Spain's ACS snaps up stake in German builder

Spain's ACS snaps up stake in German builder
Spain's biggest Public Works group ACS said on Tuesday it has succeeded in snapping up more than 30 percent of shares in German rival Hochtief, a key step towards taking overall control. ACS, led by Real Madrid football club chairman Florentino Perez, said it has acquired 30.34 percent of the German group, which had battled furiously against the Spanish bid. Under German law, ACS is now allowed to buy its prey's shares on the open market, opening the way for it to take a majority stake and bec...

Spain's ACS takes 30 percent share Hochtief
MADRID (AP) - Spanish construction company ACS says it has increased its share of Germany's largest builder, Hochtief AG.s, to 30 percent, a key step in its takeover bid. In a note to the Spanish Stock Market regulator Tuesday, ACS said that under its takeover bid it has added 2.1 million shares to the 20.9 million it already controlled, giving the Spanish company control of 30.34 percent. ACS says other shareholders still had between Jan. 5 and Jan. 18 to accept its latest offer of nine ACS s...

Kaka feared career was finished
Real Madrid's Brazilian midfielder Kaka has revealed he thought he would never play again after undergoing Knee Surgery last summer. The 28-year-old came on in Real's 3-2 league win over Getafe on Monday, his first appearance since Brazil's World Cup defeat by the Netherlands in July. "At times, I was afraid when I thought about when I was going to come back or if I would," he told the club website. Kaka, the winner of the 2007 Ballon d'Or, joined Madrid from AC Milan in June 2009 fo...

Spain's ACS takes 30 percent share Hochtief
Spanish construction company ACS says it has increased its share of Germany's largest builder, Hochtief AG.s, to 30 percent, a key step in its takeover bid. In a note to the Spanish Stock Market regulator Tuesday, ACS said that under its takeover bid it has added 2.1 million shares to the 20.9 million it already controlled, giving the Spanish company control of 30.34 percent. ACS says other shareholders still had between Jan. 5 and Jan. 18 to accept its latest offer of nine ACS shares for every ...

Spain enacts tough anti-smoking law
MADRID - Tapas bars — the noisy and bustling Spanish success story that combined delicious morsels with good wine and often a cloud of Cigarette smoke — are now smoke-free. So are restaurants, discos, casinos, airports and even some outdoor spaces. Spain on Sunday introduced an anti-smoking law that is likely to turn the EU's fourth largest tobacco producer from a cigarette-friendly land abounding with smoky bars and restaurants, into one of Europe's most stringently smokeless....

Spanish court open probe into killings in Iraq
Source: WP/AP Madrid -- A Spanish judge has opened a Probe into a melee in which Iraqi security forces are accused of killing 11 members of an Iranian exile group in a camp in Iraq in 2009, according to a court order obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Judge Fernando Andreu, saying he is investigating possible Crimes Against Humanity, called on Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdol Hossein al Shemmari to appear March 8 before the National Court in Madrid to answer questions about the incident. The writ sai...

Spanish court open probe into killings in Iraq
Madrid — A Spanish judge has opened a Probe into a melee in which Iraqi security forces are accused of killing 11 members of an Iranian exile group in a camp in Iraq in 2009, according to a court order obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. Judge Fernando Andreu, saying he is investigating possible Crimes Against Humanity, called on Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdol Hossein al Shemmari to appear March 8 before the National Court in Madrid to answer questions about the incident. The writ said Shemma...

China will continue to buy Spanish debt: Vice Premier
Madrid | Mon Jan 3, 2011 3:58am EST Madrid (Reuters) - Chinese officials have faith in Spain's Financial System and will continue to take part in government Debt auctions, China's Vice Premier Li Keqiang wrote in an editorial in El Pais on Monday. "China is a responsible, long-term investor in the European Financial Market and particularly in Spain, and we have confidence in the Spanish financial market, which has meant the acquisition of its public debt, something which we will continue to d...

Spain makes forced prostitution arrests
MADRID, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Spanish authorities say they arrested eight suspects who allegedly forced Romanian women into Prostitution after luring them to Spain with promises of jobs. The Spanish civil guard said the criminal network brought the women to the Alicante region where their documents were confiscated and they were compelled to work as Prostitutes, HotNews.ro reported Tuesday. Spanish investigators said five Romanians, two Albanians and a Moroccan were arrested. The two Albanians ran the...

Spain: Church holds Mass supporting family values
MADRID - Tens of thousands of people have celebrated a Mass honoring the family as a building block of Christianity in downtown Madrid. The outdoor service under bright blue skies in Colon square was conducted by Archbishop Antonio Rouco Varela on Sunday with the backing of the conservative opposition Popular Party. The Roman Catholic Church has in recent years baulked at Spain's rapid transition from a once-staunchly Catholic nation to one of Europe's most liberal. The Vatican has sternly...

Markets Explode Higher*: Here's What You Need To Know (GLD, SPY, UUP, GM, FXI)
Email Sent! You have successfully emailed the post. Seriously, we're going to chalk this one up as a huge win for the bulls. For real. It was a very quiet evening overseas. China rallied big in its first trading day of the year. Same, too, with Japan, both of which were playing catch up to the US yesterday. In the Europe it was quiet too, but we want to draw your attention to more signs of recovery in this market... UK PMI was strong. And in Spain we saw a surprise drop in Unemployment and bett...

Hostile Takeover: Spain's ACS Secures Crucial Stake in Rival Hochtief
Hochtief's battle to remain independent suffered a setback on Tuesday when Spanish builder ACS said it had crossed a crucial 30 percent stake threshold beyond which its bid to seize control of the German rival becomes easier. Spanish construction company Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA (ACS) took a major step closer to its planned takeover of German rival Hochtief on Tuesday when it announced it had vaulted the 30 percent stake beyond which it is permitted to buy up further shares i...

Spanish court open probe into killings in Iraq
MADRID - A Spanish judge has opened a Probe into a melee in which Iraqi security forces are accused of killing 11 members of an Iranian exile group in a camp in Iraq in 2009. Investigating possible Crimes Against Humanity, Judge Fernando Andreu has called on Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdolhossein Shemmari to appear March 8 before the National Court in Madrid to answer questions about the incident. In a writ obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, Andreu said Spain was probing the issue because the ...

European stocks rise, FTSE starts with a 'bang'
Fireworks over the London Eye on New Year's Day. On the London Stock Exchan... A man reads the newspaper at Madrid's Stock Exchange last May. Spain's Ibex... Europe's leading Stock Markets leapt on Tuesday in a robust start to the new year following a mixed 2010 amid the Eurozone's lingering Debt crisis. London's FTSE 100 soared 2.33 percent to 6,037.53 points early on its first trading day of 2011, after sharp gains for the Frankfurt and Paris Stock Markets on Monday. "The FTSE 100 started th...

Greece to build fence to stop migrants
ATHENS, Greece, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Greece aims to build an 8-mile border fence and boost its Coast Guard to stem illegal Immigration via neighboring Turkey. Greece's Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis, who announced the plan Monday, said it was necessary after more than 100,000 people entered Greece illegally in 2010. "This is the hard reality and we have an obligation to the Greek citizens to deal with it," Papoutsis said in a statement. "Greek society has exceeded its limit in its capacity ...

Spanish court open probe into killings in Iraq
A Spanish judge has opened a Probe into a melee in which Iraqi security forces are accused of killing 11 members of an Iranian exile group in a camp in Iraq in 2009. Investigating possible Crimes Against Humanity, Judge Fernando Andreu has called on Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdolhossein Shemmari to appear March 8 before the National Court in Madrid to answer questions about the incident. In a writ obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, Andreu said Spain was probing the issue because the court viewed as...

Spain to probe Iraq camp deaths
A Spanish judge has opened a Probe into a Raid by Iraqi security forces on a camp housing an Iranian exile group in July 2009 which left 11 people dead. Judge Fernando Andreu is looking into whether Crimes Against Humanity were committed when the Troops took control of Camp Ashraf in Diyala province. He said he had summoned Diyala's Police Chief to Madrid to answer questions. Under Spain's universal justice doctrine, grave Crimes committed in other countries can be prosecuted. Judge An...

Transfusion for Transylvania: it's in Charles's blood
Prince Charles ... "overwhelmed" by the countryside. Photo: Reuters Warsaw: Prince Charles has been praised for breathing new life into a Transylvanian village by attracting tourists to the area. The prince declared himself ''overwhelmed'' by the countryside, which was once ruled by his relations, when he bought two properties in the heart of Transylvania in 2006. He had been visiting the ancient village of Viscri in the foothills of the Carpathians regularly since 1998, attracted by its renowne...

Apple the Sovereign
The Global Macro Monitor blog was started b an independent trader and Economist and, in a prior life, was a global macro Hedge Fund PM/trader, headed Emerging Market bond trading desks on Wall Street, and an economist/global Strategist, beginning his career at the World Bank in the mid 1980’s. His unique and unconventional views are reflected on his website at marcromon.WordPress.com. ~~~ Apple traded at $333 in the pre-market this morning as it continues the march to overtake Exxon as the ...

FORTUNE: 2011: Year of the bank run?
The deposit flight compounds the stress on a Financial System whose massive property-lending losses already have driven the government to accept an unpopular Bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Worse yet, it shows that the solutions policymakers slapped together in the fall of 2008 helped in some cases to create even bigger problems -- ones that are now coming due. Unconditionally guaranteeing bank deposits is just such a policy, in a country where loan loss...

Spain lotto winner nearly loses millions by tossing tickets
A Spanish lottery player nearly lost nine million Euros (12 million dollars) in winnings after tossing tickets in the rubbish only to later discover they were winners, Spanish media said Sunday. Ignacio Gonzalez, a lottery ticket vendor in the country's northern Basque Country, was stunned to discover Friday that the number he had played along with 14 friends -- 48104 -- had come up in a charity draw run by a Spanish organisation for the blind, ONCE. Gonzalez's euphoria quickly turned to despa...

2011: Year of the bank run?
Irish bank deposits declined in November for the fourth straight month, the Central Bank said last week. Overseas deposits fled the country at their fastest pace in more than a year. The deposit flight compounds the stress on a Financial System whose massive property-lending losses already have driven the government to accept an unpopular Bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Worse yet, it shows that the solutions policymakers slapped together in the fall of 2008 h...

Dollar climbs at start of 2011 on hopes for growth
The dollar climbed broadly Monday at the start of a new year on hopes that U.S. Economic Growth will accelerate in 2011. U.S. Stock Markets also rose 1 percent or more after a key U.S. Manufacturing survey said growth rose last month to its fastest pace since May. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group, said its index of Manufacturing activity rose to 57 in December from 56.6 in November. Any reading over 50 indicates growth. New orders, a gauge of future factory activity, also jumpe...

2011: Year of the bank run?
2011: Year of the bank run? Posted by Colin Barr January 3, 2011 6:27 am Is a bank run about to bring Europe to its knees? Some market watchers say yes, pointing ominously to the torrents of money pouring out of Ireland. Not such a good bet Irish bank deposits declined in November for the fourth straight month, the Central Bank said last week. Overseas deposits fled the country at their fastest pace in more than a year. The deposit flight compounds the stress on a Financial System whose ma...

Dollar climbs at start of 2011 on hopes for growth
That suggests that the broader economy grew at an annual rate of about 4 to 4.5 percent, said Capital Economics analyst Paul Ashworth. The U.S. economy grew 2.6 percent in the July-September quarter. In late trading in New York, the Euro dropped to $1.3364 from $1.3367 late Friday. The British pound dropped to $1.5491from $1.5590, while The Dollar rose to 81.65 Japanese Yen from 81.21 yen. Seventeen European nations use the Euro after Estonia on Saturday adopted the common currency. It has dro...