FINANCE BUSINESS EXTRA

Budget meltdown

WOKING Council is effectively bankrupt with debts of £2 billion (€2.3 billion) following predecessors’ risky investments involving skyscrapers and hotels. Its chief executive said the full impact on residents was not yet clear, but all spending for non ­ essential services had been halted after issuing a Section 114 notice.

Fully-owned

AFTER obtaining a 60 per cent stake in 2021 and increasing this to 62.5 per cent last year, Santander Bank bought the remaining 37.5 per cent of its Brazilian subsidiary Toro Investimentos. Santander did not reveal the sums involved on acquiring the online brokerage company, which has 1.3 million clients.

Sad loss

THE death was announced on June 7 of Sir Ivan Menezes (63), British ­ American long ­ time chief executive of Diageo, following a brief illness. He joined London­listed £75 billion (€87.2 billion) Diageo, now the world’s largest spirits manufacturer, after its formation following the 1997 merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan.

Nadal plans

FOLLOWING the success of Tatel in Madrid, and the Toto Italian restaurants, tennis ace Rafael Nadal and Baleares hoteliers, the Matutes family, intend to open similar restaurants in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. There are also future plans for more eateries in Marbella, London, New York and Milan.

Tough times

CHALLENGING months lay ahead, the owner of the Simply Be and JD Williams home shopping companies warned after going into the red. Shares in N Brown Group, which also owns men’s clothing brand Jacamo, slumped after reporting annual losses of £71.1 million (€82.6 million) for the year ending on March 4.

Linda

Hall

SPAIN will ask Brussels for a total of €94 billion from the Next Generation’s Recovery and Resilience plan introduced to offset the after­effects of the pandemic.

“This will activate all the transfers and loans that have been assigned to Spain,” announced Nadia Calviño, who is the government’s principal vice­president as well as minister of Economic Affairs minister.

Addressing the June 6 Cabinet meeting, Calviño explained that Spain has also added a request for a further €10.3 billion to its initial recovery plan via the Next Generation fund. This will be used for 12

STAT OF WEEK €1.5 billion

plans to build Spain’s biggest shopping centres in Torremolinos and Valencia have been renewed by Eurofund Group following changes in the local governments after the May 28 elections.