IRELAND PORTUGAL SWEDEN

Application delayed

HUNGARY'S approval of the Swedish NATO application will now be delayed until at least October. Zsolt Németh, a member of the ruling Fidesz party in the Hungarian parliament, explained that the summer break is about to begin. There was no reason to convene the parliament during this break he insisted, while pointing out that the parliament in Budapest will not resume its work until mid-September.

Malmo chosen

THE Swedish city of Malmö has been chosen to stage the 2024 Eurovision song contest. Sweden was given the prestige of hosting the annual music event after Loreen emerged victorious in Liverpool with her track Tattoo. Malmö Arena will host the participants on May 7, 9 and 11 of next year.

Business Extra

Tipping point

EMPLOYEES at The Ivy restaurant chain complained that they are losing out after Troia UK Restaurants, part­owned by billionaire restaurateur and fashion tycoon Richard Caring, has cut their share of the service charge. The modification came into force once the legal minimum wage rose in April, the Unite union said.

Helping hand

SPAIN’S National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) launched proceedings against renewable energy company, Ecoener, maintaining that it helped two company executives to acquire shares when the company was floated in April 2021. Ecoener has since insisted that only “ minimal” sums of money were involved.

Dead letters

HM Revenue & Customs office has had to create a special taskforce to deal with letters that are still unanswered after a year. The new team will tackle the backlog of more than 37,000 pieces of correspondence that are at least 10 months old to prevent the accumulation reaching the 12­month stage.

Digi prodigy

DIGI COMMUNICATIONS’ board of directors will propose a dividend of one Romanian leu per share (approximately €0.2) at the August 18 annual general meeting. The parent company’s dividends have grown in recent years, thanks to Digi Spain where the company is now a telecoms leader owing to its ‘aggressive’ tariffs.

Living dead

ZOMBIE companies, which formerly avoided bankruptcy through cheap borrowing costs, are now under pressure and unlikely to survive rising interest rates. Insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor, whose revenues climbed 11 per cent to £121.8 million (€142.1) last year, predicted that practically all would fail within 18 months.

Linda Hall

INDITEX shareholders approved the company’s 2022 results and payment of a €1.20 share dividend at the Annual General Meeting on July 11.

They also voted in favour of setting the number of Inditex directors at 10 and re­elected Inditex’s founder Amancio Ortega Gaona, aged 87, as the company’s proprietary director.

The 2022 and early 2023 figures were the result of the “incredible work” carried out by the company’s teams, said Ortega Gaona’s daughter, Marta Ortega Perez, who is now Inditex chairwoman.

Ortega’s address to the meeting, which was held

STAT OF WEEK €1.45 billion

in record sales for the Catalan-based fashion group Mango during the first six months of 2023, showing a 20 per cent increase on the same period last year.