Markets: Madrid Loses Over 5% Due To Argentina Effect
(AGI) - Madrid, 23 Oct. - After yesterday's "earthquake", the Madrid stock exchange continues to decline: it is currently down 4.03%. And in the meantime, the controversy the day after the Argentine government's announcement of the nationalisation of pension funds that manage business worth 30 billion dollars, belonging to 9.5 million workers and worth a monthly income of 300 million dollars shows no sign of placation. The news literally caused the bottom to drop out of South American markets (the Buenos Aires lost over 10%) with the inevitable repercussions on the stock market in Madrid. In any case a calm signal is being launched towards the markets: the Argentine central bank reported today that the government will be able to cover bond payouts in 2009. In the meantime, contact between Madrid's government and Argentine authorities is becoming more frequent: according to executive branch sources in Madrid, "work is progressing with a common sense of availability for an agreement with companies". The objective is to give them "trust, tranquillity and guarantees". What worries investors is the fact that, with the nationalisation of pension funds, the Argentine state has become a minor shareholder with 14 quoted companies, most of these Spanish, as for example Gas Natural Ban, Metrogas, YPF and Telefonica. The Minister of Planning, Julio de Vido, called for a meeting yesterday with YPF and Telefonica, in order to banish ideas of general nationalisation of the economy. That which permitted the Beunos Aires stock exchange to close at 10.11% , despite the fact it had been losing over 17%.
[url]http://www.agi.it/business/news/200810231539-eco-ren0048-art.html[/url]
Aerolineas Being Nationalized
Argentina kicking out Aerolineas owners-Marsans.
10.23.08, 9:29 AM ET.
MADRID, Oct. 23 (Reuters) - The Argentinian government is kicking the Spanish owners of Aerolineas Argentinas out of the company, one of the men controlling majority stakeholder Marsans said on Thursday.
'They are kicking us out and we will see if this concludes in the best possible way, which is my hope,' Gerardo Diaz Ferran, one of the two men who control unlisted travel firm Marsans told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
Earlier a newspaper in Argentina said the government had decided to seize Aerolineas Argentinas because talks with the owners over a price had broken down.
The Argentine government and Marsans agreed on Oct. 14 to extand talks for one more month to set a price for the state takeover of the country's biggest airline after Marsans agreed to sell its 95 percent stake in July.
[url]http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/10/23/afx5596272.html[/url]