BBVA: Bank still hoping for Sabadell takeover
Credit: CC/Carlos Benitez-Donoso Gonzalez
BBVA inches closer If the BBVA’s €12 billion hostile Sabadell takeover goes ahead, there will be no problem with Britain’s TSB.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has authorised BBVA to take indirect control of TSB, which Sabadell owns, the bank announced on September 3.
Portugal, France, Morocco and the US where Sabadell also has interests have given similar consent.
Not only Sabadell but also the Madrid government opposes the takeover, as Economy minister Carlos Cuerpo said that combining both banks could affect Spain’s financial system and impact jobs and clients.
BBVA, which hopes to acquire 50.01 per cent of Sabadell shares, admits that this could take between six and eight months, after which shareholders’ approval is needed.
Right move for Rightmove Shares in Rightmove, Britain’s largest property portal, shot up 27.6 per cent to £7.9 (€9.37) on September 2 following takeover hints.
REA Group, in which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has a 61 per cent stake, said that a bid would probably involve both a cash and shares offer, although no approach had yet been made.
Rightmove, whose website lists real estate agents, had a market value of almost £4.4 billion £4.4 billion (€5.2 billion) on August 30 and £5.59 billion (€6.63 billion) by September 2.
Google gives accounts Google Spain posted net profits of €63.4 million in 2023, a 21.2 per cent increase on 2022’s €52.3 million.
Revenues went up by 10.8 per cent to €209.7 million, while the technology giant paid €21.3 million in tax compared with €17.7 million in 2022, according to accounts submitted to the Registro Mercantil, equivalent to Companies House.
Nevertheless, these accounts did not reflect Google Spain’s real activities in the country, where staff numbers rose from 561 to 580 last year.
Sales are maintained in Ireland, as only the revenues for providing marketing and support services to Google Ireland remain in Spain, together with research and development services for California-based Google LLC.
Back to the office Employees are taking longer to return to London offices than their counterparts in Paris and New York.
They spend an average 2.7 days per week in the office, compared with 3.5 for Parisians and 3.1 for New Yorkers, the Centre for Cities thinktank found, and attendance is only 60 per cent of 2019’s pre-Covid levels.
Working from home working could pose long-term challenge to the British economy, Centre for Cities said, and called on the government to work closely with businesses to reverse the trend.
Post-merger jobs lost MASORANGE, resulting from the MasMovil and Orange merger, announced a voluntary redundancy scheme affecting roughly 9 per cent of its 8,700 employees.
When MasOrange was officially launched in April, the telecommunications company undertook to invest €4 billion over the next three years and pledged that existing jobs would be maintained.
A note to employees has now explained that the first months of operations had revealed “organisational duplications” which prompted the need for staff adjustments.
Although MasOrange said that the cuts conformed to conditions agreed with the government, Spain’s two principal unions, CCOO and UGT, have already rejected the proposed redundancies.
Vat-trap Businesses in Britain lost up to £4.3 billion (€5.1 billion) this summer by eliminating VAT-free shopping for tourists.
Rishi Sunak removed the concession in 2021 when he was Chancellor but visitors who would have come to the UK shop elsewhere now they must pay the added value tax on purchases, according to critics
Any loss of income would be offset by more spending on hotels, transports and leisure, retailers said.
Favourable verdicts Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) received 1,364 complaints from investors in 2023, the regulator revealed on September 4.
The Commission handled 1,350 claims last year, rejecting 464 and admitting 886, while processing a total of 71.8 per cent. In 51.4 per cent of the cases, the CNMV found in favour of the claimant, compared with 49.6 per cent in 2022.
Although CNMV rulings are not binding, 83 per cent of the investigated companies and entities complied with its recommendations.