Ferrovial wins appeal against British airports sell off

Spanish infrastructure giant, Ferrovial, has won its appeal against the British monopoly commission over the orders for it to sell off three of its British Airports. It had been told to sell two of its airports in London and one in Scotland, and has in fact already sold Gatwick. That sale to the United States investment fund, Global Infrastructure Partners, for 1.66 billion € still goes ahead.
It’s still not clear with today’s appeal victory if Ferrovial, via its BAA subsidiary, will be able to keep both Heathrow and Stansted, as the ruling gives both sides more time to present further arguments.
BAA had doubted in the impartiality of the monopolies commission given that one of its members, Peter Mozeri, has links to the Manchester Airport Group which was one of those interested in Gatwick.

Businessmen and Unions restart talks on the wage round today, with the Employers organisations CEOE and CEPYME meeting with representatives from the unions UGT and CCOO. The hope is an agreement can be reached which will last for several years. Both sides have given the end of January as a target date by which to reach a deal.

One of the effects of the crisis in Spain has been a dramatic fall in the amount of unjustified leave taken by workers, which according to a report from Randstand, fell by 90% over the year. It seems the fear of losing their job has forced many to cut their absence from work to a minimum.
Another effect is reported from the campo, where this year’s olive and strawberry harvests have been collected in general by local labour instead of the usual immigrants. Many immigrants have had little success in finding any work in the fields this year.

Tourism has made the smallest contribution last year to Spain’s GDP than it has for 13 years at 10.5%, three points lower than in 2007. The numbers have just been released by the National Statistics Institute.

Minister for the Economy, Elena Salgado, has announced that the main lines of credit on offer from the ICO, Official Credit Institute, are to be unified, in an attempt to ensure that credit reaches families and companies in 2010. A new agreement with ten collaborating banks, including the Popular, Caja Madrid, La Caixa, BBVA and Santander was signed today, with the Minister considering that there are already signs of improved availability of credit.

Latest data from the Ministry for Housing shows no sign of recovery in residential construction. The number of new homes which started construction in the third quarter of the year was 33,140, down 47.2% compared to the same period last year.
The number was also 19.6% down on the previous quarter.
Most activity was seen in Andalucía where 9,578 new homes were started.

Following an initial rally of 7% on the news of a merger with Cuatro last Friday, today has seen a fall in Telecinco shares losing all those gains. The parent company of Cuatro, Prisa, has also seen lower prices in trading today.

The Chairman of the employers’ organisation CEOE, Gerardo Díaz Ferrán is to present his hotels as a guarantee for his 26.5 million € debt he has outstanding with the Caja Madrid savings bank of which he is a member of the board. The debt is with his business partner, Gonzalo Pascual.
Díaz Ferrán is the co-owner of the Marsans travel group and his offer of the hotels as guarantee comes as he was threatened with an embargo by the savings bank.

More than 2,200 taxi drivers have brought chaos to Sevilla today, as 100% support for the third day of strike action was seen. They are angry, along with their colleagues in other parts of Spain, at EU plans to liberalise the sector allowing for vehicles to be rented with drivers.

And finally,
On the eve of the famous Spanish Christmas Lottery, El Gordo, Hacienda has issued a warning to those who may consider selling on their winning tickets at a premium. The activity is a known method of money laundering, but those who sell such a winning ticket face a fine of more than half the amount won if there is an inspection. (Via Original Source)

Related Posts

• January 4, 2010 -- Spain Business Brief – Monday January 4 2009 (2)
  The Economist - house prices in Spain still 55% overvalued The Economist...
• December 31, 2009 -- Spain Business Brief – Thursday December 31 2009 (1)
  The IBEX 35 stock market index rallies 30% over 2009 The Spanish stock m...
• December 30, 2009 -- Spain Business Brief – Wednesday December 30 2009 (2)
  Zapatero promises recovery for next year Spanish Prime Minister, José Lu...
• December 29, 2009 -- Spain Business Brief – Tuesday December 29 2009 (3)
  Unemployment remains the main concern of the Spanish people Concern amon...
• December 28, 2009 -- Spain Business Brief – Monday December 28 2009 (1)
  Five-fold increase in the State Deficit over the past year Spain’s State...