Finance Roundup for Spain and the UK

Big names One of the newly-created Hyperion Fund FCR’s partners has been revealed as Pablo Casado, president of the Partido Popular party until April 2022.

The venture capital fund will focus on aerospace, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and dual-use defence items, excluding arms and lethal materiel, which also have civilian applications.

“This growth equity fund aims to raise €150 million and invest in emerging European technological companies, paying particular attention to small and medium Spanish companies while supporting their growth, competitivity and internationalisation,” Hyperion announced.

Ricardo Gomez-Acebo Botin, nephew of Santander chair Ana Botin, was named as another of the fund’s five partners.

Telegraph woes Britain’s government should intensify the investigation into the Telegraph takeover, former Health minister Neil O’Brien said.

RedBird IMI, the Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund mainly financed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s vice-president and Manchester City FC owner, is settling the Telegraph owners’ £1.6 billion debt with Lloyds Bank.

Abu Dhabi wanted to exert “material influence” on the paper, O’Brien warned.  He pointed out that once the operation was completed, RedBird has maintained that it would convert the loan to take possession of the publication and it could still decide its ownership even if the bid were blocked.

Thriving regions Spain’s northern regions are expected to drive the increase in 2024’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“Goods manufacturing will continue to be the economy’s principal energiser,” BBVA Research’s latest Regional Analysis predicted, with Cantabria and Navarra leading the country’s growth rate.

A slowdown in exports, coupled with still-high energy prices and increased interest rates had combined to produce a generalised cutback in regional forecasts, BBVA Research said.

The Basque Region, Aragon, Galicia, Castilla y Leo, Cantabria and Navarra economies were expected to grow by just over 2 per cent in 2024 compared with Spain’s national average of 1.5 per cent, three-tenths less than last autumn’s estimates.

BBVA Research foresaw more economic brio in 2025 with growth averaging 2.5 per cent thanks to increased domestic and European demand, as well as tourism.

Hypocrisy claims Tata, confirmed on January 19 that it would close Port Talbot’s two blast furnaces, resulting in 2,800 job losses.

Citing the need to reduce carbon emissions, the steelworks’ India-based owners said the furnaces would be replaced with an electric arc furnace, prompting accusations of “gross hypocrisy” from the unions.

According to reports in the Guardian, they said this environmental excuse was contradicted by Tata’s plans for a giant blast furnace at its Kalinganagar industrial centre in eastern India.

The workers and the unions also criticised the UK government, which they said should have offered more financial incentives to persuade Tata to support domestic steel production.

Offer (practically) accepted Telefonica’s holding in its Germany subsidiary has increased from 71.81 per cent to 93.10 per cent.

The €1.48 billion cash operation was carried out by Telefonica’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Telefonica Local Services.

The offer announced in November 2023 was accepted by 7.86 per cent of Telefónica Deutschland’s shareholders although Telefonica had also acquired approximately 13.43 per cent of the German subsidiary’s share capital and voting rights.

This included the settlement of financial instruments that gave the Spanish multinational the right to acquire approximately 1.32 per cent of Telefonica Deutschland’s share capital.

Vegan rescue Heather Mills has saved her VBites company from collapse.

A £1 million (€1.17 million) deal brought the business out of administration after escalating overheads and competition from cheaper vegan rivals had left Mills with losses of £3.1 million (€3.6 million).  She complained at the time that she received only three days’ notice of the administration notice.

Although the rescue covers Mills’ assets and factories in County Durham and Northamptonshire, 64 VBites employees were made redundant, although Beatle Paul McCartney’s ex-wife has pledged to reinstate them.