Finance and Business Roundup

Power plan NATIONAL GRID and Scottish Power, Iberdrola’s UK subsidiary, will bring renewable power from Scotland to the north of England.

Their Eastern Green Link 1 joint venture has now awarded the first of the contracts worth £1.8 billion (€2.1 billion)  to construct a 190-kilometre undersea electricity superhighway.

The first goes to Milan-based Prysmian Group which will supply 400 kilometres of power cable for the project. GE Vernova from Massachusetts and the Greek company, Mytilineos Energy & Metals, are to provide two HVDC substations, one for each end of the cable linking East Lothian in Scotland and Country Durham

Building the high-voltage power line along the east coast of the country is due to begin in 2025 and once completed will carry enough clean electricity for the equivalent of two million households.

Something of a Triumph JOHN BLOOR, billionaire owner of Triumph Motorcycles, paid himself a huge dividend after sales and profits soared.

Bloor, who made his original fortune in property before coming to the rescue of the iconic Triumph brand, took £13 million (€15 million) in the 12 months ending in June, newly-filed accounts show.  This was up from Bloor’s £12 million (€13.9 million) Triumph dividend for the previous year.

His principal business, Bloor Homes, experienced what was described as “more challenging” year owing high interest rates while Triumph’s pre-tax profits increased by more than £20 million (€23.2 million) to £72.4 million (€84 million).

Merger assists Digi RUMANIA-BASED Digi confirmed a €120 million Spanish mobile deal with Orange and MasMovil

Orange and MasMovil are working on a new proposal which will convince the European Commission that an €18.6 billion merger of their Spanish operations does not infringe monopoly regulations.

Digi was always the most likely candidate to acquire the assets or “remedies” that Orange and MasMovil must shed to allay Brussels’ reservations.

The company, which continues to increase its share of the Spanish market, said it has also reached agreement for a national roaming option with Orange Spain, enabling Digi Spain to access all Orange mobile technologies and those of its affiliates.

Crisis bites VBITES, Heather Mills’s vegan food firm has gone into administration.

The former model and ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney confirmed that the company had failed to obtain enough funding to continue.

Mills described the collapse as “extremely distressing”, adding that Brexit had been “an utter disaster.” She also attributed the company’s collapse to factors that included “corporate greed and poor management.”

Administrators Interpath Advisory said VBites would continue trading while they sought a buyer. Forty-four employees would be kept on to fill outstanding orders although 24 employees are now redundant.

Inflation on track SPAIN’S inflation fell three-tenths of a percentage point to 3.2 per cent in November, thanks to lower fuel and food prices.

Underlying inflation, excluding energy and fresh foodstuffs, dropped seven-tenths to 4.5 per cent, the National Institute of Statistics (INI) announced on December 14.

After going below double-digits last October for the first time in 18 months, food inflation tumbled again in November with a five-tenths reduction to a still-high 9 per cent compared with November 2022.

Bread, cereals, milk, eggs and cheese cost less although olive oil was 66.7 per cent dearer than in November 2022, together with rice (17.1 per cent), pulses and vegetables (16.8 per cent) and confectionery (16.6 per cent).

Green ammonia project SPANISH oil and petrol distributor Exolum is buying a green ammonia storage plant in Houston (Texas).

Located at the mouth of the Houston Ship Canal, the terminal, one of the West’s largest, intends to play a key role in the US’s clean ammonia project.

Together with its local associates Exolum – formerly known as CLH and before that as Campsa –  will invest $1.4 billion (€1.2 billion) on increasing green ammonia exports to Asia.

The operation, which needs authorisation from both countries’ regulatory bodies, is expected to move an annual 1.1 million tons of ammonia obtained via carbon dioxide capture.

Inobat in charge SLOVAKIAN battery manufacturer InoBat confirmed that it plans to open a factory in Valladolid.

Negotiations lasted for several months before InoBat finally decided that the Castilla y Leon city was the best choice for a factory producing batteries for western Europe.

Together with Burgos and Palencia, Valladolid forms an important geographic triangle of car and heavy vehicle manufacturers, prompting Inobat’s chairman Andy Palmer to declare on December 13 that it was “an ideal choice.”

The factory will also provide between 300 and 500 direct jobs.