Spanish and UK Business and Finance snippets

Amancio Ortega (again) IT is an unusual week when Zara founder Amancio Ortega fails to loom large in the  financial news in Spain and elsewhere.

The latest information regarding one of the world’s richest men centres on Pontegadea Inversiones through which Ortega channels most of his activities in the property and energy sectors as well as the income from a 50.1 per cent holding in the Inditex empire.

This year, Pontegadea registered a consolidated profit of €2.3 billion at the end of the 2022 fiscal year, an increase of 30 per cent compared with 2021.

Nevertheless, this omitted the income from Ortega’s Pontegadea GB 2020 and Partler 2006 which includes another 9.29 per cent holding in Inditex.

Happy feet CINVEN, owner of Kurt Geiger since 2015, is said to working with Bank of America on a future auction of the luxury shoe brand for £400 million (€459.1 million).  Leading luxury goods groups as well as private equity firms are all expected be interested in acquiring the prestige label which was founded in 1963.

Bank job GERMANY is likely to back the Nadia Calviño, vice-president of the incumbent Spanish government as well as Economy minister, in her bid to head the European Investment. Finance minister Christian Lindner revealed that the German government had made its decision but although he did not wish to name the candidate, this is sure to be Calviño, insiders said.

Cut-price TESLA has reduced the price of its basic Model 3 car in Britain by £3,000 (€3,443) to £36,990 (€42,460) in a bid to encourage demand for its electric vehicles as sales have slowed amid increased competition from China. Elon Musk’s company has continually slashed prices in the US this year and also reduced its UK prices in January.

Cashing in BANKINTER earned €685 million between January this year and the end of September, a 59.2 per cent increase on the same period in 2022, thanks to interest hikes. The bank’s net interest margin shot up by 54 per cent while return on equity rose to 18.2 per cent, chief executive Maria Dolores Bancausa announced.