Spain

Banco Popular Español SA will launch a €2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) share sale in an effort to ease investor concerns about its massive pile of soured property loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. Banco Popular, one of Spain’s weakest major lenders, said Thursday it will issue around 2 billion shares at €1.25 each to boost provisions for losses on real-estate loans and assets. The bank’s stock closed at €2.36 on Wednesday. The sale will be a rights issue, with shares offered to existing shareholders at a discount, a common practice in Europe.

Spain’s acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy is planning to implement new austerity measures if he remains in government after a June election, in a bid to avoid a European Commission sanction for failing to control the public deficit, the Irish Times reported. Earlier this month, Mr Rajoy wrote to EC president Jean-Claude Juncker, requesting leeway on the deficit issue in return for introducing new cuts later in 2016. El País newspaper published the letter on Monday. “In the second half of the year, once there is a new government, we are prepared to adopt new measures,” it said.

The European Commission has put off a contentious decision on imposing financial sanctions on Spain and Portugal for failing to bring their budget deficits within European Union rules, saying it would revisit the issue in July, after Spain had held a general election, The Wall Street Journal reported. The commission, the EU’s executive arm, said Wednesday the two Iberian countries should take more measures to reduce their budget deficits in 2016 and 2017, and gave them an extra year to get their deficits within 3% of gross domestic product, the bloc’s ceiling.

Spain’s unemployment rate rose slightly in the first quarter, to 21 per cent, but job losses were less severe than usual in what is traditionally a weak period for the labour market, the Financial Times reported. The number of out-of-work Spaniards rose by 11,900 in the first three months of the year, to 4.79m. The total number of employed workers fell by 64,400 to 18.03m, still more than 2m below the jobs levels achieved before Spain’s protracted recession.

Spain will overshoot its deficit target again this year, the caretaker government said Tuesday, as the country struggles to adhere to budget agreements reached with European Union authorities, The Wall Street Journal reported. Spain is projected to report a 2016 budget deficit of 3.6% of gross domestic product, caretaker Finance Minister Luis de Guindos told lawmakers on Tuesday in Madrid. The European Union’s executive arm had set a target for this year of below 3%. In 2017, Spain is expected to have a budget gap of 2.9%, Mr. De Guindos said.

The Spanish lender CaixaBank is set to proceed with a takeover offer for BPI, a Portuguese bank, after reaching an 11th-hour agreement with an Angolan investor who had blocked its bid, the International New York Times reported. BPI announced late on Sunday that a deal had been reached between its two main shareholders, CaixaBank and Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of Angola’s longstanding president, after a yearlong dispute.

A disgraced former Spanish banker, Mario Conde, was arrested on Monday as part of an investigation into whether he fraudulently repatriated the equivalent of nearly $15 million in money he had hidden offshore while presiding over the collapse of one of Spain’s largest banks, Banesto, more than two decades ago, the International New York Times reported. Mr. Conde was arrested along with six other people, including two of his children and a son-in-law. The arrest was ordered by a judge from Spain’s national court who is inquiring whether Mr.

Banco Santander plans to close 450 branches in its Spanish home market in an attempt to bolster profitability and address the rapid shift towards internet and digital banking, the Irish Times reported. The euro zone’s largest bank by market value operates 3,467 branches in Spain, meaning it will cull about 13 per cent of its network. The closures will predominantly affect smaller outlets staffed by three or fewer employees. It remains unclear how many job losses will be involved in the overhaul, but Spanish media reports have suggested up to 1,000 workers could lose their jobs.

Spain has veered sharply off course in its long-running effort to reduce the budget deficit, unveiling a 5.2 per cent shortfall in 2015 that is likely to raise alarm inside the European Commission and impose significant political constraints on the next Spanish government, the Financial Times reported. Cristóbal Montoro, the budget minister, said the funding gap stood at €55.8bn last year — significantly worse than predicted by either the Spanish government or the Commission.

Abengoa SA has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. as the Spanish energy company continues talks with its banks and bondholders to agree on its plan to restructure billions of dollars in debt, The Wall Street Journal reported. The renewable energy company, which operates around the world, on Monday night filed for chapter 15 protection, the section of the U.S. bankruptcy code dealing with cross-border insolvencies, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The bankruptcy filing comes after Abengoa struck a deal with key creditors that gives it more time—through Oct.