Month: September 2022

Nanta creates the chair of Precision Livestock with the University of Zaragoza. Both entities have signed a collaboration agreement to promote training and research in the field of livestock.

These two are the main objectives of the newly created Nanta Precision Livestock Chair , which has been launched by Nanta, a leading company in animal nutrition on the Iberian Peninsula, and the University of Zaragoza.

The purpose of the chair is to create a space for learning and developing research projects generated in cooperation between the university and the company.

In this way, the organization of training activities such as conferences, seminars, student internships and visits to facilities is contemplated, as well as the development of research projects in nutrition and digitization, doctoral theses and final degree projects, as well as the possible hiring staff to address all these actions.

This academic-business collaboration will allow progress in the field of livestock through knowledge and research thanks to the collaboration between both entities. In addition, Nanta reinforces its commitment to innovation, efficiency and quality, as well as its commitment to future growth and development.

The agreement for the creation of the chair was signed on September 23 between the University of Zaragoza, with Gloria Cuenca, vice-rector for Technological Transfer and Innovation, as representative, and the company Nanta, with the presence of its general manager, Pedro Cordero.

The Nanta Precision Livestock Chair will have Delia Lacasta, professor of the Department of Animal Pathology of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Zaragoza, as director, and the participation of José María Bello, head of sheep and goat products at Nanta.

In these times of crisis we get into the trunk of saving techniques and among those that top the lists we find Japanese accounting methods . Although they are old methods and that we may believe are outdated, they gain strength when it comes to tightening the portfolios and they are at zero cost. In this way, the bet is to apply the Kakeibo method , a finance system created in 1094.

The concept of cost control that Kakeibo has is a small accounting and finance book such as the one used by our grandmothers to put the household money in order.

The scene is somewhat outdated, however, the method remains valid as digital applications have taken the model and executed it to make life easier for users looking for any way to make ends meet.

Spanish fear for not saving
In Spain, almost 60% of citizens fear that they will not have enough savings to support themselves once they retire. That is why saving represents a solution for many of us, but at the same time it is an almost impossible goal to achieve with so many expenses and unforeseen expenses to pay each month.

Kakebo has an attractive approach that allows people to manually record all expenses in color coded categories. At the end of each month, the total spend is calculated and analyzed using animated characters. The book also asks questions and provides tips designed to help readers reach their financial goals.

7 steps to save
These are the seven steps you must follow according to Kakeibo; a model of savings accounts with which you will surely achieve results.

1. Order your fixed monthly income and expenses. The first thing you should do is write down the total of your income and subtract the fixed expenses, such as:

– Pay the mortgage or rent

– Car Letter

– Public services (electricity, water, internet, telephone, etc.)

2. Set a savings goal. It is essential that this objective be realistic, a saving that is within your possibilities and that you can really fulfill it.

3. Schedule how you’re going to do it. The worst thing you can do is improvise. To achieve the goal you have set for yourself, it is important that you meditate on how you can achieve your goal. For example, take food to work, go to the movies only one weekend.

4. Organize your expenses by categories. This section suggests that you should define what you are spending your money on through four categories: survival, leisure, culture/education and extras.

5. Track your expenses weekly. This not only allows us to know how much money we spend per week, but also allows us to know the categories in which we spend the most.

6. Analyze the results. If you follow all these steps, each month you will be able to study on which days and weeks you spend the most money and whether or not you achieved your goals.

7. Set higher goals. Once you start to get going with these simple steps, you can gradually increase the income of your monthly goal. In addition, as the months go by you will begin to feel proud of yourself and you will think twice about indulging in whims.

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM), more commonly known as the European rescue fund , has run out of candidates to replace the current managing director, the German Klaus Regling . After several failures during the last meetings of the European finance ministers, the Portuguese Joao Leao and the Luxembourger Pierre Gramegna have withdrawn their candidacies and have left the race deserted, as they jointly communicated yesterday.

The process to replace Regling, who has been in charge of the institution since it was born, is complicated because his mandate expires on October 7 . In the last Eurogroup meetings neither Gramegna nor Leao, both former ministers, had obtained the necessary support. On the one hand, Germany is opposed to a country that has received credits from the MEDE directing the body, as is the case with Portugal. On the other hand, Italy, which initially presented its own candidate, is opposed to Gramegna’s candidacy.

80% support
Any candidate needs 80% support in a vote that is weighted according to the capital that each country has contributed to the ESM. That is why the vote of France or Germany is equivalent to 20% respectively, which gives them veto power. Until now, France would have supported Leao, but Germany supported Gramegna, which has rocked the election and forced the president of the Eurogroup, Pascal Donohoe, to start from scratch.

Until 7 October
According to European sources, both candidates withdrew from the race upon verifying that they did not have sufficient support to reach this 80% and now Donohoe is starting the consultation process again to identify a new candidate who does have a chance of reaching this qualified majority. . The calendar, for now, is maintained with the expectation of finding a replacement for Regling before October 7, although it seems complicated considering that the process for his replacement began in March, with four candidates: the Italian Marco Buti and the Dutch Menno Snel in addition to the two who have retired this week.

The board of governors of the MEDE, formed by the finance ministers who meet in the Eurogroup, is the one who formally makes the decision to appoint its managing director.

Regling was chosen in 2021 to lead the ESM after having led the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), a temporary mechanism for the euro zone, since its creation. Since then, the role of the Mede has been less clear, marked by the stigma of the financial crisis and after the European Union agreed to issue common debt to weather the crisis caused by the pandemic, which left the line of credits that the institution specially enabled for the pandemic and is still available until the end of 2022.

To date, the Mede has activated rescue programs for Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Ireland . In the case of Spain , it was used for the recapitalization of its banking sector in 2012. With all this, it has disbursed more than 260,000 million euros with these programs that grant cheap credit to the countries of the euro zone.

Finally, the extraordinary tax on energy companies that Spain has designed “will be adjusted” to the figure adopted in Europe , which will imply that instead of taxing income, the profits of these companies will be taxed. In this way, the aspect that had generated the most controversy among economists, who claimed that taxing income was economic nonsense, is resolved.

This has been advanced by the Minister of Finance and Public Function, María Jesús Montero, during an interview in statements to Antena 3 in which she highlighted that Spain has been at the forefront in this matter as it is the first country that raised this tribute to energy companies and banking : “Europe has come behind”, he underlined.

The minister has insisted that, when the Commission’s discussion ends, in which Spain is also participating, the Spanish tax will be adjusted to the figure decided in Brussels. The debate in the European capital is quite advanced. Community authorities plan to establish a tax on 33% of profits (which are considered as extraordinary or dropped from the sky).

In the case of the tax that the Government of Spain intended to impose, the rate was going to fall on income (instead of profits), which could generate certain nonsense and inefficiencies that greatly harm companies that saw their income increase without this was reflected in higher profits.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, assured this Wednesday that her “proposal will raise more than 140,000 million eurosthat will allow the Member States to cushion the blow directly. And because we are in the midst of a fossil fuel crisis, the fossil fuel industry also has a special obligation. Big oil, gas and coal companies are also making huge profits. And for that they have to pay a fair share: they have to make a contribution against the crisis.

These are all emergency and temporary measures that we are working on, including the price cap discussion. We need to continue working to reduce gas prices. We have to guarantee security of supply and, at the same time, our competitiveness on a global scale,” the European president said.

The gas VAT reduction will also apply to collective boilers
In the same intervention, Montero has also confirmed that the reduction in VAT on gas from 21% to 5% announced by the Government will also benefit the communities of owners that have collective boilers and will thus be contemplated in the Contingency Plan.

“The Government had identified this situation so that there would be no problems and they could also benefit from the lowering of the bill”, said the minister to specify that the technical mechanism by which this reduction will be applied to the communities of affected owners is being studied.

Although the correlation between oil and fuel prices is far from perfect (margins, taxes, labor costs… prevent a perfect transmission), the truth is that in the end (with some lag) a fall in the price of oil It is usually transferred, at least in part, to the final price of gasoline and diesel. However, in recent weeks an atypical phenomenon has been observed: the fall in oil is being transferred to gasoline, but not to diesel or diesel , which is still close to two euros per liter. What is happening in the market? Why today does a liter of diesel cost up to 20 cents more than gasoline?

The latest data published by the European Commission and specialized pages reveal that diesel is distancing itself from gasoline. In the case of Spain, the liter of diesel appears this Thursday in the area of ​​1.93 euros per liter, while in the case of 95 gasoline it is 1.73 euros per liter, an unprecedented gap in Spain. Gasoline has fallen in price with the fall in oil, while diesel has barely moved, what’s more, in recent weeks its price has rebounded.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has solved some of this mystery in its monthly report on the oil market. The IEA argues that there is no more capacity in the refineries to produce diesel, which has led this market to an almost permanent deficit (more diesel is consumed in the world than is produced).

The information published by the agency is somewhat worrying, since the situation could worsen in the coming months as sanctions on oil and derivatives from Russia are strictly enforced. Without the production of Russian refineries, advanced countries could suffer a real shortage of diesel with the consequent rise in the price of this fuel.

Russia is vital in the fuel market. Moscow is the world’s largest exporter of derived products (it has a large network of refineries). According to the IEA, Russia would export under normal conditions some 2.85 million barrels per day (mb/d) of petroleum products, of which 1.1 mb/d are diesel, 650,000 fuel oil, 500,000 naphtha and 280,000 gasoline. vacuum gas oil (VGO). Gasoline, LPG, jet fuel and petroleum coke account for some 350,000 barrels per day.

More oil will not be synonymous with cheaper diesel
The IEA explained that the market is entering a phase of excess oil supply (a million more barrels per day are being produced than is consumed), which is putting downward pressure on the price of crude oil: a barrel of Brent has fallen by more than $30 in recent months. However, this drop in crude oil is not being transferred in the same way to fuels, especially diesel and kerosene used by planes. While refineries are being able to process all the gasoline that is needed, the same is not happening with diesel.

For this reason, the agency “expects that the derivatives markets, especially diesel, will remain in deficit due to the lack of refining capacity outside of China. The world diesel markets are very tight due to solid demand, together with some lower Chinese export prices, which have drastically reduced their sales abroad.

A barrel of diesel costs $40 more than a barrel of oil.
Today, only China has idle capacity in the refineries that have machinery and infrastructure specially dedicated to the diesel refining process, which is putting this market in a very tense situation that is reflected in the crack spread (difference between the barrel of diesel and oil) of diesel, which has shot up to 40 dollars, while the crack spread of gasoline has gradually returned to normal areas after having soared during part of the summer and spring.

The differential with gasoline is normalized
The raw materials consultant JLC ​​expects Chinese diesel exports in 2022 to be reduced by 74% compared to 2021, to 4.5 million tons, while gasoline exports will fall somewhat less: 40% to 9 million. of tons. These quotas that China has imposed as part of its plan to reduce emissions and preserve the environment are creating a problem for the rest of the world.

In addition, the West has not built refineries for decades , while investment in active plants has been scarce, which generates limits on the production of derivatives. On the other hand, experts assure that it is not easy for these plants to increase diesel production to the detriment of gasoline production (now it is less scarce) because the necessary processes and inputs are different.

The worst may be yet to come
Until now, the EU has largely kept Russian diesel import volumes at around 600,000 barrels per day, but from next February these volumes will need to be replaced by other sources. Europe’s salvation is expected to come from three major refinery projects in Kuwait, Nigeria and Mexico due to come on stream by the end of 2023, which would see diesel output rise.

On the other hand, the IEA believes that “the proposed price cap mechanism should also work to ensure that the overall supply of diesel for the global market is met and that European importers can start buying flows from the US, Middle East and India. Otherwise, and assuming Russia is unable to ship diesel in significant quantities outside the price cap, European, Latin American and African importers could be forced to compete for less diesel.”

In addition, diesel inventories in the US are currently at a critically low level, they say from Reuters, which will not help to solve the shortage of this distillate in advanced countries. Experts say that this shortage in the US will maintain upward pressure on diesel refining prices and margins. Distillate stocks are at their lowest level for this time of year since 1996.

To prevent the diesel shortage from becoming more serious, it is vital that the refineries under construction in Kuwait, Nigeria and Mexico come to fruition. Still, they won’t be running at full capacity until the end of 2023, while the full embargo on Russian crude and derivatives goes into effect later this year. Unless some unexpected event occurs, diesel could continue to be scarce and, therefore, maintain a relatively high price.

The remuneration of the domes of the Ibex 35 has been the star topic in the first season of post-pandemic meetings . Gone are those years when these issues tiptoed through the annual assemblies. Now, it is the issue that shareholders watch the most, and the one that generates the most controversy .

And the data shows that every year the rejection received by the remuneration of the senior positions of the Spanish listed companies is greater. Visit elEconomista Sustainable investment and ESG, the green portal of ‘elEconomista.es’.

In the 2022 meeting season, which ended this summer, average support for remuneration policies rose to 85.7% , according to data compiled by Georgeson for the Esade Center for Corporate Governance. It may seem like a high percentage, but the truth is that it has not stopped decreasing in the last five years (in 2018 it was 91%), according to the same source.

The other major remuneration issue that is voted on every year at these meetings is the Annual Report on Directors’ Remuneration, which in 2022 received an average vote in favor of 85.5% (in 2018, it was 88.5%).

A good handful of large Ibex listed companies received resounding “noes” in the area of ​​remuneration. The most impressive went to Telefónica , with 43% of votes against its Annual Remuneration Report. The Spanish proxy advisor Corporance Asesores de Voto recommended this negative vote, due to the “high level of fixed remuneration […], the high annual contributions to pension plans and the extraordinary bonus paid to executive directors during the year “. Seven Ibex 35 majors receive more than 10% of votes against their remuneration at the meeting .

Double-digit rejections at board
The Sabadell Remuneration Report , for its part, received an opposition of over 38%. The proxies agglutinated in the Proxinvest alliance lamented the existence of what is called the golden parachute , a shield clause that was activated with the departure of the former CEO, Jaime Guardiola, who received 23.9 million euros, 118% of his base salary. Another striking case is that of Iberdrola , which on June 17 reaped a historic rejection of 24.3% of its Annual Remuneration Report (in 2017, the opposition was 3.3%).

Although these votes are, in the vast majority of cases, consultative , the result they produce is usually taken into account by the companies. Juan Prieto, founder of Corporance, explains: “The law establishes that if the rejection exceeds 50%, the company must present a new plan,” he says, adding that “a rejection of 10% is already a warning; and from the 15th % and, above all, 20%, it is considered that the company must either present a new plan, or modify it”. Also read: Who Lobbies Whom at ESG.

In this sense, from Georgeson they warn that investors are very attentive to whether or not the company takes into account their votes against . “Companies that obtained high dissidence in 2021 and have made an effort to respond to the market, executing coherent action plans, with tangible measures and making adequate disclosure , have obtained the support of investors in this 2022 meeting.”

This is the case of Amadeus : in the 2021 meeting, the remuneration of its directors received a “no” of more than 61%, and in the 2022 meeting it managed to carry it outwith a vote in favor of 91% after modifying its policies (it eliminated the right to use discretion with regard to the remuneration of the board, that is, the power to freely decide on increases in remuneration).

Investors are very sensitive to the lack of alignment between the variables that the executive directors perceive and the behavior of the value
In 2022, the greatest scrutiny has focused on aspects that have been observed for years. Among these recurring issues are the penalties for a misalignment in the pay for performance (retribution for performance, or for performance); the lack of clear disclosure of the metrics of the incentives, or payments for termination of contracts , considered, in many cases, excessive.

Investors are also very sensitive to the misalignment between the variables perceived by executive directors and the behavior of stock prices. This is because, on occasions, these bonuses are distributed precisely in periods in which the share price has plummeted , or in which the company has not been able to pay dividends.

Beyond these usual issues, according to Claudia Morante, head of Corporate Governance at Georgeson, in the 2022 season “more novel issues” have also emerged. The first of them, “the lack of inclusion, or assigning a reasonable weight, to ESG metrics (environmental, social and good governance) in the annual and multi-annual incentives”, she explains.

The Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson , will travel to Algeria on October 10 to assess the gas supply situation in Europe after having visited Egypt as well as Azerbaijan.

The visit takes place in the middle of the negotiation process that Naturgy is maintaining on the prices that Spain will have to pay for Algerian gas and after the entry of gas from Algeria to Italy has been reinforced.

Simson’s intention is to press the Algerian government on the possibility of achieving better prices for the purchase of natural gas through the Joint Purchase Platform that the European Commission is setting up.

Meanwhile, the agreement between Sonatrach and Naturgy ended last year and the gas company expects to face a price increase in the coming months that it will have to apply retroactively to Spanish customers.

The Vice President and Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, in her speech before the Council, defended the use of ” European energy diplomacy ” to try to reinforce the purchase of gas but avoided making allusions to the Commissioner’s next trip.

Ribera explained to the European Council that the situation in Spain is centered more on a concern for prices than for resource availability.

“Spain is at 84% capacity and we are working to facilitate a reduction in consumption with a contingency plan in which all energies will be considered,” said Ribera.

Portugal has approved a water reserve to guarantee its electricity supply
The vice president explained that her government has already adopted measures this summer such as regulating temperatures and lighting in empty buildings. Likewise, he reiterated the need to include price limitations and entered fully into the MidCat debate by openly requesting that the infrastructures be reinforced in order to be prepared for the 2023/2024 winter. He asked the High Level Group for interconnections to draw up a map of the necessary interconnections for the year 2023-2024 both in terms of electricity and hydrogen gas.

Ribera also assured, in line with what was indicated by the president of Naturgy, Francisco Reynés at the VII Energy Forum of elEconomista.es, that the reference of the TTF -the Dutch market- is no longer valid and considers it important to articulate alternatives for the fixing of prices.

Spain, indicated the Spanish representative, is working on support measures and facilitating the use of transport vessels from a network to work between Spain and Italy or the El Musel logistics center that will come into operation next winter.

Croatia has approved a package of measures of 2,800 million to cap prices
Throughout the session, the different member countries explained the measures they have been adopting to face winter. Portugal, for example, has approved a water reserve to guarantee electricity supply as well as forcing marketers to have contracted gas reserves.

Denmark has adopted a plan to reduce gas consumption. Croatia has approved a package of measures of 2,800 million by which it sets a price cap for electricity for households, SMEs and large companies with a duration of six months. The Government has made the decision to double the capacity of the LNG terminal and increase its gas pipelines. For forecast will invest 180 million.

Italy has allocated 50,000 million to mitigate price increases
Malta only uses liquefied natural gas to produce electricity. They depend on the interconnection with Italy but it is promoting savings in the consumption of public buildings, as well as energy audits.

Italy has allocated 50,000 million to alleviate price increases. It hopes to have two new regasification plants in 2024 and is now negotiating an energy saving plan with the industry for mid-October. The country has accelerated the installation of renewables with 9.3 GW of requests and they expect to put 8 GW into operation.

Luxembourg urged to eliminate the waste of electricity with activities such as crypto mining and welcomed the supply of gas from Belgium and the Netherlands.

France will also have a floating regasification plant in 2024 in Le Havre. His minister explained that she has accelerated the tests to import electricity from Germany and has a plan that facilitates the disconnection of both gas and electricity installations in cases where it may be necessary.

Germany has approved the largest renewables package in its history but also insists that it has reduced electricity consumption by 21%, which has also led to the loss of industrial production.

Romania has launched a plan of 1,000 million for the renovation of plants. He asks that the construction of the correct vertical Trans-Baltic gas pipeline be accelerated and demanded greater budget support.

Hungary asked Romania to speed up the approval of the interconnection between the two countries.
Finland considers that it may be necessary to limit the supply of electricity. The country trusts in the operation of the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant and a regasification plant. Hungary asked Romania to speed up the approval of the interconnection between the two countries.

Latvia has approved a support package for households to offset heating and a mechanism for energy-intensive businesses. The country has reduced gas consumption by 33%.

The employers of the distribution Aecoc has assured this Tuesday that the value chain of the great consumption has been “a long time” containing the costs in food so as not to affect its increase in the consumers. He points out that Spain is one of the countries where food prices have risen the least with an increase of 7.9% until May.

This is how the Association of Manufacturers and Distributors (Aecoc) has reacted, in an assessment sent to Efe, after the proposal of the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz , that consumers and distributors agree on a “basic shopping basket” with maximum prices established.

“The value chain of mass consumption has been doing a great containment exercise for a long time so as not to pass on to the consumer the large increase in costs that it is suffering in a markedly inflationary context,” said Aecoc, made up of 30,000 partners, including Mercadona. , Coca-Cola or El Corte Inglés.

The employers have urged to apply reductions in the value added tax (VAT) of food and “not to introduce more tax measures that add costs to companies and reduce the competitiveness of the sector.”

He highlighted that Spain is one of the European countries where food prices have increased the least in 2022, specifically 7.9% in the first five months of the year, among other reasons due to the adjustments and the reduction in margins carried out out by sector.

“No European country has been able to avoid a notable rise in the price of food in a scenario of great geopolitical and economic complexity”, assured Aecoc, which explained that the increase in these prices is a direct consequence of the increase in other essential costs such as energy , raw materials and transport, which are produced “despite the efforts of the sector”.

In his opinion, unlike other countries, the low concentration of the sector in Spain and the existing competition between operators and brands gives the consumer a “great capacity for choice, which avoids the risk of speculation and plays in favor of containment of prices”.

Aecoc has specified that Spain is the European country where the five largest supermarkets in the country add a smaller market share (48.6% of the total) , in contrast to the opposite case of the Netherlands, where they accumulate a share of 79, 4 %.

Juan Carlos Fuster, new director of marketing and communication of Lenovo Iberia. He will lead the growth of the brands of the IDG (Intelligent Devices Group) division. The technology giant promotes internal talent, with eight years of experience in the group. Fuster will transmit the corporate values ​​in the development of increasingly intelligent technologies.

Juan Carlos Fuster has been appointed Director of Marketing and Communication of the IDG (Intelligent Devices Group) division for the Iberian region at Lenovo. Since Fuster joined Lenovo almost eight years ago, he has grown with the company, holding different marketing roles, both professional and consumer. Experience that has led him to lead the marketing division in recent months, since he has combined his functions as head of Brand, Events and Communication.

Fuster studied a double bilingual degree in Business Administration and Marketing at the ESIC University. In his new position, he expands his responsibilities to lead the marketing and communication strategy of the company in Iberia, without forgetting the important sponsorships that the brand sustains throughout the year in our country.

Lenovo is the world’s largest personal computer company and one of the leading manufacturers of tablets, mobile phones (including the Motorola brand), smart devices and data centers. Juan Carlos Fuster’s main objective will be to convey Lenovo’s corporate values ​​and the company’s mission to develop increasingly intelligent technologies available to everyone, which have a positive impact on society. With this change, Lenovo seeks greater integration of its communication and marketing actions, as well as synergies between the different audiences, channels and platforms.