We look after your interests

(+34) 93 626 47 75

Torres Sarrià, Carrer de Can Ràbia, 3-5, 4ª Planta BCN 08017

(+34) 91 794 19 82

Pº de la Castellana, 93 2nd floor MADRID 28046

Cluster Family Office Blog

A holding company called the EU.

They are increasingly more y more the voices that unabashedly denounce the unsustainable burden that the most shattered economies place on the survival of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. European Union as such. As if from a large holding company In order to keep the group's consolidated balance sheet afloat with a chance of weathering the global downturn, some «brands» must be closed or sold. Otherwise it will be of no use if the strong companies in the group have the capacity to be viable and to overcome the desert crossing before us. The holes and losses of the companies in difficulty would take away the solvency of the entire holding company with tremendous ease and speed.

Continuing with the business simile, for EU countries, the insolvency of brands such as Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and perhaps Italy (PIIGS) is an inevitable and undeniable fact. The holding company's finances cannot afford the cash injections needed to revive these troubled brands, not least because their liabilities are enormous. And we cannot even excuse ourselves by saying that the global crisis has hit these brands particularly hard. companies. They are simply inefficient, obsolete, mismanaged and debt-ridden corporate structures that are breaking their balance sheets with pitiful rapidity. Only in the expansive, sweet, virtual environment from which we come could such inefficient companies survive, and even seemingly progress. For all these reasons, as has happened to countless companies outside the group, the crisis has meant the most rigorous and efficient application of the Darwinian law of business (it is interesting to reread «...").«Darwin, credit and Keynes»(in terms of the state and not the company). For the states that leave the group, this liberation will allow them to compete under less stifling conditions in terms of currency and standards. And thus avoid the closure of these companies. companies and to promote the viability of the restructuring they require, by resizing themselves in a much less demanding and stifling EU B environment.

It is therefore necessary to corporate operation historical. The holding company called «EU» must restructure, re-found itself in order to survive. We are likely to see closures, corporate sales, demergers and mergers unimaginable, carried out by a team of M&A; which to this day has not even been contracted. Or at least that is the official version. But although the victims of «restructuring» themselves are always the last to know about the intentions of the holding company's management, this time it is a more than foreseeable, inevitable amputation. And yet unannounced because of a political correctness that is untenable in the current situation.

The group's management is not reacting swiftly or forcefully. Perhaps because of the sentimental and political implications of dismembering and/or amputating the evicted brands. Or perhaps because the management is not being competent enough to take courageous decisions and take the bull by the horns (never better said).

Despite the 80% of Eurosceptic abstention in countries such as Slovakia and Lithuania, it is curious that traditionally Eurosceptic countries such as Ireland, faced with its situation of state bankruptcy, are slightly changing their sentiment towards the EU. In other words, faced with the impossibility of facing the crisis in conditions of minimum solvency and with a foreseeable footing in an EU B, the sentiment towards the EU is changing slightly. Europhile is becoming somewhat more evident. Perhaps the fear of flying solo again, and the psychological defeat it would mean for the PIIGS environment, is causing the feeling of clinging to the udder. But sentiment is also growing the other way around. In fact, this is always the case, and the richer country, nation or supranational organisation tends to want to separate itself from its poorer neighbours, compatriots or allies. Economic interests often trump national affinities, and even more so in an EU where members have different cultures, different languages and, of course, very different economic capacities to cope with difficult times.

As he said Mary Ellen Synon already in this article from the Daily Mail months ago and which I recommend you read carefully:

«In the days before the euro, when Italy had the lire and Greece had the drachma and so on (PIIGS), a country in such trouble could devalue its currency to help increase its exports and take pressure off its jobs. Escape from the euro would also allow a country to regain control over its own monetary policy».»

Economic euroscepticism is increasing in direct proportion to the unsustainability of the technical bankruptcy of the PIIGS area.. It is understandable and cannot be otherwise. If we put ourselves in the shoes of an EU A citizen, the feeling of not wanting to be dragged down by the excesses committed in the countries now in trouble is entirely reasonable. We are the EU civil servants: Inefficient, unproductive, accommodating and subsidised. Vulnerable, falsely resilient and with no chance of overcoming the adversities that loom over all, at least in an EU A environment and a currency as we know it.

If we think of the survival of the EU as a political and economic project, i.e. if we think in terms of a sustainable and competent holding or business group, the amputation of the PIIGS brands is unavoidable.. And the deep restructuring needed by these failing companies is only feasible without the pressure of belonging to a holding company that demands standards that are currently unacceptable.

A traumatic, unimaginable, technically very complicated, predictably denied to the point of evidence and implausible political-economic corporate process. But nevertheless, inevitable. The elephant still in the room of the holding company called the EU, and it is called PIIGS.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn