Barça’s on the ball

vate placement of bonds on Wall Street, split into three €500­million tranches. The first would have been due on June 30, 2032, and the second on June 30, 2045. The club would have paid interest on the third tranche only until 2045 despite maturing on June 30, 2052.

the club had to rethink its plans.

This involved reducing the number of bonds and taking on a bank debt that will be guaranteed by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

EL CORTE INGLES has paid a total of €500 million to finalise its deal with Sheikh Al Thani.

With this transaction, the department store group acquired 4.2 million of its shares, representing 5.53 per cent of the group’s capital and half of the 10.33 per cent owned by AI Thani through Luxembourgregistered Primefin.

El Corte Ingles repurchased these shares in June 2022 in an operation originally valued at €385 million. The final amount was increased to €500 million to include compensation and interest, principally as compensation to Primefin which granted a €1 billion loan to El Corte Ingles in 2015.

Home help

THE Bank of Spain (BDE) revised the number of mortgages eligible for social protection measures agreed with the government and finance sector in late 2022.

Initially, Barcelona had hoped for a €1.5 billion pri­

These plans came to nothing. Beset by the Negrerira scandal over bribes to the vice­president of the football referees’ committee, which coincided with last March’s banking crisis,

A smooth ride

NATIONAL EXPRESS reported a rise in first ­ quarter revenues thanks to its UK buses and German rail improvements.

Overall earnings rose by 25 per cent to £774.4 million (€879.7 million), consistent with expectations, while Spanish subsidiary ALSA reported solid growth, especially on long haul and Morocco routes.

UK earnings rose 27 per cent year ­ onyear, with scheduled coach revenue up 87 per cent on 2022, reflecting the recovery from the Covid ­ related restrictions 2021 and the impact of rail strikes.

Thanks to its first ­ quarter results, National Express shares immediately rose 4.25 per cent after having fallen by around 48 per cent over the 12 months.

The company’s German rail interests rose 10 per cent on 2022 while it expects a 13 per cent price increase on the US bus contracts once these expire.

Some finer points have still to be decided, including the final amount of both the bonds and the bank loan. Sources close to the process suggested that ultimately the bond issue would be somewhere under €1 billion and the loan somewhat over €500 million.

Meter pact

ENERGY FIRMS agreed to ban forcible installation of prepayment meters in the homes of customers who are over 85.

Representatives must in future wear body cameras as part of a new code of conduct, the Guardian revealed.

Suppliers reached agreement with the government regarding new guidelines for installing the meters in situations where householders have run up an energy debt. There will be no repetition of agents brandishing court­approved entry warrants to break in to install them, power companies pledged.

They must now make at least 10 attempts to contact a customer and then conduct a ‘site welfare visit’ before a prepayment meter is installed.

The updated and extended Code of Good Practice was expected to benefit one million vulnerable households and those at risk of defaulting on mortgage payments.

Instead, Spain’s supervisor calculates that this would assist 550,000 families should the interest rate rise from the current 3.5 to 4 per cent.

Nevertheless, past figures for households accessing the 2012 Code also suggested that only 200,000 households would benefit, according to Bank of Spain’s latest Financial Stability Report.

Cheers Heineken

HEINEKEN has finished the first quarter of its fiscal year with buoyant sales in Spain.

The multinational brewing company reported that its net income grew by more than 20 per cent owing to increased volume and the combination of channels and brands.

Sales of the 0.0. non­alcoholic brand performed exceptionally well in Spain, together with the entire premium range led by El Aguila.

In addition, Spain is one of six markets that have completed the transition to Eazle, one of the largest e­commerce platforms in the world, the company said.

LONDON - FTSE 100

Dow Jones

Bagged it

MULBERRY GROUP sales improved in the second half of its financial year, partly due to demand for luxury goods as China’s economy reopened. The firm slumped during the first half on reporting £4 million (€4.5 million) losses for the six months ending 1 October 2022.

AI is best

ROUGHLY half of Spanish bosses said they would prefer artificial intelligence to make decisions for them, a study by technology firm Oracle found. Forty ­ five per cent of managers said that an over­abundance of data and their inability to handle it efficiently had led to a greater reliance on machines.