% growth rate previously announced. Following European Union instructions, the calculations for last year include R&D activities, as well as prostitution and trafficking of drugs and tobacco.

The Swiss multinational will build a new factory for Nescafé in Girona, where it has already an important plant that exports its products to more than 70 countries. Nestlé will invest €102 million in the project and the new facilities should be operational by the end of 2017, explained the company's Director General for Spain, Laurent Dereux. It will become the most important plant in Europe and its third-biggest in the world in terms of soluble coffee production capacity. The new factory will be built next to the existing plant and will add 10,000 additional square metres to the compound, increasing its production capacity by 30%. It will replace the plant’s oldest production chain, which will not be dismantled as it could be useful in the medium term. The expansion will bring some 40 new jobs to the Catalan plant.

Barcelona-based Abertis' telecommunications subsidiary, Abertis Telecom Terrestre, will operate as Cellnex Telecom, S.A. from 1 April, as approved by the company's Shareholder General Assembly on Tuesday. The new name and brand are part of the preparations for a potential stock market flotation, as announced last October in the context of Abertis' 2015-2017 Strategic Plan. However, neither the Catalan group's President Salvador Alemany, nor Vice President and CEO, Francisco Reynés, have set a precise date yet for its admission to trading, which will be announced during this year's first semester. The new company's slogan will be "driving telecom connectivity".

The first lab in Europe for certifying car industry products to be sold in China has been unveiled in L'Hospitalet del Llobregat, near Barcelona's seaport and El Prat Airport. The Chinese publicly-owned company CCIC Holding Group opened on Monday a lab in Greater Barcelona, which will also certify products from other industries, such as the textile industry, and the construction and chemical industries. As well as products from Europe, it will also certify products from Northern Africa and the Americas. The new plant will also facilitate companies from the Asian giant that wish to contact Western suppliers, becoming a bridge for fostering foreign investment. Therefore, it will turn Barcelona into one of the main gateways for exporting Western products to China. The project has been attracted by the Catalan Government's programme 'Invest in Catalonia', as well as by a trip to China made by the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias.

Last week, TSB announced Banc Sabadell's interest in purchasing all of the shares of the British bank, which is partially owned by Lloyd's. The board of the 6^th largest bank in the United Kingdom then said they would welcome the Catalan bank's takeover bid, which they set at £3.40 per share (equivalent to €4.80). This meant that Banc Sabadell would buy TSB for £1.7 billion, or €2.4 billion. At that time, the Catalan bank denied any definitive agreement had been reached and simply confirmed that there were some talks in progress. A week later, Banc Sabadell has finally announced and approved the takeover bid, on the same terms released last week. In order to fund the transaction, the Catalan corporation will carry out a €1.6 billion increase in capital. This purchase will significantly strengthen Banc Sabadell's internationalisation, dramatically increasing its presence in the UK and in London's financial circles.