Business

|   Business & economic news from Barcelona and Catalonia  

Barcelona Airport’s Managing Board to include a majority of local members and decisions to be taken by two third majority

CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The Spanish Government decided that five members will be appointed by Catalan administrations and the business community, and four others will be nominated by the Spanish Airport Authority (AENA). However, decisions will be taken with a two third majority. It will decide on airport taxes, routes and other strategic aspects. 29.5 million passengers passed through Barcelona El Prat Airport in the first ten months of 2011, a figure already higher than that registered for all of 2010.

CaixaBank has a net profit of 845 million euros for the first 9 months of 2011

CNA

The main Catalan bank allocated 1.953 billion euros for insolvencies and raised its core capital to 11.8%, 2.9 percentage points more than the ratio it had in December 2010. These operations made their net profit decrease by 16.6% compared to the previous year. Besides, CaixaBank announced that Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim will quit its board to rejoin that of the bank’s industrial holding ‘Criteria CaixaHolding’. Slim’s seat will be occupied by former Chairman of Citigroup and the New York Stock Exchange John S. Reed.

Catalonia to have a quality certificate for real estate properties

CNA / Rafa Garrido

With this label, foreign house buyers can be 100% sure that the new bought property fulfils all the quality and town planning regulations. The Catalan Minister for Territory and Sustainability, in charge of Housing, Lluís Recoder, announced the creation of an official label recognising the “quality of real estate”, in order to offer more legal safety and guarantees to consumers. Recoder hopes this certificate will help the sector, as consumers will be in a safe framework, from a juridical point of view.

Unemployment reaches 742,000 in Catalonia at the end of September, representing a rate of 19.43%

CNA

The Catalan Government considered the figures “worrying” but puts them to a “complicated” financial situation that has provoked an economic uncertainty. On Tuesday, the Government announced an action plan to reduce unemployment in the short term. In Spain, there are almost 5 million unemployed people, which represents an unemployment rate of 21.52%. Lleida has Spain’s lowest unemployment rate, set at 13.02%.

Spanish banks will use their own resources to get the 26,121 million euros needed according to the new rules

CNA

The Spanish stock exchange celebrated the European Summit’s results by increasing 4.96% in a one day of trading. The main managers of the Spanish banks are convinced they will get the requested core capital with their own resources. In addition, they believe they will need 13.5 billion euros, and not 26.1 once the detailed calculations are made. Spanish financial circles consider the new rules, adopted to counteract French and German banks’ exposition to Greek sovereign debt, do not particularly benefit Spanish banks, which almost do not hold any Greek debt. In addition, as was the case with the stress tests, the criteria to analyse the bank situation ignores Spain’s proposals and imposes those benefiting German banks.

Telefónica to provide Barcelona city with 4G broadband internet access in 2012

CNA

The Spanish telecommunications multinational commits to offering a 100 Mbps broadband wireless Internet connection throughout Barcelona city in 2012, which will multiply the current capacity by 14. 4G broadband is already offered in specific spots, such as trade fair venues, conference centres or at Barcelona Airport. However, its potential use throughout the city was one of the conditions for hosting the Mobile World Congress, which chose Barcelona as its organising city until 2018.

Renault and Nissan to use Catalonia-based Ficosa’s gearbox in their new mid-range vehicles in their main markets worldwide

CNA

The Franco-Japanese company has chosen the Catalan car component manufacturer Ficosa as their only automatic gearbox supplier for all the new cars targeting a middle-class market segment. The agreement is for the European, North-American, South-American and Asian markets. It will represent a sales volume of 45 million euros for Ficosa. The news reinforces Greater Barcelona as a base for the automotive industry.

Vueling to offer 370,000 more seats through Barcelona Airport this winter

CNA / Bertran Cazorla

The Catalan low cost airline, which is based in Barcelona, has announced new destinations from Barcelona, as well as an increase in frequency on other routes. Vueling’s President, Josep Piqué, presented the airline's latest news for next season. He also said that a low cost airline like Vueling is the only airline capable of stopping Ryanair’s expansion in Barcelona, in a clear reference to Spanair.

Read the latest updates and breaking news on business and economic matters from Barcelona and Catalonia here. Keep up to date with how the Catalan economy is performing, inflation levels, employment and unemployment, major business mergers, important company announcements, and the latest on Catalonia’s biggest enterprises such as Vueling, Wallbox, Grifols, Mango, and plenty of start-ups and international firms based here too.