One company will run the highway, airports and telecommunications business; another company will control the parking and logistic services. Shareholder distribution will not be changed. Abertis is a Catalan transport and communication services multinational, present in many countries.
The FC Barcelona football player Gerard Piqué and the Catalan retail company announced the news today. Piqué will represent the brand for the next two seasons. In doing so, Mango plans to promote its male clothing section.
The net profit for last year illustrates a 0.5% increase in relation to the 2009. The Catalan multinational’s activities in Latin America grew by 30.4%. The energy giant is confident it will reach an agreement with the Algerian company Sonatrach on a pending issue on natural gas price adjustments.
The insurance group of the Catalan savings bank ‘la Caixa’ earned 19,5% more than in 2009. The acquisition of Adeslas is a positive result for the VidaCaixa Grup.
The HP International Centre of Barcelona will be fostered in order to get “the maximum efficiency and effectiveness […] avoiding the dispersion in different European centres and countries”. The company will focus its image and printing business’ marketing services for the entire Europe, Middle East and Africa in Catalonia.
The multinational clothing company Inditex has announced the expansion of its logistics centre in Tordera (North of Barcelona coast), which will create 500 direct jobs. According to the company, the centre will become the largest and most modern clothing distribution centre in Europe. Inditex CEO announced the decision after a meeting with the Catalan President.
From this Monday to the coming Thursday, the Catalan capital is hosting the annual world’s most important cell phone technology event, the Mobile World Congress. About 55,000 people and 1,300 companies will attend the conference, which will generate more than 200 million euros of profit for the local economy. Barcelona needs to do its utmost best this year, as the host city from 2013 onwards is still not decided.
The well-known Catalan wine brand Torres that is available in supermarkets all over Europe exported 72% of its production in 2010. The company registered a turn-over of 205 million euros, 11.5% more than in 2009.
According to the new German Chamber of Commerce Managing Director in Spain, the Central European country could promise young Catalans not only training and competitive salaries but also job stability. He also explains which are the obstacles in his view that stop German investments in Spain and Catalonia.
Companies and agencies from the tourism industry have joint together to highlight the potential of the Asian tourist market and stress the obstacles for its growth. Currently, Barcelona has only two direct flights with Asia per week, a figure that is expected to largely increase. As an example of this potential, China exported almost 57 million of tourists abroad per year, but only 90,000 visit Barcelona.
For the first time in four years December 2010 saw a small decrease in the availability of office space in Barcelona. This indicator would show that the office space market is starting to head towards getting on the recuperation track.
While Spanair recorded an 11.6% increase in passengers in 2010, Iberia lost 19.5% passengers and Air Europe 16%. The airline that is partially owned by the Catalan Government offers 59 direct destinations from Barcelona, 13 of which intercontinental.
The Catalan savings bank owed the 1.63% of the oil company Repsol. By selling all its stakes, it earned 448 million, which represents a profit of 186 million euros. The financial entity made this operation to increase its core capital, in order to be ready for the banking stress test.
Two Catalans opened a guided tour business in Berlin making the most of the economic crisis and the fact that the city was ‘fashionable’. They set up ‘Cultourberlin’, a project that would offer Spanish and Catalan tourists guided tours of Berlin
The Japanese company has finally chosen to manufacture the new van in a factory in the Catalan capital. The decision comes after workers agreed to a change in their labour conditions including a freeze on salaries until 2014.