BBVA & Sabadell Hold Delicate Negotiations with the FGD to Sell Their Assets

5 February 2018 – Expansión

BBVA and Sabadell want to remove from their balance sheets the damaged real estate assets that they still own as a result of their acquisitions of Unnim and CAM, respectively. Those assets, which have a book value of around €16 billion in total, are temporarily protected by an Asset Protection Scheme (EPA), which, was granted at the time by the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD) so that the two banks would take on the business of the former savings banks, which had filed for bankruptcy. The negotiations that the two banks are now holding with the FGD share significant difficulties that cannot be solved easily, although they also have notable differences.

The European Central Bank has been putting pressure on the supervised entities to remove any damaged assets that they still own from their balance sheets, as soon as possible, because it understands that their maintenance reduces the banks’ ability to make profits and lets the doubts continue to hang over the real health of the entities. Now that the ECB considers that the worst of the crisis is over and that the banks are reasonably capitalised, it wants to clear up all the doubts. He has granted a period of five years for these problems to be resolved, although, in reality, it wants them to be sorted in a shorter timeframe: within three years.

When it acquired Popular, Santander launched a procedure to remove all of the real estate assets of its subsidiary from the balance sheet, by reaching an agreement with Blackstone to create a mixed company, in which the US fund holds the majority stake and where Santander has parked assets with a theoretical value of €30 billion. Liberbank has done the same, for a much small sum, retaining just 10% of the capital in its new company.

Meanwhile, BBVA has reached an agreement with Cerberus to transfer €13 billion to a company in which the bank will hold a 20% stake. Of those assets, a significant part, around €4 billion, correspond to assets proceeding from Unnim, which have a guarantee from the FGD for 80% of the losses that may be incurred at the time of their sale.

Meanwhile, Sabadell wants to divest assets worth €12 billion, which sit in a portfolio that is still subject to an EPA that will end in 2021, with the same guarantees as BBVA’s. The difference in the size of the two portfolios is clear.

That is where the problem arises. To close the operation, the FGD needs to accept that it will assume the losses incurred at the time of the sales. And even though its resources have been contributed exclusively by the financial institutions themselves, the public body does not have sufficient funds to assume those losses and whereby avoid grounds for dissolution.

Differences

In reality, the portfolio proceeding from Unnim does not cause excessive problems for several reasons. Firstly, it is smaller and, therefore, the loss to be assumed is considerably reduced. Moreover, according to sources in the know, the FGD has already recognised a coverage for those assets that is pretty close to the market value at which they could be sold (…).

The case of Sabadell, however, is different because the size of its protected portfolio is much larger. It started off at €22 billion and now amounts to just over half, around €12 billion. Sabadell considers that the real value of its assets is approximately half their theoretical value (…) but the FGD (…) maintains that the provisioning need is much lower, around 35% of the book value of those assets.

The difference in criteria between the two parties is important. In figures, it means that there is almost €1.8 billion that separates them and that, of that amount, if it is confirmed in the end, the FGD would have to assume almost €1.5 billion. That would be impossible in the current conditions, because it would mean that the body that guarantees the deposits of banking clients up to €100,000, would have to declare itself bankrupt or, as it has done on other occasions, impose an extraordinary surcharge on its shareholders, domestic entities, to balance its accounts and cover the hole (…).

A solution

But, on the other hand, the FGD is also interested in closing the chapter on asset protection schemes as soon as possible because, until that happens, it will be very difficult to progress with the construction of a European deposit guarantee fund, which is the third leg of the banking union. Indeed, it is not being built precisely because of reluctance being shown by the countries in the north to assume the problems of the past (…).

For this reason, sources close to the conversations confirm that they are now focusing on a possible solution that goes beyond the current moment. The FGD may be interested in reaching an agreement that would entail the possibility of accounting for the losses not in a single year, but rather over a longer period of time, possibly three years. The next few weeks are important because the authorities want to close the conversations before the end of the month.

Original story: Expansión (by Salvador Arancibia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Sold Loans Worth €186M Online in 2017

11 January 2018 – Expansión

Sareb sold loans with a nominal value of €186 million through its online channel in 2017, according to a statement issued by the entity.

Last summer, the so-called bad bank, launched an initiative to sell non-performing loans through its website, whilst three of the servicers (Haya, Altamira and Solvia) implemented a similar plan through their respective “shop windows”.

By the end of 2017, Sareb had closed agreements to sell loans amounting to €35 million through its own online channel, plus €151 million in loans that the company sold through specialist managers.

In a pilot phase in July 2017, Sareb published a preliminary batch of non-performing loans on its website for an aggregated amount of €400 million and invited 30 professional investors to participate. It received non-binding offers for all of the loans up for sale and, in the end, 70% were converted into binding offers.

Now that the channel has been tested, Sareb has published a new batch of loans amounting to €550 million, with an average value of €13 million. The company hopes to receive non-binding offers from investors already registered on the platform during January.

During 2018, Sareb is expected to launch five more sales processes through the platform, of at least €500 million each, aimed at investors and professionals in the sector, as reported last summer.

In term of Altamira, Haya and Solvia’s shop window activities, almost 95% of the loans sold are backed by finished homes or land located in Cataluña, Andalucía, Madrid, the Community of Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The other loans are secured by offices in Madrid and hotel establishments in Gerona.

As at June 2017, the Spanish financial system accumulated non-performing loans amounting to €127.31 billion, equivalent to 16% of the total figure for the Eurozone, which amounted to €794.1 billion, according to data from the European Central Bank (ECB).

For the President of Sareb, Jaime Echegoyen (pictured above), the company has “the obligation” to innovate and contribute to boosting these types of transactions through the creation of new channels “accessing new kinds of investors and giving these assets more transparency”.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus Gets its Cheque Book out again to Buy NPLs from CaixaBank

4 December 2017 – Voz Pópuli

Cerberus is stepping on the accelerator in Spain. The US fund has starred in another major operation just days after acquiring a real estate portfolio from BBVA. One of Cerberus’s subsidiaries, Gescobro, has won an auction for €0.8 billion in non-performing loans and real estate from CaixaBank.

The fund has purchased part of that portfolio, known as Project Egeo, whilst the Norwegian group Lindorff has bought the rest, according to financial sources consulted by this newspaper.

Part (€0.5 billion – €0.6 billion) of this €0.8 billion portfolio comprises unsecured loans (credit cards, personal loans and others without any guarantee) and just over €0.2 billion relates to loans to SMEs secured by real estate.

This is Cerberus’s fourth operation in the Spanish financial and real estate sector in 2017 following the acquisition of Project Jaipur from BBVA (€0.6 billion in non-performing property developer loans; the purchase of the real estate arm of Liberbank, Mihabitans, for €85 million; and the acquisition of €13 billion in property from BBVA for €4 billion.

Strategic fit

The sale of Project Egeo, which is still pending the completion of the necessary paperwork, forms part of the routine divestment plans of the Catalan group. In this way, it is managing and controlling its default rate and complying with the regulatory requirements of the European Central Bank (ECB).

Currently, the group’s default rate stands at 6.4%, after falling by seven tenths in the last year. In total, its doubtful loans amount to €15.3 billion, of which €13.9 billion are in Spain. It has another €7.2 billion in foreclosed assets.

The firm that has won the auction, Gescobro, has been led by Iheb Nafaa until now, but he was recently poached by Servihabitat, the real estate company owned by TPG (51%) and CaixaBank (49%).

Meanwhile, Lindorff has been one of the main competitors in the bank debt market since 2012. More than a year ago, it expanded its real estate business with the purchase of Aktua, the former real estate arm of Banesto; and it strengthened its business through a merger with Intrum Justicia.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Sells Most of Real Estate Business to Cerberus for €4bn

29 November 2017 – Reuters

Spain’s BBVA said on Wednesday that it had agreed to sell 80% of its real estate business to US fund Cerberus for €4 billion ($5 billion), showing how investor enthusiasm for Spanish property is reviving.

A burst property bubble in 2008 sent Spain into a downturn that lasted for nearly five years, causing mass unemployment and prompting a more than €40 billion bailout for the country’s banks.

The economy returned to growth in 2013 and has outperformed the rest of Europe since then, helping to revive residential construction as house prices pick up, which has started to attract foreign investors back into the market.

The BBVA real estate assets included in the deal have a gross book value of some €13 billion, Spain’s second-largest bank said in a statement.

BBVA said the whole portfolio was valued at €5 billion, with the price involving a discount of 61.5%, in line with the coverage ratio for its foreclosed assets.

As at the end of September, BBVA had a non-core real estate property portfolio with a gross value of around €17.8 billion, of which the bulk were foreclosed assets worth around €11.9 billion.

The deal is the largest since Santander sold control of property worth €30 billion to the US investor Blackstone Group in August.

Santander sold its portfolio at a net value of €10 billion after a discount of around 66%.

The rebound in the property market has also allowed Spanish banks to tackle toxic balance sheets faster than rivals in Italy. Banks in Europe are under pressure to reduce soured loans after new guidelines on this from the European Central Bank announced last month.

Analysts at broker Keefe, Bruyette & Woods viewed the transaction as a positive step towards reducing BBVA’s non-performing assets ratio (non-performing loans and foreclosed assets) from 7.2% to 4.5%.

BBVA’s shares were up 1.94% at 1150 GMT, compared with a rise of 1.6% on the European STOXX banking index SX7P.

At a group level, BBVA has non-performing assets worth around €33 billion on its balance sheet – of which around €25 billion are in Spain.

Since 2015, BBVA’s real estate business has generated losses of €1.37 billion.

BBVA said it would retain control of 20% of the real estate portfolio, which it said would be exclusively managed by Cerberus’s Haya Real Estate.

The bank said the deal was not expected to have a significant impact on profits and would have a slightly positive impact on the fully loaded core tier 1 capital ratio (CET1), a measure of financial strength.

It also said that once the transaction was completed in the second half of 2018, BBVA would have the lowest relative real estate exposure among the main Spanish financial institutions.

Original story: Reuters

Translation: Carmel Drake

 

CaixaBank Hires KPMG to Accelerate Sale of Rental Homes Worth €3bn

29 November 2017 – El Confidencial

Spanish financial entities have put their foot down on the accelerator to remove a decade’s worth of real estate crises from their balance sheets. The starting gun was fired by Banco Santander in the summer, when it transferred 51% of the €30 billion in toxic assets that it had inherited from Popular to Blackstone; and yesterday, another milestone was marked by the agreement announced between BBVA and Cerberus, which will allow the bank to deconsolidate more than €12 billion in foreclosed assets.

The next major step may involve CaixaBank after the entity engaged KPMG to try to accelerate the sale of a significant batch of real estate assets, with a net value of €12.1 billion. Specifically, the professional services firm is already working on organising one or more processes to allow the sale of some of the €3 billion that the bank owns in rental assets, according to sources familiar with the process.

That portfolio contains almost 40,000 units and, if it ends up being sold, will represent one of the most significant divestments made by the entity to date. Sources at CaixaBank acknowledge that they are working with KPMG and admit that one of the services that the firm is rendering “may include the sale of certain foreclosed rental assets” but they point out that it would only for a portion of the aforementioned €3 billion.

The sale to Testa of 135 homes, announced in September, fits within this strategy – a small appetiser ahead of the main course that the bank led by Gonzalo Gortázar really wants to serve. Its efforts are aimed at trying to taking advantage of the excess liquidity held by the large funds and the current attractiveness of Socimis to find an exit for its foreclosed rental assets.

Despite CaixaBank’s interest in reducing its real estate exposure, something that both the Bank of Spain and the European Central Bank are asking the entire sector to do, the entity is choosing to be cautious. It is pushing ahead one step at a time, according to market sources, who say that the bank is working to redefine the future of its whole real estate division.

New route map

CaixaBank’s real estate activity is currently divided into two large subsidiaries, Building Center, the real estate company that owns the bulk of the entity’s foreclosed assets; and Servihabitat, a platform (servicer), in which the bank holds a 49% stake, whilst the other 51% is owned by the fund TPG.

The second company, which has been given the mandate to manage the bank’s properties, but not ownership of them, has just hired Iheb Nafa as its new CEO, to replace Julián Cabanillas. It has also engaged McKinsey and Oliver Wyman to analyse all of its future options; any change would require the firm to reach an agreement with TPG; moreover, that giant may be interested in increasing its stake in Servihabitat.

CaixaBank has net real estate assets amounting to €12.1 billion according to its most recent quarterly report as at 30 September. All of this “property” is included in the area known as Non-Core Real Estate, which generated losses of €330 million during the first nine months of the year. The jewel in that crown is the real estate company Building Center, owner of the majority of the foreclosed assets, whose accounting coverage ratio stands at 49%.

Sources in the sector expect the bank to make its big move within the next year, and for it to be in line with those already made by BBVA and Santander. For the time being, the entity is limiting its expectations to the field of research, by indicating that “KPMG, Oliver Wyman and McKinsey are redefining operating processes to improve logistics and efficiency”.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banking Sector Fears ECB Stress Tests

27 November 2017 – Voz Pópuli

Spain’s banks are facing a new perfect storm, albeit on paper. In an already difficult scenario in which the financial institutions are having to adapt to the new provisioning requirements (IFRS 9), they are also having to deal with the upcoming stress tests that are being prepared for 2018.

If we take an analogy by way of example – what is happening in the banking sector is equivalent to what would happen to a student if a decision was taken to change the language of his/her class and then a few months later force him/her to take an entrance exam in that new language. The entities have gone to the wire to try and persuade the authorities to examine them in their native language (based on their current provisions) but the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the ECB have outright refused.

The new provisions mean a radical change in the model. Until now, the banks recognise losses when their loans are impaired, in other words, when non-payments begin. Under the new system, the banks will have to anticipate advance signs of impairment.

A report from the consultancy firm Alvarez & Marsal estimates that the potential impact of the new IFRS 9 provisions on the stress tests is 465 basis points. More than half of that amount will come about in the first of the three years covered by the exercise, which reflects that from now on, crises are going to hit banks faster.

Impact

If we apply these calculations to the latest official figures from the sector (published on Friday as part of the EBA’s transparency exercise), the result in the loss of one-third of the regulatory capital (CET 1). Even so, they are stress test scenarios and so will not necessarily happen.

KutxaBank and Bankia were the entities with the largest buffers in the last year of transparency, with more than 14% of capital, although the group chaired by José Ignacio Gorigiolzarri will see its figure reduce once it completes its takeover of BMN. They are followed in the ranking by Unicaja, Abanca, Sabadell and Liberbank.

Another finding from the data published as part of the transparency exercise is that Spain’s banks have moved away from those of other peripheral countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Greece) in terms of delinquency.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The RE Sector Is On Course For Record-Breaking Year

12 September 2017 – Expansión

The real estate sector is experiencing a whirlwind year. After breaking the investment record in 2016, experts now expect the pace to continue this year and for a new investment record to be registered, excluding corporate operations.

For Adolfo Ramírez-Escudero, President of CBRE, 2017 is going to be an “exceptional” year, once again. “Investment could reach €12,000 million, whereby exceeding the expectations at the beginning of the year, which would make 2017 the best year since records began, if we exclude the corporate transactions carried out by Merlin in 2015 and 2016”, he says.

The CEO of JLL, Enrique Losantos, says that investors are maintaining their interest in the Spanish market “attracted by the strong underlying economics, returns that are still higher than in certain other European markets such as Paris and prices that are much more affordable, comparatively”.

For Oriol Barrachina, the CEO of Cushman & Wakefield, although the ECB is expected to inject less money, the appetite from investors will continue into 2018, given that the growth in wealth and the performance of assets comes from economic activity and not from the issuance of money by the Central Bank”.

Meanwhile, according to Alberto Valls, Partner in Financial Advisory at Deloitte, whilst institutional stability continues and the expectation of growth and the creation of employment in the economy is sustained, Spain will continue to be an attractive country. “We are not ruling out consolidation in the sector towards larger vehicles, involving Socimis and property developers, therefore I forecast a high level of activity in terms of corporate operations in the sector in 2018 due to concentration”.

The star players

In this sense, the Partner responsible for the Real Estate sector at KPMG in Spain, Javier López Torres, says that “the trend of consolidation amongst the new real estate companies, and their debuts on the stock market, is going to continue, and there will also be new inter-relations between new players”.

In terms of the most powerful players, institutional investors with the lowest capital costs will be the stars of operations with less need for management, which are becoming increasingly fewer because most of what could be sold has already changed hands, explains the Partner in Financial Advisory at Deloitte, Javier García-Mateo. “In the face of a pipeline of operations where there is a need for a strong transformation component, the PERES (Private Equity Real Estate) will be the players that will likely lead the sale and purchase of properties”, he adds.

Meanwhile, the Socimis will have more freedom to divest their assets as most have now fulfilled the three year period since their purchase, the fundamental requirement to be able to enjoy the tax benefits afforded to these vehicles, says Alejandro Campoy, Director General of the Investments Divisions at Aguirre Newman.

Increase in rents

In terms of the behaviour of rents in the office segment, Mikel Echevarren, CEO at Irea, says that “the economic recovery and the creation of employment will lead to an increase in occupancy rates and rents in Madrid and Barcelona”.

Sources at CBRE indicate that Barcelona is already ahead of Madrid, due to the even greater scarcity of high-quality office space in the Catalan capital. Moreover, that situation is giving rise to a significant number of pre-rental operations.

“The growth forecast in rental income is clear and very robust. Our data estimates that for the period 2017-2019, office rental prices in Barcelona will grow by around 5.2% p.a. on average, and in Madrid by 4.3% for the same period”, explains Losantos (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CCB & Altamira Asset Management Form Joint Venture To Tackle NPLs

19 July 2017 – Famagusta Gazette

Cooperative Central Bank and Altamira Asset Management have decided to form a joint venture to manage the former’s non-performing loans and real estate.

At the same time, after a relevant resolution, the Bank decided to change its name to “Cyprus Cooperative Bank” and to introduce the total issued share capital of the Bank, totaling €6,036,000,000, of a nominal value of €0.28 each, to the main market of the CSE at a price of €0.10 each in consultation with the competent supervisory authorities and the European Central Bank.

The resolution, approved by an extraordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting, deals with the creation of a ten-year old consortium between the CCB (49% ) and Altamira (51%) for the management of NPLs (€7.2bn) and real estate (€0.4bn).

In a statement, the General Manager of the Cyprus Co-operative Bank, Nikolas Hadzigiannis said that “the approval of the cooperation with Altamira” is in many ways a very positive development for the Bank “, adding that” this cooperation constitutes a landmark for the Bank, as it takes us to the next stage of managing loans in arrears, in line with European banking practices. ”

“The Bank has set ambitious but realistic targets for the future of overdue loans with this great partnership so as to get out of the problem in the next five years. We move forward decisively,” he added.

Altamira is the second largest asset management company in Europe with a portfolio under management worth €65 bn.

In an email to the CCB, Altamira’s General Director, Julian Navarro Pascual expressed satisfaction over the very significant business deal that has come after lots of dedicated preparation. He also expressed his readiness to face the challenge on Cyprus soil.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades, in a statement issued after CCB’s announcement, described the decision to form a joint platform with Altamira as a decisive step towards dealing with its NPLs.

Original story: Famagusta Gazette

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Moody’s: House Prices Will Rise By 4.7% p.a. Between 2017 & 2019

30 May 2017 – El País

The risk rating agency Moody’s expects house prices to rise in Spain by 4.7% per annum between 2017 and 2019, in line with their evolution in 2016. This will have a positive effect on the balance sheets of the banks and on the behaviour of mortgage securitisations.

Those are the conclusions of a report on the real estate sector in Spain, prepared by analyst Antonio Tena, which nuances these promising forecasts by reminding readers that the number of units sold is just as important as the price at which those units are sold for.

Even if GDP grows at a lower rate than currently predicted, the US agency believes that the rate at which it will likely close the year (2.3%) will undoubtedly sustain this recovery in house prices.

But it is important to “decouple” house prices from the number of operations, given that although the volume of properties is decreasing, it is true that some of the new homes (…) date back to 2006 and 2007 and still have not been sold”. However, those now account for just 10% of operations, well below the pre-crisis levels, when new and second-hand homes accounted for half the market each, reported Efe.

The agency also commented that there is no risk of “overheating” in the mortgage market, said Tena, or of a mortgage bubble happening, given that nowadays just one euro is being loaned for every four euros that were being loaned back in 2007.

Last week, the President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, spoke along the same lines. He ruled out the danger of a new real estate or credit bubble in the euro zone.

The banks are now a lot more restrictive when it comes to granting a mortgage, said the Moody’s analyst, Antonio Tena. He added that it is important to distinguish between the granting of mortgages and the sale of homes; in 2007, more mortgages were granted than homes were sold, whereas, in 2016, the volume of house sales was much higher than the volume of mortgages signed.

The sale of homes is growing in a sustained way, at around 14% p.a., but that still represents half of the volumes sold in 2007; the data from Moody’s shows that house sales are not decreasing in any city where there are more than 200,000 inhabitants; and that Madrid and Barcelona – and their peripheral regions – as well as the Mediterranean arc, are accounting for most operations.

Borrowers are increasingly older

Another positive indicator, according to Tena, is that the average age of mortgage applicants has increased from 34 years in 2007 to 38 years in 2017. Borrowers now have a greater capacity for saving and financing. (…).

Along with the report about the mortgage market, Moody’s has published another study about covered bonds, which are known here as “mortgaged bonds”. The product plays an important role in Spain, given that for every euro of that type issued, there are €2.50 of mortgage loans, whereas, that ratio barely amounts to 1.10 in other countries. (…).

Original story: El País

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Banks Have €6,200M In Toxic Assets Up For Sale

25 April 2017 – El Mundo

Spain’s banks want to take advantage of the improving conditions in the real estate market to accelerate the clean up of the non-performing assets that are still weighing down on their balance sheets, almost 10 years after the burst of the bubble. The main entities currently have €6,200 million in toxic assets of all kind up for sale, including land, doubtful loans, hard to recover loans, homes, hotels, industrial warehouses…

Spain’s banks have been working on this process for at least five years, and with particular intensity for the last three. Bankia, for example, has sold €10,000 million since 2013 and CaixaBank has sold €5,000 million in the last two years. The most recent major operation was closed by Banco Sabadell, in January, for €950 million.

Now, in addition to Banco Popular, which has a large volume of toxic assets still to clean up, entities such as Ibercaja, BBVA, CaixaBank and Bankia are offering investment funds assets worth thousands of millions of euros, because they prefer to sell them at a loss, than maintain them on their balance sheets. The entities are accepting losses to improve their default ratios and doubtful client figures. For the funds, the aim is to take advantage of the discounts on offer to obtain very high returns from the subsequent recovery or resale of the underlying assets. (…).

The €6,200 million currently up for sale on this wholesale market, which has a low profile despite its volume, increases to €7,800 million if we take into account the operations completed during the month of January by Banco Sabadell, BBVA, Deutsche Bank and Bankia.

Based on the operations currently on the market, Ibercaja, BBVA and Sareb (…) are the entities with the largest volume of assets up for sale. The bank chaired by Francisco González is planning to conduct a significant cleanup of its balance sheet in 2017 and is currently offering assets and secured and unsecured loans to small developers amounting to €860 million. During the first quarter of 2017, it sold 14 buildings in Cataluña and Valencia and a portfolio containing 3,500 properties to the fund Blackstone.

Meanwhile, last year, CaixaBank completed the sale of two portfolios to funds such as Apollo and DE Shaw, amounting to €1,400 million, and this year it has a portfolio of non-performing loans to property developers, amounting to €600 million. The default rate of the Catalan bank has decreased from 11% at the peak of the crisis to 6.9% now and its doubtful clients have decreased by 47% since 2013.

Nevertheless, the market expects more supply to come onto the market. The European Central Bank (ECB) is putting pressure on the entities to conduct a comprehensive clean-up in order to dispel the myths regarding how profitable they are. Bank of America Merrill Lynch considers that the volume of foreclosed assets held by the main banks still exceeds €34,000 million and that more than €10,000 million still needs to be sold in terms of land alone, which puts the sector’s capacity to clean itself up in real doubt.

The strategy that Banco Popular is following in this regard, which has to get rid of at least €16,000 million, is considered definitive. The prices that it sets and the outcome of its crisis may influence the plans of the other entities, especially those of the smallest, unlisted firms. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by César Urrutia)

Translation: Carmel Drake