2023-11-09 21:30:33
The big banks, which left Catalonia after the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017, have no intention of returning their central and fiscal headquarters to Barcelona. Neither CaixaBank – and therefore Criteria – nor Banco Sabadell will make any move in this regard. This has been confirmed by sources from both entities to LA RAZÓN following the agreement signed between PSOE and Junts for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, which plans to address a plan to return to Catalonia the headquarters of companies that moved to other territories in the last years after the independence proclamation.
“The agreement signed between the two parties does not change anything that we have been saying since the change of headquarters. We have no intention of changing headquarters, this option is not on the table,” explained sources from Banco Sabadell, who claim to feel ” very comfortable” in Alicante.
From CaixaBank they have been less categorical and have limited themselves to a cautious “no comments”, although since they carried out the change of headquarters from Barcelona to Valencia they have always defended that the transfer was a “permanent” decision and that it was not was going to produce no turning back.
Sources from other large companies of Catalan origin with a presence on the Ibex-35 have also not wanted to take a position until they know the definitive scope of the agreement, although the majority have always defended that their situation outside Catalonia was irreversible. This has also been expressed by other business sources, who have confirmed that, “right now”, they are not considering a hypothetical change because “nothing has changed in recent times” and the “climate that can be generated is not conducive to it.”
Almost 4,000 companies decided to move their headquarters outside of Catalonia as a result of the political and institutional crisis that broke out in Catalonia in October 2017. Naturgy, Abertis, Cellnex, MRW, Colonial, Torraspapel, SegurCaixa, Applus+, Banca Mediolanum, Catalana Occidente , eDreams, the Arquia Banca cooperative and Cementos Molins were the first to leave, but not the only ones, since historic Catalan family companies moved their registered offices to other communities, including Codorniu, Idilia Foods, Hotusa, Indukern or Planeta. Also, large foreign corporations established in Catalonia decided to make the leap outside of that autonomous community, and the majority moved to Madrid, the great beneficiary of the diaspora, among them Zurich, Allianz or Bimbo.
Only Colonial has admitted that it will study the proposed plan. This was stated by the president of the real estate company, Juan José Brugera, who in the presentation of results commented that “we will wait for the plan to come out, we will study it and make decisions accordingly”, after acknowledging that “it is still early” for know the scope of the agreement.
On the opposite side, the employers’ association Foment del Treball has assessed favorably in a statement “any agreement that promotes facilitating the return of companies to Catalonia.” The employers’ association recalled that its president, Josep Sánchez Llibre, has insisted on many occasions “on the need for the return of these companies because Catalonia is where they should be.” In a statement, the employers’ association added that “the necessary condition for the return of companies” to Catalonia is the sum of stability and legal security. Sánchez Llibre ran for re-election as president of Foment with the intention of promoting the return of headquarters to Catalonia and recently called on the next Government to guarantee the stability necessary for companies that moved their headquarters in 2017 to return to Catalonia.
For its part, the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE) has convened an extraordinary and urgent Executive Committee for next Monday, given what it describes as “serious concern in the business world” following the agreement between PSOE and Junts. In this emergency meeting, the business association has announced that it will address “the situation in Spain”, following the aforementioned political agreement to facilitate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government.
#dont #table