Toll road bid

Abertis is going it alone in its proposal to manage the 60­year­old Attiki Odos roads although it is allegedly sounding out possible partners in Greece should its bid be successful.

Addressing Avangrid’s shareholders, Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Galan ­ who also heads the US company ­ reaffirmed the group’s commitment to accelerating the energy transition, while moving towards decarbonisation.

Galan also reported that Avangrid had invested €2.5 billion in its networks and renewables in 2022. The company would continue to support “a stronger and more resilient grid” for its customers, while delivering “a clean energy future for all,” he said.

Outlook cloudy

OCADO’S association with Marks and Spencer has been disappointing, chief executive Tim Steiner confessed.

another Spanish multinational, Sacyr, has since dropped out. So too has a consortium between two French firms and the Dutch company, DIF.

Inflation falling

INFLATION in the UK fell to 7.9 per cent in June, down from 8.7 per cent in May.

This was its lowest since March 2022, when prices first began to rise following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Analysts had predicted a less noticeable reduction in the headline ratecovering fuel and energy prices as well as food ­ to 8.2 per cent. Underlying inflation calculated on items like processed food, clothing, restaurants and communications also eased although food inflation’s 17.3 per cent was higher than in June 2022.

June’s largely unexpected figures were the result of reductions in the price of petrol and diesel, which now cost 20 per cent less than a year ago.

In comparison, Spain’s inflation rate currently stands at 1.9 per cent, its lowest since March 2021.

Other contenders for the motorway contract include the Greek companies Aktor and Avax, which are currently managing the toll road until their contract comes to an end in 2024. On this occasion, they are forming an alliance with the French investment fund Meridiam substituting Ardian.

Big cash injection

TELEFONICA has injected €762 million in its Mexican subsidiary Pegaso via seven capital increases since 2021.

Pegaso belongs to Telefonica Hispanoamerica (Hispam) which underwent recapitalisation in January after Telefonica Peru lost its longstanding battle with the country’s tax authority.

Shareholders agreed at the time to a fully­subscribed capital increase of 2.3 billion Mexican pesos (€113 million), which was paid in cash by Hispam’s own holding company.

The company undertook several capital increases last year totalling two billion pesos (€98.18 million). Prior to that in 2021, Pegaso carried out capital increases in January, June, September and December, for 13.3 billion Mexican pesos, equivalent to €551 million.

When the £750 million (€866.2 million) joint venture was agreed in 2019, replacing a previous Ocado­Waitrose deal, both hailed the opportunity of creating a “profitable, scalable presence in the online grocery market.”

Marks and Spencer should pay Ocado a final instalment of £190.7 million (€220.2 million) by August 2024 if performance targets are met.

Instead, Ocado has reduced the ‘fair value’ of this payment to £78 million (€90 million), suggesting it suspects that there is less than a 50 per cent likelihood of getting the money.

Windfall worries

TWENTY per cent of savers are hoping for a substantial inheritance to maintain their quality of life.

A survey by Lime Solicitors found that many Britons rely on a legacy from their parents to guarantee a comfortable future. An increasing number would struggle in retirement if they were to inherit little, the law firm’s Debra Burton warned.

Even those who were left more would have to contend with inheritance tax, charged at 40 per cent above £325,000 (€375,296) or £500,0000 (€577,367) if a property went to children or grandchildren, she said.

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Off-the-grid

NATIONAL GRID has sold another 20 per cent of its National Gas holding to the existing majority owners, a consortium headed by Australia’s Macquarie Asset Management. National Grid said the sale would be ‘financially equivalent’ to the 60 per cent stake it sold for £9.6 billion (€11.5 billion) to the consortium in January.

Fine stuff

CATALONIA’S regional government, the Generalitat, is exploring the possibility of sanctioning Spain’s electricity supplier Endesa for allegedly infringing the rules that govern energy self­consumption. Using practices that imposed ‘unjustified conditions, difficulties or delays’ which hindered Catalonia residents’ access to individual energy autonomy could now bring a fine of between €600,000 and €6m.