We love Spain

Oh yes we do and not just because of beauties like this lady.

You see Spain has so much going for it, a great place to go on holiday, beautiful weather and landscapes, nice people and thanks to Euro membership and economy even more shot to pieces than the UK economy.

In addition to all that, the Spanish Airline Iberia is just about to merge with our own, dear British Airways. You know the one, where all the staff strike at being paid double the industry standards; where the pension deficit is far bigger than the value of the company; the one that loses a million pounds a day and has done so for 2 years straight. Brilliant, thanks Iberia for being willing to share the load with us.



You may remember these posts too, when another kindly Spanish company Ferrovial enriched UK shareholders by buying BAA in huge top of the market leveraged finance deal. Now it has all gone sour for the Spanish owners with BAA splilt up and the debt overhang too heavy to want to even think about.


So for the hat-trick lets all hope that strong Spanish bank Santander can come along and take RBS off the UK taxpayers hands; what a coup that would be for the UK.


Vamos a ver?

Ferro vile mess

What a mess BAA is these days. This was a Government owned company once upon a time, privatised and sold to the Spanish at the height of the boom. The clever Spanish construction conglomerate, Ferrovial, borrowed fortunes (up to £10 billion) to take-out our national asset.

Now they are left with a declining asset, debts they can't pay, a Government who have promptly ordered the break-up of the company and general misery.

My heart bleeds for them. Careful what you wish for when buying trophy foreign national assets. The one downside for the UK is that our London Airports can be denuded investment, but we have a regulator to at least make sure something gets spent, let's hope it remains up to the task.

Not long now until Ferrovial gives up and the airports are back in British Private Equity hands I should imagine...