By h.b. - Mar 2, 2011 - 4:21 PM
The Majestic Club has presented a denuncia against Vicente Igual
Vicente Igual - EFE
Pilar Monreal, a Madame who runs an ‘alternative’ club, famous in Valencia, the Majestic, has presented a denuncia against the Valencia City Hall Councillor for Activities and Modernisation, Vicente Igual.
She alleges that he went to her club and demanded 100,000 € to obtain an activities licence, doing to through two intermediaries, José Luis Bayo, ex President of the Partido Popular youth wing, Nuevas Generaciones, and Carlos Andrés, the Deputy Secretary of the Valencia Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, who described himself as Sr. Igual’s assessor.
The club’s owner is claiming the regional councillor demanded initially 42,000 € and a Rolex gold watch, but then the demand was lifted to 100,000 €.
The Madame presented a recording, made in 2008 between her daughter Noemi and Bayo, which indicates negotiations on how the payment should be made.
David Serra, Deputy Secretary of the PP in the region, who is also implicated in the Gürtel case, is meanwhile also taking action against the club owners claiming extortion. One of his conversations with the owners has been placed on YouTube in which he admits that he had visited the club’s lawyers in 2008.
Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_29445.shtml#ixzz1FWnjn7z9
Paramount's Murcia theme park set to cover an area the size of 109 football fields
By m.p. - Mar 2, 2011 - 6:57 PM
The draft design also includes a 10 hectare aquatic park and four hotels
Paramount logo
The draft layout of the new Paramount Studios theme park planned for Alhama de Murcia shows an area equivalent to 109 football fields, with four hotels built around a 36.5 hectare theme park, plus an aquatic park covering almost 10 hectares.
The main park is set to cover an area the size of 37 football fields - similar in size to Disneyland in Paris.
La Verdad newspaper gives the proposed name as ‘Paramount Resort’. The paper indicates that the outline design was drawn up last month and representatives from Paramount were in Murcia this Tuesday to continue working on the design with Proyectos Emblemáticos, the company which is investing in the park and which is 20% owned by the Murcia regional government.
The paper indicates that nothing has been finalised at this stage, and that the final master plan for the project will likely be presented towards the end of this month, when Paramount’s Michael Bartok visits the Region.
Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_29451.shtml#ixzz1FWmkrh3o
Spain sending aid by air to Libya on Thursday
By h.b. - Mar 3, 2011 - 6:23 AM
The plane will then fly between Cairo and Tunisia to help in the evacuation of refugees
Refugees waiting at the Ras El Jedir border crossing - EFE
Spain is sending a plane carrying humanitarian aid to Libya, and then the plane will transfer Egyptian refugees.
Three trips a day between Tunisia and Cairo are planned, making the Spanish Government the first to announce an operation for the evacuation of refugees.
The first plane will leave from the Torrejón de Ardoz airbase near Madrid at noon on Thursday. It will be carrying 30 tons of humanitarian aid. A later flight will take aid to Bengasi, where three tons of medical aid for the chronically ill and powdered milk for children have been requested.
Several organisations have warned of a catastrophe at the border because of the accumulation of refugees fleeing the violence in the country.
It comes as the United Nations is to spend five million dollars on helping the refugees who are fleeing Libya. Most of the money goes to increasing humanitarian operations on the border between Libya and Tunisia.
Spanish Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jiménez, said that the Spanish Government had heard the ‘clamour’ on the social networks on the need for aid.
Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_29452.shtml#ixzz1FWnFEHHm
Spain Business Brief - Wednesday March 2 2011
By h.b. - Mar 2, 2011 - 2:24 PM
Unemployment up and more consolidation of Savings Banks
Photo EFE
There is a new all-time record number of people out of work in Spain at just under 4.3 million.
February saw 68,260 people join the dole queues and register at the old INEM offices to take the number to 4,299,263.
Unemployment rose in both sexes, but more so among women, up 38,887, and increased also in all regions of the country.
Of the new contracts signed in February, a million of them, only 9% were indefinite.
Half of those unemployed who applied for the 426 € extra Government help did find employment according to the figures.
The Ministry for Employment is trying to put a brave face on the numbers, and has highlighted that the yearly increase of 4% in unemployment is the lowest since 2007, and the increase in February is smaller than in other years.
Meanwhile it has been revealed that the Social Security system lost 237,888 affiliates over the past 12 months. February alone saw a reduction of 14,744 to take the number of contributors to the system down to 17,347,094, according to the Ministry for Employment and Immigration.
The Oaktree Capital Fund is reported to be doing due diligence on the Nueva Rumasa group of companies. The work is reported to be carried out via its partner OCM Luxembourg ERF and is expected to take seven days.
Oaktree represents investors who are specialised in investing in companies in difficulties, but they are underlining that so-far no investment commitment has been made.
Meanwhile the prosecutors’ office has asked for the investigation into the IOU’s from Nueva Rumasa to be extended. The legal place of a year which the Anticorruption prosecutor has ends on March 8.
A new bank, lead by Caja Madrid and Bancaja is to be called Bankia. The bank’s logo is in lime green, as was Caja Madrid’s and the new bank integrates the following savings banks – Caja Madrid, Bancaja, Caixa Laietana, Caja de Canarias, Ávila, Segovia and Rioja. The news and name was announced by Rodrigo Rato during the presentation of the company at the Valencia Palau de les Arts.
Caja Duero and Caja España are negotiating to join with the already merged Caja Murcia, Caja Granada, Caixa Penedés and Sa Nostra from the Baleares. That group now has the name BMN and the interest from Duero and España indicates that the demands from the Government on liquidity are provoking a second round of mergers.
Meanwhile CatalunyaCaixa is looking for between 1.5 and 1.7 billion € to lift their core capital. The savings bank has announced profits for 2010 at 109.1 million €, down 1.1% on 2009.
Santander is now offering 11.8% less than the original investment to those who put money in their Banif Inmobiliario Fund which went bust two years ago. Some 43,200 clients invested a total 2.5 billion in the fund, and now have access to 88.2% of their money.
Latest numbers from the Bank of Spain have shown that family debt fell in January, while that of companies increased. The number of family loans was down by 0.78% compared a year previously, while company loans were up by 0.6%.
At the end of January families resident in Spain had accumulated debt of 895.423 billion €, down from 902.421 billion a year ago and down from 898,806 billion in December.
Company debt at the end of January was 1,310 billion €, 0.6% up on the same month in 2010, although down slightly 0.23% on the 1,313 billion owed in December 2010.
Carrefour is reported to be splitting off its DIA low cost supermarkets to allow it to trade on the Madrid Stock Market. The board decided on Tuesday to put the proposal to shareholders and workers. Plans include to allow Carrefour Property to trade on the Paris Stock Market.
The competition authorities in Spain have fined Correos for giving discounts to their large clients. There now opens a six month period for appeals.
And finally,
Air Nostrum has denied that it has shortened the skirts of its stewardesses. The company manual fixes the skirt length at ‘below the knee bone’, and insists the ban on trousers is to do with the job and is not sexist.
Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_29442.shtml#ixzz1FWo64xea
Shakira brings her European tour to Spain
By m.p. - Mar 1, 2011 - 6:57 PM
Four dates have been announced, kicking off in Valencia on May 30
Shakira - EFE
Shakira is to play concert dates in Spain as part of her European tour, the Live Nation España site has announced.
The dates are given as May 30 in Valencia, June 1 in Almería, on the 3rd of the month in Madrid, and the last date, in Bilbao on June 4.
She played three concerts in Spain last November as part of her ‘Sale el Sol’ European tour.
The new dates have yet to be confirmed on the singer’s official website, but it’s understood that tickets for Shakira’s four concerts in Spain will be on sale on Live Nation from March
Read more: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_29430.shtml#ixzz1FWq2Ubd1
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