Business Extra for the UK and Spain

Sweet music STOCKHOLM-BASED Spotify announced third-quarter profits of £28 million (€32 million), compared with a £199 million (€228 million) loss for the same period last year.  The digital music company is back in the black after adding another six million paying subscribers, two million more than it had anticipated.  

Goodbye kiss  TELEFONICA is offering compensation of up to four years’ salary to the corporation’s directors and managers who agree to leave the group.  The proposals to directors aged 55 or over are another step in the telecommunications company’s bid to reduce overall staff numbers in subsidiary companies by 5,000.  

Rude gesture BRITAIN’S Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England confirmed that the cap on bankers’ bonuses which the European Union introduced following the financial crisis of 2008 has been discarded. The UK’s unions said the decision, which it described as obscene, was “an insult to working people.” 

Mango men CATALAN fashion retailer Mango, has doubled its sales of men’s clothing since the end of the pandemic and expects to have opened 560 outlets for its Mango Man division by the end of this year. It also foresees a record turnover of €325 million for this year, a 15 per cent increase on 2022.

Drink up IRN BRU manufacturer AG Barr, based in Cumbernauld (Scotland), has bought the Rio fruit drink which it has distributed and marketed since 2001 from Hall and Woodhouse for £12.3 million (€14.1 million). AG Barr told investors the purchase was made possible thanks to its “strong net cash position.”