Finance Extra for the UK and Spain

Talk quietly TWO years after its launch Rupert Murdoch’s TalkTV is to be taken off air amidst heavy losses that were not helped by the departure of one of its star turns, Piers Morgan. Scott Taunton, TalkTV’s president of Broadcasting said that by early summer, the channel would now be focusing on online streaming. 

More Grifols woes MOODY’S, which rates the creditworthiness of companies and governments, “quarantined” Barcelona-based pharmaceuticals company Grifols already under attack from short-seller Gotham City.  Moody’s said the company and its subsidiaries were under review owing to “poor results, its governance risk and refinancing.”  

Tastes good GREGGS staff will share a £17.6 million (€20.57 million) bonus as the bakery chain sells ever-increasing amounts of pasties and sausages rolls. After a year which saw 2023’s profits climb to a record £188 million (€219.7 million), the company said that it had no plans to introduce further price rises in 2024.

New use BTECH, owned by EV motors, has acquired all of the Decarbonisation Hub in Barcelona’s Zona Franca industrial area after buying the remaining 40 per cent from electric vehicle manufacturer QEV Tech.. The reindustrialisation of the old Nissan plant will pave the way for producing the first 50 Zeroid cars, BTech said.

Summed up KPMG was fined £1.5 million (€1.75 million) by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) for “basic” failures in its 2018 audit of advertising firm M&C Saatchi.  KPMG partner Adrian Wilcox must also pay £48,750 (€56,982) after M&C Saatchi found accounting errors which required a restatement of its accounts.

Long-term DESPITE Ford’s ERTE furlough scheme which laid off Almussafes (Valencia) workers until the end of March, the car manufacturer has long-term plans for the plant.  “We are producing the Kuga and intend to do so for many years,” insisted the director of Ford’s electric vehicle division, Martin Sander, on a recent visit to Brussels.

Tax stays THE UK’S Chancellor Jeremy Hunt expects to raise £1.5 billion (€1.75 billion) by extending the windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas profits, which will now end in 2029 instead of  March 2028.  The tax was introduced in May 2022 when producers’ profits soared as gas prices rocketed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pay rise LUIS GALLEGO, chief executive of IAG, owner of British Airways and Iberia amongst other airlines, obtained his first pay rise after taking over from Willie Walsh in 2020 and riding out the pandemic.  Gallego received €979,000 in 2023, 4 per cent more than the previous year, as well as €2.95 million in variable pay which depended on IAG’s performance.

Good as gold THE price of gold remains historically high amid investors’ fears of continuing Middle East tension and the assumption that the US will cut interest rates by the summer. On March 5 its price reached $2,141 (€1,965) for an ounce at one point, overtaking the previous record of $2,135 (€1,959) in December 2023 before falling back to $2,128 (€1,952).

Stat of the week: €6 billion is the announced 2026 sales target for Spanish multinational Indra which leads in the electronic defence secto and reported revenues of €4.34 billion in 2023.