The CEO of Caixabank, Gonzalo Gortázar, assured this Monday that the entry of the Saudi Telecom fund into the capital of Telefónica “should be viewed favorably.” Caixabank, which owns 3.5% of the Spanish telecom company and has been a shareholder for more than a decade, has questioned the way in which the Saudis have made their entry known. “Perhaps the surprising way in which it was communicated was not the best way to enter,” Gortázar acknowledged in relation to the acquisition of 9.9% of the capital of the Spanish telecom company announced at the beginning of September.
Even so, Gortázar prefers to focus on the positive side of international investors choosing a Spanish company as a destination for their investments. He recalled that Spain has legislation to manage this type of situation in strategic companies, such as Telefónica, and has asked for time for both the Government in its area of responsibility and the board of directors of the telecom company to analyze what they are. the best forms of cooperation and define the next steps of this operation.
Gortázar made these statements during his participation in the XIV Financial Meeting of the banking sector organized by KPMG and the newspaper Expansión in a speech in which he also reviewed the macroeconomic situation and the sector.
In this area, the manager of the main financial entity of Catalan origin has recognized a slowdown in the Spanish economy in the third and fourth quarters of 2023, but is confident that 2024 will register a change in trend. “Although growth will be lower for the year as a whole, we expect a change in trend and the economy will begin to rebound,” Gortázar assured.
The director of Caixabank, the only Spanish entity that has launched an express campaign to remunerate deposits, has explained that this is part of the objective of offering its clients a diversified savings offer, although he has warned “that “Deposits are not the best way to make savings profitable”
