MADRID | Telefónica Ventures and Caixa Capital TIC, a specialised digital technology fund of La Caixa, announced Tuesday its first investment. The joint platform will inject €3 million in addFleet, a company specialised in intelligent systems for transportation. The investment in addFleet is the first by Telefónica Ventures in Spain after having completed similar operations in other international technology companies such as [...]
Gallup: Sales, Certainty Key to U.S. Small Business Capital Spending
Asked about what would make them more likely to make capital investments in the next 12 months, 70 percent of U.S. small-business owners point out to three circumstances: a better sales outlook, more certainty about their operating environment, and lower federal taxes. According to the Wells Fargo-Gallup Small Business Index released by Gallup, that has [...]
Olympics cash wave too low to surf
LONDON | While the Earth begins to follow the 2012 Olympics’ throb, as the Welsh authorities put it Tuesday morning, research to determine whose massive opportunity it is has kick-started. But the scope of the latest studies seems more restricted: instead of holding expectations of a general recovery for the UK’s economy, think of particular sectors [...]
Inditex to invest €290 million in Spain
MADRID | The Inditex Group reported Wednesday net sales in the first quarter of 2012 February to April of €3.4 billion, 15% higher year-on-year (14% in local currencies). Net income amounted to €432 million, 30% more than in the first quarter of 2011. The Spanish company said it had opened 91 new stores during the quarter, bringing the [...]
IN DEPTH | Africans thriving for business, not development aid
make your ex gf come back NEW YORK | She has traveled from South Africa to New York, almost 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers), to do some useful networking. Melanie Medell, who runs her own textile company in Cape Town, is one of the 47 African women from 37 countries participating in the third annual Africa [...]
The euro contagion reaches Asia
LONDON | While the European Central Bank and the Spanish government argued on Wednesday about the best mechanism to salvage Bankia, Caroline Keen, a member of the team managing the Newton Asian income fund at investment house BNY Mellon, said euro crisis contagion was rapidly developing elsewhere, too. Keen warned that economic headwinds from the [...]
The European Investment Bank could be the answer to austerity exhaustation
LONDON | Were the tide changing within the shaken frontiers of the European Monetary Union, austerity-driven core euro nations could do worse than open the European Investment Bank’s window to let some fresh capital aid in. Barclays analysts said Friday in a note to investors that using the EIB to complement budget constrictions would be [...]
Iberdrola to upgrade UK electricity grid by more than 2,000 MW
Through its subsidiary ScottishPower and National Grid, Iberdrola on Thursday announced the award of a £1bn contract to Siemens and cable manufacturer Prysmian, in order to build the first ever sub-sea electricity link between Scotland and England, Wales. The major grid upgrade will increase the capacity of electricity flowing between England and Scotland by more than [...]
Invest if you want to overcome the crisis, mobile operators tell the EU
By matching US levels of ICT investment, European states could add up to €760 billion to their collective GDP by 2020, which represents a five per cent increase over forecasts, mobile operators’ association GSMA says. “The mobile industry is one of the most capital-intensive industries, with capital expenditures representing 12 per cent of sales on average [...]
