Spain

The number of registered unemployed workers in Spain has seen the biggest drop for at least a decade while joblessness in Ireland has hit its lowest level since 2008, when the country was about to enter a prolonged financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. The Spanish figures provide a boost to the economic record of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he tries to form a government following an inconclusive general election.

Spain's multinational Abengoa SA said on Wednesday it is seeking buyers to revive transmission-line and other construction projects in Brazil that the company had suspended after filing for creditor protection in Spanish courts, Reuters reported yesterday. The company, which owns energy, telecommunications, transportation and environment businesses, is looking for "a market solution" for projects it has been contracted to build and operate in Brazil. Abengoa is trying to reach an agreement with creditors before a March 28 legal deadline to avoid becoming the country's biggest-ever bankruptcy.

Abengoa, the Spanish company trying to avert becoming the country's biggest-ever bankruptcy, said today it hoped to reach agreement with creditors before a legal deadline of March 28, Reuters reported. Abengoa said it currently had 39.5 percent of the share capital of its Abengoa Yield unit tied up as financial backing on loans. Read more.

Lax lending and deadbeat borrowers nearly brought down the Spanish banking system a few years ago, the New York Times reported on Saturday. That’s why the remnants of some of the failed banks are resorting to a time-honored form of loans with can’t-miss collateral: pawnshops. Spain’s commercial banks, like Banco Santander and BBVA, have either bounced back from the crisis or they largely sidestepped it, buffered by their international operations. But the cajas that went bust trying to compete with the commercial banks have fared less well.

Spanish thermal solar power and engineering firm Abengoa signed an agreement with its creditor banks on Thursday for a 106-million-euro ($116.1 million) credit line to help avert what would be Spain's biggest-ever bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The loan will be used for general corporate necessities, Abengoa said in a statement to the stock market regulator. It is using some shares held in the affiliate Abengoa Yield as collateral, it said. The banks also agreed to free up a further 7 million euros related to a previous loan, backed by the Abengoa Yield shares.

Creditor banks of Spanish energy and engineering firm Abengoa have agreed to inject 113 million euros ($123 million) into the debt-laden company, Reuters reported today. The lenders will receive shares in Abengoa Yield worth more than double of the loan as a guarantee, the sources also said, adding that Spain's official credit institute would also participate in the loan with 8.7 million euros. Read more.

Creditor banks in Abengoa are piling up pressure on the Spanish energy and engineering firm to find alternative emergency financing and avoid becoming Spain's largest-ever bankruptcy, sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a meeting held on Monday between Abengoa and the lenders to agree on emergency financing did not reach any conclusion and that the banks would now discuss with investment funds a potential cash injection in the company.

Spanish engineering group Abengoa and creditor banks agreed on Thursday to put on hold an option of selling shares in its Abengoa Yield business as a means of raising money, two banking sources briefed on the talks said, Reuters reported. Abengoa, trying to avoid becoming Spain's biggest-ever bankruptcy, is negotiating a multi-million-euro lifeline with creditor banks which have asked the company to guarantee it with assets.

Spain's Abengoa needs 450 million euros ($496 million) in liquidity, adviser KPMG said in a meeting with creditor banks late on Wednesday although banks said the company needs less, a source present at the talks told Reuters. Abengoa, trying to avoid becoming Spain's biggest-ever bankruptcy, is negotiating a multimillion-euro lifeline with creditor banks which have asked the company to guarantee it with new assets.

In a related story, Bloomberg News reported that Abengoa SA’s filing for preliminary creditor protection constitutes a bankruptcy credit event that will trigger payouts on some derivatives insuring its debt, according to the International Swaps & Derivatives Association. ISDA’s determinations committee, a group of 15 dealers and money managers that govern the market, said that credit-default swaps on updated 2003 contracts will be triggered, according to a statement on its website. Contracts using 2014 terms won’t pay out.