Business

Catalonia In Crisis: Business manoeuvres mount pressure

Under the decree, banks are no longer obliged to consult all their shareholders before switching regions

Afp October 08, 2017

Marchers wave Catalonian nationalist flags as they demonstrate during Catalan National Day in Barcelona. PHOTO: REUTERS

MADRID: After judges, police and politicians, Spanish business leaders are stepping into the ring to resist Catalan separatists’ efforts to break the region away from Spain.

Several big companies have announced plans to shift their legal headquarters out of the region after Catalan leaders threatened to declare independence. They include the region’s two biggest banks, Caixbank and Sabadell, and energy company Gas Natural.

The move is a precaution against the fiscal and economic turbulence posed by the independence drive. Having vowed to block independence, the central government on Friday passed a decree to make it quicker for companies to shift their legal headquarters from one region to another.

Under the decree, banks are no longer obliged to consult all their shareholders before switching regions.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2017.

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