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☆ Zara owner Inditex invests in tech to speed future sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Corina Pons | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Inditex has extended its lead over Swedish rival H&M (HMb.ST), in part because of a less price-sensitive customer base. As the cost of making garments increased, H&M took a profit hit while Inditex was able to pass on costs to shoppers. In-store and online sales rose 18% to 32.6 billion euros ($34.99 billion) from 2021 and were 15% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic hit. Excluding Russia, where Inditex stores have been closed since the Ukraine conflict started just over a year ago, sales in that period were up 17.5% in constant currency terms. Inditex also delivered a surprise, but by hiking capital expenditure to 1.6 billion euros from 1.1 billion euros previously.

☆ Zara owner Inditex sees 2023 sales keep pace, but capex plans disappoint
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Corina Pons | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In-store and online sales for the world's biggest fashion retailer rose 18% to 32.6 billion euros ($34.99 billion) from 2021 and were 15% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic hit. The pace of sales continued in the first six weeks of Inditex's current fiscal year to Jan. 31, 2024. Between Feb. 1 and March 13, Inditex said sales jumped by 13.5% from the same period a year earlier. Excluding Russia, where Inditex stores have been closed since the Ukraine conflict started just over a year ago, sales in that period increased by 17.5% in constant currency terms. But Inditex surprised investors with a hike in capital expenditure to 1.6 billion euros from 1.1 billion euros in the previous year, a higher level than expected by the market.

☆ Zara owner Inditex's profit jumps in Marta Ortega's first year in charge
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Corina Pons | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MADRID, March 15 (Reuters) - Zara owner Inditex (ITX.MC) on Wednesday posted a 27% increase in net profits in 2022 as sales exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the first full year since Marta Ortega, daughter of founder Amancio Ortega, took over as company chair. Between Feb. 1 and March 13, Inditex said its sales jumped by 13.5% from the same period a year earlier. The 2022 revenues were in line with analysts' expectations as the company benefited from shoppers' appetite for fashion as COVID-19 lockdowns ended. The results may also lessen investor doubts about Marta Ortega succeeding the veteran Pablo Isla as non-executive chair in April, in a generational handover that began a decade ago when her father retired. Also on Wednesday, rival H&M (HMb.ST) reported a 12% increase in net sales for its December-February period.

☆ Crypto group DCG seeks new partners for portfolio firms amid SVB collapse - CoinDesk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 14 (Reuters) - Crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) is looking to find new banking partners for portfolio companies following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O), Signature Bank (SBNY.O) and Silvergate (SI.N), CoinDesk reported on Tuesday, citing messages viewed by the outlet. Santander (SAN.MC), HSBC (HSBA.L) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) are still willing to connect with crypto firms, CoinDesk said, after recent banking failures in the United States left crypto firms and tech startups stranded and hunting for new banking partners. DCG has also reached out to BlackRock (BLK.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N), the report added. Banks may restrict some services for crypto firms, such as brokerage and money market services and the ability to wire money to third parties, according to the messages seen by CoinDesk. Traditional banks may set up banking accounts for crypto firms, but would place restrictions based on the level of crypto exposure, the report added.

Big hedge funds including Marshall Wace and Odey Asset Management added to short positions against Europe's banks, regulatory filings seen by Reuters and data from Breakout Point showed. Marshall Wace held the largest disclosed number of short positions against banks, public filings from Austria, Italy, Sweden, Britain, Spain and Poland analysed by Breakout Point showed. The banks included BAWAG (BAWG.VI), FinecoBank (FBK.MI), Handelsbanken (SHBa.ST), CaixaBank (CABK.MC), NatWest Group (NWG.L) and PKO Bank Polski (PKO.WA). BNP Paribas shares fell by as much as 12% on Wednesday before recovering to show a loss of 9%, while Deutsche Bank shares fell almost 9%. In the week to Wednesday, some 120 billion euros ($126 billion) had been wiped off the value of European bank shares.

☆ European shares sink as banks resume selloff, Credit Suisse hits new low
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Shreyashi Sanyal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) fell 2.5% by 1118 GMT, languishing at 10-week lows, as was the banks sector index (.SX7P) after plunging nearly 6%. The bank index is set to lose more than 120 billion euros ($127.26 billion) in market value since the close of March 8. Shares of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) fell below 2 Swiss francs ($2.18) after the lender's biggest shareholder said it could not raise its 10% stake, citing regulatory issues. There was also a cooling of optimism that the U.S. Federal Reserve will tone down its rate-hiking spree next week in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB) collapse. Retailers (.SXRP) shed 5.0% after shares of Zara-owner Inditex (ITX.MC), the world's biggest fashion retailer, fell 5.2% as it flagged higher investment spending.

Shares in H&M were down 6% in early trade, underperforming the wider Swedish market (.OMXSPI). The Swedish group said sales measured in local currencies for the period, its fiscal first quarter, rose 3% from a year earlier. Jefferies said local-currency sales, the figures most watched by markets, were significantly lighter than consensus estimates and implied that sales in reality fell 3% in February. By contrast, market leader Inditex (ITX.MC) reported on Wednesday a 13.5% increase in Feb. 1 - March 13 sales and a 27% net profit increase for its fiscal year through January. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) said it expected continued input cost increases in the first quarter for the retailer and that it would stay under pressure into the second quarter.

☆ Crypto group DCG looking for new partners following SVB collapse - CoinDesk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

☆ Spain's Mango plans U.S. expansion after China retreat
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Corina Pons | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BARCELONA, Spain, March 14 (Reuters) - Spanish fashion retailer Mango is focusing on U.S. expansion after turning its back on China, Chief Executive Officer Toni Ruiz said. It will target states where online sales are already strong. It maintains four franchise outlets and online sales through Alibaba's Tmall e-commerce platform. Mango reported record sales last year, helped by selling more items at higher prices. Its biggest rival, Inditex-owned label Zara (ITX.MC), is expected to report record sales on Wednesday, partly due to its aggressive U.S. expansion.

"Meta's discovery gluttony confirms its request of eBay is not worthy of the burden Meta seeks to impose," eBay's lawyers told the California court. EBay's Quinn Emanuel attorneys derided Meta as a "litigant that has completely disregarded the bounds of reason and proportionality" in seeking information from third parties. A representative from eBay and its attorneys at Quinn Emanuel did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lawyers for eBay contend the company doesn't compete with Meta on social networking but does face off over the Facebook Marketplace e-commerce service. The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

☆ "Calm down!" EU finance ministers play down SVB contagion despite banking shares rout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Philip Blenkinsop | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SummarySummary Companies European bank shares down nearly 10% over two daysMinisters try to soothe markets as investors dump bank stocksFrance's Le Maire: "calm down!" BRUSSELS, March 13 (Reuters) - European finance ministers and the EU's economics commissioner played down the contagion risk of the collapse of U.S. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) while European bank shares saw their biggest rout since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At the start of a Eurogroup finance ministers meeting in Brussels, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called on markets to "calm down" and European Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni stressed he did not see a risk of contagion for European banks following SVB's collapse (SIVB.O). France's Le Maire and his Belgian counterpart Vincent Van Peteghem also said they saw no specific concern for their country's banks, as investors were dumping their financial institutions' shares. Belgian finance minister Vincent Van Peteghem also poured oil on the waters.

HOUSTON, March 8 (Reuters) - Billions of dollars in clean energy incentives are poised to speed investment on American soil while putting the European Union's energy transition at risk by luring away money and talent, executives at the CERAWeek energy conference said this week. European energy companies echoed the call for Europe to come up with its own new incentives. Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of French energy giant TotalEnergies told the conference the IRA was an "invitation to accelerate green infrastructure." In Europe, you begin to regulate," he said, adding that Europe and the United States should consider forming a free trade agreement on renewable energy infrastructure. Ken Gilmartin, CEO of British engineering firm Wood Plc, said the IRA would put the United States in first place in the decarbonization race.

☆ UK regulator tells Heathrow to cut fees in win for airlines
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Sarah Young | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A worker sanitises a barrier at the International arrivals area of Terminal 5 in London's Heathrow Airport, Britain, August 2, 2021. The lower fees will boost airlines such as IAG's (ICAG.L) British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, two of Heathrow's biggest, making the airport cheaper for them. They have long complained that fees at Heathrow, the busiest airport in western Europe, are the highest in the world. The strong bounceback in travel since the lows of the pandemic prompted the CAA to reduce the fees Heathrow can charge in the coming years. Improved forecasts for passenger numbers this year and next year mean Heathrow will be able to generate higher revenue, said the CAA, which uses passenger numbers to calculate the charges.

☆ M&A bankers trip over their cracked crystal balls
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The M&A pipeline generally has three components: announced deals that are almost certain to happen; announced deals that may not get over the line; and deals that have neither been announced or perhaps even conceived. Reuters GraphicsThere’s a much tighter relationship between equity markets and M&A, implying that CEOs pursue corporate marriages when their share prices are high. One common way to get around this problem is to look at the value of announced deals as a percentage of total worldwide market capitalisation. WEAKNESS IN NUMBERSUnsurprisingly, given all the uncertainty, some bankers take their pipeline estimates with an appropriately large pinch of salt. Reuters GraphicsFollow @liamwardproud on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSCompanies announced $3.6 trillion of mergers and acquisitions in 2022, according to Refinitiv, compared with $5.7 trillion in 2021.

☆ Spain's Indra begins succession process for new CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 7 (Reuters) - Spanish technology company Indra (IDR.MC) said late on Monday it would begin a process to appoint a new chief executive (CEO) to replace Ignacio Mataix, saying the decision was linked to a new strategic plan for the next years. Mataix will continue as CEO until the appointment of a successor and after that will serve as a strategic advisor to Indra's board of directors for a period of two years, the company said in a statement. Reporting by Joanna Jonczyk-Gwizdala, editing byOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Britain's Nationwide Building Society has restricted customers' ability to buy cryptocurrencies, the lender said in an email to its members on Thursday. Nationwide said it will not allow payments to crypto exchanges using credit cards and will limit adult current accounts to 5,000 pounds ($5,995) of purchases per day. The building society said the move was in response to regulatory concern over the risks of buying digital currencies. Cryptocurrency prices surged in 2020 and 2021 before sharp declines last year as rising interest rates prompted investors to ditch riskier assets. In November, as part of measures to protect customers from scams, Santander (SAN.MC) introduced limits on the amount customers could transfer to cryptocurrency exchanges and said it would soon block UK customers from sending any real-time payments to cryptocurrency exchanges.

☆ US unit of Spain's ACS to build EV battery plant for Panasonic in Kansas
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MADRID, March 2 (Reuters) - A joint venture between the U.S. unit of Spanish engineering group ACS (ACS.MC) and Philadelphia-based Yates Construction has won a contract to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Kansas as part of a $4 billion investment by Japan's Panasonic (6752.T) group, the companies said on Wednesday. The EV battery factory in the city of De Soto is expected to start operating by the end of March 2025 and will reach approximately 30 gigawatts-hour of annual production capacity, according to a statement by ACS' Turner Construction. "The battery manufacturing facility is a critical part of Panasonic's investment in the United States to expand EV battery production capacity," the company said. In addition to the assembly facility, the project will include construction of a central utility plant and support buildings, it added. Reporting by David Latona; Editing by Simon Cameron-MooreOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BARCELONA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Spanish pharmaceutical company Grifols' (GRLS.MC) shares fell around 10% in afternoon trading after its 2023 outlook disappointed analysts, who were looking for a better recovery in margins. Grifols reported on Tuesday that net profit rose 10% to 208 million euros ($220.19 million). Total revenues rose 23% to 6 billion euros ($6.38 billion), with over half generated in the United States and Canada. JPMorgan said the progress on EBITDA margin recovery in 2023 may be a little slower than the market had hoped. Grifols announced earlier this month it would lay off 8.5% of its workforce seeking annual savings of around 400 million euros.

☆ Santander to return half of profits to shareholders in 3-year strategy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jesús Aguado | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"Profitability guidance will be a positive surprise for the market ... however the company had already guided to an above 15% ROTE in 2023," Jefferies said, adding that new dividend policy had also been anticipated. As part of this plan, Santander's European region will see this metric rising to 15% from 9.28% by the end of 2022. Santander also said that it expected to improve its efficiency ratio to 42% from currently 45.8%. Its total cash dividend per share for 2022 will rise to 0.1178 euros, it said, also announcing an additional share buy-back programme of 921 million euros ($974.8 million) after obtaining regulatory authorization. ($1 = 0.9448 euros)Reporting by Jesús Aguado; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; editing by Inti Landauro and Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

REUTERS/Miguel VidalA CORUNA, Spain/LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - In Spain's A Coruna, two contrasting fashion business models collide - pitching the growing demands for the clothing industry to become more sustainable against the constant need to drive sales. This rainy, windswept, city on the rugged Atlantic coast is the unlikely headquarters of Zara-owner Inditex (ITX.MC) - the world's biggest fast fashion retailer. It also hosts small boutiques offering high quality, durable products that consider themselves an alternative to the fast and affordable fashion propelling Inditex's annual sales of 28 billion euros ($30 billion). "If you release tonnes and tonnes of clothes, textiles, shoes into the market, you will have to collect it," he said. But Circ and its competitors are only capable of producing 1% of the textiles needed to make the 109 million tonnes of clothes per year that the global fashion industry churns out.

☆ Goldman doubles down on the wealthy, as it should
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Instead, he indicated that the wealth business would be a “key driver for growth." One key pillar of that plan is Goldman’s alternative assets business, which includes running buyout, private credit and real-estate investing funds. For example, Goldman plans to take $2 billion in management and other fees from the alternative business next year. Last year, of the $72 billion Goldman raised for alternative, a third of that came from its wealth business. Goldman has dabbled in this now-dubbed “One Goldman” concept before, and gave it significant airtime on Tuesday.

☆ Santander bets on Europe recovery, customers to lift profits and pay-outs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Jesús Aguado | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Santander has relied in the past on Latin America to cope with tough conditions for lenders in Europe since the financial crisis but banks across Europe are beginning to benefit from higher borrowing costs despite economic uncertainty. The remuneration would be in the form of cash payouts and share buybacks. This would bring Europe, the lender's main contributor to the group's profits, in line with the ROTE target seen for North America. Santander expects its cost of risk, which measures the cost of managing potential losses for the bank, to hover around 100 and 110 basis points in 2025 from an expected 120 bps this year. ($1 = 0.9448 euros)Reporting by Jesús Aguado; additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; editing by Inti Landauro and Emelia Sithole-MatariseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Spain's Fluidra sees sales, profitability down in 2023 after net fell in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BARCELONA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Spain's Fluidra (FLUI.MC) said on Monday it expects sales and profitability to fall this year after rising interest rates and lower demand for swimming pools in the last quarter weighed on its business in 2022. Fluidra's net profit fell 37% to 160 million euros ($168.51 million) in 2022, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) dropped 6.8% to 512 million euros due to "inflationary pressures", it said. Its net profit was below Refinitiv's forecast of 189 million euros, while its EBITDA was slightly above. Sales in 2022 grew 9.2% in 2022, but were 13% lower in the last quarter compared with the same period in 2021. Fluidra expects its 2023 sales to fall to between 2 billion euros and 2.2 billion euros and EBITDA to fall to between 410 million euros and 480 million euros.

☆ EU industry chief Breton says not favouring Big Telecoms over Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Monday defended a consultation on whether Big Tech should foot the bill for billions of euros of investments in Europe's telecoms infrastructure, saying it was not about putting Big Telecoms' interests above tech companies. Still, Breton took a swipe at the big U.S. tech companies with their large-scale data centres, their cloud-based radio access network (RAN) - the radio element of a cellular system - and their closed ecosystems. "And interoperability or openness are not currently a strong feature of their business model." "I see these two issues as currently holding back our collective potential compared to other continents," Breton said. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Explainer: Europe gets ready to revamp its electricity market
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Kate Abnett | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

STOCKHOLM, Feb 27 (Reuters) - European Union energy ministers meet on Monday to debate upcoming power market reforms. Currently, power prices in Europe are set by the running cost of the plant that supplies the final chunk of power needed to meet overall demand. Often, that is a gas plant, so gas price spikes can send electricity prices soaring. They say Europe's existing power market is functioning well, and has fostered years of lower power prices, supported renewable energy and helped avoid energy shortages. The Commission initially pitched the reform as a chance to "decouple" gas and power prices in Europe, suggesting a redesign of the current system of setting power prices.

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