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Deal takes the biscuit
CEREALTO SIRO FOOD'S Palencia plant will remain open for another four years.
The Palencia installation was earmarked for closure last year in Madridbased Cerealto Siro Foods’costsavings plans. The company has now reached agreement with 184 employees who agreed to a €130 per month pay cut in exchange for guaranteeing the immediate future of Siro's Venta de Baños factory.
Juan Manuel GonzalezSerna, founder of the indebted household name, sold a 75 per cent stake to Afendis Capital Management and Davidson Kempner Capital Management in 2022 for a reputed €80 million which included debt settlement, while he held the remaining shares.
The company is receiving £53 million (€61.36 million) in a funding package that has been provided by the UK Infrastructure Bank, the Energy & Minerals Group (EMG) and Cornish Lithium's largest shareholder, TechMet.
“The funding will help to support the development of the UK’s critical minerals supply chain and accelerate growth towards the commercial production of lithium, vital for the UK’s transition to netzero,” Treasury minister Andrew Griffith said.
The bright side
A EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK (BCE) survey revealed that the Spanish are generally more positive than other Eurozone citizens. They viewed with optimism their prospects regarding future earnings, property prices and economic growth, with consumer affairs the only area where they were more pessimistic. Spanish optimism regarding earnings increased by 3 per cent, compared with the 1.2 per cent Eurozone average, the BCE said. In the Netherlands, for instance, expectations regarding salaries shrank by 1.5 per cent but rose slightly in Germany by 1.2 per cent.
Dow Jones
Zielo sale
UBS is selling the upmarket
Zielo shopping centre, located in the affluent Pozuelo de Alarcon (Madrid) suburb which has Spain’s highest per capita income. The bank bought the shopping centre from real estate developers Hines in 2015 for approximately €70 million although market sources maintain that UBS now expects offers of around €60 million.
Next best thing
BUMPER sales for Next prompted a second profits upgrade in just over six weeks. After an exceptionally wet July did not dampen demand, the companywhich has around 550 stores in the UK and Ireland said it expected £845 million (€978.6 million) in annual profits, £10 million (€11.6 million) more than it previously forecast.
