On Monday the 18th, during the speech where Foment del Treball ratified him for the next four years as president, Josep Sánchez Llibre again placed “the return of companies” as a priority duty. It is the same one he committed himself to almost four years ago, when he took the baton for the first time at the head of this Catalan business organization.
And since the 2017 referendum, which was declared unconstitutional, little has changed in this matter. In 2017, 2,536 companies staged a mass exodus, only offset by the arrival of 548. Result? 1,988 less, according to data from commercial records. It was a massive move facilitated by an express decree of the PP Government that put all the facilities to this exit operation, by enabling the change without going through the shareholders’ meeting even though the company’s bylaws established it .
“We will continue to work in this direction. We know it’s not easy, but it’s not impossible either. For this reason, we will also support the dialogue table recently promoted by the State and Generalitat governments to achieve political and economic stability in order to successfully face the current crisis situation. Answers and security must be given to companies”, said Sánchez Llibre.
At the same event, the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, added to the call. “We will work together and one of the goals is for Catalan companies to return home,” he said. This eye poke coming from one of the great lobbies in Madrid has been valued by some companies that then decided to change their corporate headquarters.
From the Cercle d’Economia, its new president, Jaume Guardiola, says that the organization will “put all the meat on the grill” to rebuild bridges and bring back the headquarters of the companies. That is why it is necessary to consolidate a legal certainty that Foment itself considers stronger than five years ago. In fact, Sánchez Llibre has not asked again, as he did at the 2019 Circle Meeting, for the Government to undertake in writing not to undertake new unilateral separatist adventures.
The Minister of Economy, Jaume Giró, who at that stage was director general of the La Caixa Foundation, has recalled on some occasion that the same decree that the boards of directors of the companies used to move their registered office is still in effect vigor and that they could “take advantage of it and return without going through the shareholders’ meetings”. In any case, the companies “left freely, without objective reasons and it is not planned that the Generalitat will give incentives for them to return, just as there was no incentive for them to leave”. The Government has always interpreted that behind the movement of some companies, many linked to La Caixa, there were political motivations.
The unions, for their part, believe there are reasons for the return, reports Gariel Ubieto. The general secretary of UGT in Catalonia, Camil Ros, considers that “the theoretical risk” for which they marched “no longer exists”. Javier Pacheco, leader of CCOO in Catalonia, believes that it is time to weave a space of consensus between the Government, the parties, the unions, the employers, the cameras, “to show that the country is attractive for the return of companies and new investments”. It is a question, he adds, that should be included in the dialogue table between the regional and central Executives and correct this “economic anomaly that today has no meaning”.
In a similar vein, the representative of one of these large companies states that the return of dialogue between the Government, at least the part represented by ERC, and the Central Government should be accompanied by some gesture from the Central Executive . “A statement from the President of the Government is missing, it would make it easier for some of these companies to at least consider the return option”, they say.
In the current situation, the most common response from the companies consulted is: “It is not a planned issue”. Neither do the banks, such as Sabadell, which opted for Alicante, or CaixaBank, which opted for Valencia. In addition, CaixaBank’s main shareholder, the La Caixa foundation, which has the State as its second shareholder, has been based in Palma de Mallorca for five years and has not, so far, made any move that would suggest in an imminent return, although the operation continues in the Catalan capital, as happens with most “escapes”. In any case, “there is no indication that invites us to raise the question. There has not been any clear element that changes with respect to what at the time caused the transfer of the headquarters”, explains the spokesperson of one of the large companies that moved.
Some of the companies consulted admit that in 2017 there was a certain “wave effect” from which it was difficult to get out. In some cases there were political reasons, they admit, but in the case of the SMEs it was “a matter of competitiveness” (less taxes, etc.), emphasizes the president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete. And give an example: in the last 10 years, the number of companies in Lleida has grown by 3%, while in Aragon it has grown by 10%. According to Cañete “the doors must be open, but without advantages”. According to his opinion, if they decided to move at the time, if they return, it must be without privileges that would discriminate against those who stayed. And there are examples. In the current configuration of the Ibex there are only two companies that retained their headquarters: Fluidra, which in those days was not part of the index; and Griffons. Outside the stock market, signatures such as Freixenet or Puig did it, nothing related to the process.
From the Foment environment, they consider that it would be necessary to guarantee that the country stabilizes completely and that it recovers the lost momentum. Incentives are needed because, in the short term, habits have not changed much, since their operations are still in Catalonia, just like the factories, and they have opted for places to which they already traveled a lot, such as Madrid . In reality, what happens is that in the short term there are not very noticeable effects, but in the medium and long term, a process of concentration in Madrid, which had already started before, is accelerated, they warn.