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Airports group flies high
AENA reported a net profit of €133.6 million for the first quarter of 2023, compared with losses of €41.7 million during the same period in 2022.
The total number of passengers in Spain, Luton and airports in northeast Brazil recovered 100 per cent of their prepandemic levels, stateowned Aena announced on April 26.
Traffic volume at Aena’s Spanish airports reached 53.6 million in the first three months of the year, a 41.6
Barça deal
FC BARCELONA finally secured funds for the Espai Barça project which includes renovating the Camp Nou stadium.
The club has now signed a €1.45 billion agreement with 20 investors, although this is €50 million less than it originally hoped for.
It has taken the club almost two months to obtain sufficient financial backing to start work at the Camp Nou ground. Setbacks that coincided with club president Joan Laporta’s funding mission included the scandal over Barça’s payments to football referee José María Enríquez Negreira and the hike in interest rates, followed the Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse banking crises.
per cent increase on the same period last year and 1.6 per cent higher than during the first quarter of 2019.
Commercial sales showed a 12 per cent improvement on their prepandemic lev els,. Total consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2023 increased to €1.03 billion, 34.3 per cent up on the first quarter of 2022.
Aeronautical revenue of €523 million was 26 per cent
Salmon tax
THE price of Norway’s farmed salmon could rise by up to 10 per cent, industry insiders warned.
Norway produces more than 1.5 million tons of salmon each year and the Oslo government now intends to slap a 35 per cent tax on their profits.
As a result, consumer prices are expected to rise by as much as 10 per cent or even more.
“We all know it is coming,” said Lance Forman, owner of Londonbased H Forman and Sons, which supplies leading restaurants and Harrods.
After fossil fuels, salmon farming is the country’s largest source of national income. It is also very lucrative, with operating profit margins of around 45 per cent.
Despite the salmon farmers’ efforts, the Norwegian parliament is expected to approve the measure in the coming weeks.
TELEFONICA has strengthened its position in the UK with a partnership between its strategic digital business subsidiary, Tech&I, and Virgin Media 02 Business.
Virgin’s customers can now be supported by Telefonica Tech’s cloud team of professional and managed services. Based in the UK this company currently employs more than 1,000 technology professionals following its takeover of CancomUK&I and Incremental.
This will enable Virgin Media O2 Business to offer enhanced services to medium and large organisations. These will range from local authorities wanting to unify data and processes, healthcare providers migrating sensitive data to the cloud and retailers looking to evolve ecommerce opportunities in the cloud.
higher than in 2022 while commercial revenue again surpassing 2019 levelsreached €337.9 million, 40.1 per cent more than during the first three months of 2022. “The performance of commercial activity in the first quarter of the year is noteworthy, where prepandemic activity levels improved markedly,” Aena said. Aena’s gross operating result between January and March of this year rose to €368.6 million, representing growth of 153.2 per cent.
Light fantastic
NATIONAL POWER, owner of the Drax power station in Selby (Yorkshire), reported its highest ever annual profits.
Shareholders in the FTSE 250 company can look forward to a £150 million (€169 million) windfall, thanks to record electricity prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This had helped to increase the group’s annual profits for 2022 to £731 million (€824.7 million), up from £398 million (€499 million) in 2021.
Drax also announced that in the meantime it was putting on hold its much debated £50 million (€56.4 million) carbon capture project, as it awaited details from the government regarding a possible subsidy.
