TWO of Spain's largest high-street banks are reported to be in merger talks, potentially resulting in the joint entity being the second-biggest in the country in terms of share capital.
Spain's biggest brands under the spotlight: Which rank highest in Europe?
14/06/2022
EUROPE'S top 500 most valuable brands in terms of overall financial worth include 24 from Spain, with seven of them in the first 100, putting it in seventh place on the continent as a whole – not just in the EU-27.
Two Spanish corporations appear in the top 10 in Europe for greatest increase in their net worth in the past year.
The annual ranking for 2022 has just been published and, once again, features German motor brand Mercedes-Benz as the largest on the continent, valued at just under €52.4 billion.
Despite only moderate growth in the past 12 months – just 6% - against a backdrop of a generally difficult year for the motor industry, Mercedes-Benz has managed to hold onto its top position through a concerted effort to focus on electrically-powered cars, sales of which soared by 90% for the luxury family saloon brand over the second half of 2021 and first half of 2022.
Which is Spain's top-valued brand?
The two highest-ranking national brands from Spain both have a female leader – Banco Santander, whose chairwoman is Ana Botín, and Zara, the most international of the fashion empire Inditex's clothing labels.
Founder Amancio Ortega's daughter, Marta Ortega, took over as CEO of Inditex last year and, although habitually one of the country's biggest corporations in terms of financial worth and turnover at any one time in recent history, this has reportedly increased with Marta at the helm.
She has always been a key player in the family firm, starting as shelf-stacker and check-out worker in Bershka in London after she graduated, working the shop floor in stores around the world, later becoming one of the design team for Zara and, more recently, its product manager, back in her native Galicia.
Although sales at Inditex increased by 36% in the first quarter of Marta's reign, Zara has fallen from number 28 to number 32 in Europe, but this is largely due to other brands rising in value as opposed to Zara's losing any.
The opposite, in fact, is true – the first three months of the year closed with earnings of around €760m for Inditex, far exceeding analysts' expectations.
Banco Santander, which has long been present in Latin America and broke into the UK market in 2004 when it acquired the Abbey National bank, increased its value by 9% in the last 12 months and has risen from Europe's number 26 to number 23.
At the time of publication, shares in Banco Santander were worth €2.62, up 0.48%, and Inditex as a firm – which currently features nine major brands – was at €22.51, down 0.27%.
Banking, retail and telecomms dominate top positions
Spain's third-most valuable brand is its prolific department store, El Corte Inglés – present in most provincial capital cities, especially the larger ones, and also in major cities in Portugal, the main product lines are clothing, accessories and cosmetics, covering its own brand, but also with a huge array of concessions starting from cut-price to top-of-the-range designer.
Books, audio-visual, electronics, household, finance, furniture, travel, and an upper-end food hall are among El Corte Inglés' fare, and is often a go-to for those seeking international brands and for those who want to stagger their spending, such as at Christmas, through its store card system.
Naturally, it was going to be one of the firms that most suffered through the pandemic, despite its online sales and delivery facilities, as it was far less able to rely on passing trade, but the gradual ending of restrictions on movement means El Corte Inglés' financial worth has risen 17% in the past year, putting it at number 75 in Europe.
Led by chairwoman and CEO Marta Álvarez, El Corte Inglés is a family-owned corporation, but announced plans early this year to float its shares on the stock market before the year 2028.
BBVA bank, whose shares at the time of publication stood at €4.19, up 0.96%, saw growth of 36.4% in the first quarter of 2022 compared with its performance in the same period in 2021, and in the whole of that year, its earnings trebled those of 2020, when these took a huge hit due to the pandemic.
Currently the second-largest bank in Spain in terms of share capital – below Santander and above CaixaBank, which now owns what was the fourth-largest entity, Bankia – BBVA, chaired by Turkish-born Onur Genç, former financial analyst at American Airlines, is 79th in Europe at present.
Movístar, the retail brand for the main national telecommunications company Telefónica, is number 85 in Europe and number five in Spain and, as at the beginning of 2022, was valued at just under €16.6bn.
Once, Movístar barely had any competition, but in the past decade or so has had to work hard to attract and keep customers, since the fast-developing world of mobile and internet technology has gradually led to a proliferation of providers and network operators, not only nationally but in other territories where Telefónica operates, such as Latin America.
Telefónica, led by CEO José María Álvarez Pallete, had a share price at the time of publication of €4.41, down 0.81%.
Mercadona, one of the country's key supermarket chains – which also has a presence in Portugal – started off as a family-owned grocery shop in the province of Valencia; nowadays, its founder Juan Roig is frequently among Spain's top five richest residents.
The firm has long ranked favourably among Spain's best employers, with a graded pay scale that sees entry-level staff earning €17,100 per year (about €1,218 a month take-home), rising to €23,148 after four years' service (about €1,553 per month net) for store workers, of whom over 90% have permanent job contracts, with temporary contracts only given for reinforcement during summer and Christmas periods.
It is one of the mainstream supermarkets which has announced long-term strategy for sustainability and circular economy, including adapting branches to be more energy-efficient, and aiming to recycle 100% of its plastic, paper and other disposable packaging and materials.
Its value soared by 31.6% in a year, according to first-quarter figures for 2022, and although it is only sixth in Spain and 89th in Europe, is considered one of the country's strongest corporations, and does not float its shares on the stock market – all capital is in the hands of the Roig family.
Energy and finance
Service-station, bottled-gas and mains-gas chain Repsol, now 35 years old and electricity retailer since 2018, classified as the 645th-largest public limited company on earth in Forbes in 2020, reported takings of just under €52.2bn in 2021, with net profits of nearly €2.5bn and share capital of just below €22.8bn.
It holds the dubious honour of being the Spanish firm responsible for the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the country in 2020, being behind 0.33% of the world's greenhouse gases between 1988 and 2015 – but the very nature of its activities means this is hard to avoid. Until electrically-powered vehicles become mainstream and majority – which is not likely to be the case for up to 20 years after the last petrol- or diesel-fuelled cars are manufactured – people will always need these polluting substances to be able to get about.
As at the time of publication, the petroleum and chemical corporation's shares stood at €15.16, having opened at €15.00 and risen by 1.34%, and it is currently the seventh-largest brand in Spain in terms of financial value, and 91st in Europe – the last of the Spanish companies in the top 100 on the continent.
Still within Europe's top 200, CaixaBank – currently the third-largest bank in Spain and the one with the highest number of cashpoints nationwide – has gone through several variations on its name over its lifetime, but its instantly-recognisable logo has always remained the same. Any attempts to change it would probably cause mass public outcry, given that it is one of the most famous works by legendary surrealist artist Joan Miró, along with the national Spain tourism 'sun', the red-and-yellow 'fried egg'.
Once called Caixa Catalunya, after the region it was founded in, then La Caixa, the entity known as CaixaBank absorbed State-owned Bankia last year, consolidating its position on the high street.
Despite a blip in the fourth quarter of 2021, when its earnings were 44.37% below forecast, the past year has been a positive one in financial terms for CaixaBank, with 31% more than expected in the third quarter of 2021 and 25.43% more than budgeted for in the first quarter of 2022, with gross income at the close of the latter reaching just under €2.55bn, net earnings of €707m, and as a brand, was worth just under €2bn.
Spain's eight-largest brand, the bank comes 136th in Europe, and its shares at the time of publication were worth €3.22, up 1.48%.
The country's main electricity board Iberdrola, which retails as Curenergía, is Spain's ninth-largest brand and comes 142nd in Europe, reporting gross earnings of just under €12.2bn in the first quarter of this year, net earnings of nearly €1.06bn, representing increases of 20.44% and 3.23% respectively, and a profit margin of 8.71%, representing a fall of 14.27%.
Announced government caps on electricity prices might affect second- or third-quarter results, but it remains Spain's largest and the world's fourth-largest energy company by share capital, supplying power to over 100 million people – more than double the population of its native country.
Named following the fusion of Iberduero – a mix of Iberia and Duero, after the river – and Hidroeléctrica Española, in 1991, the company has a presence in Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the UK, the USA, Brazil, México and Australia, and is now heavily focused on research and development into renewable energy sources.
At the time of publication, its share price was €9.87, down by 2.26%.
Completing Spain's top 10 brands, insurance company MAPFRE is 166th in Europe, and is one of the nation's oldest, having been set up as a mutual confederation for farm plots and buildings in 1933.
Its reinsurance arm, MAPFRE RE, is the leader in this field in Spain and Latin America – 'reinsurance' being, effectively, 'insuring the insurance company', enabling these to cope with massive claim payouts.
Present in 49 countries and on every continent, around 40% of MAPFRE's earnings and 50% of its profits come from Spain; although involved in all types of insurance business, its most recognisable or 'visible' are its personal lines, such as healthcare, household and motor.
Insurance companies tend to experience greater volatility in terms of turnover and profits, given that they are directly exposed to phenomena outside the control of any commercial enterprise – the weather, particularly – and this is especially true of those with a heavy involvement in personal insurance, as their claims loss ratio tends to widen dramatically in winter.
MAPFRE's first-quarter income this year was just under €4.6bn, up 0.97%, but its net earnings were down 10.85%, to €154.5m, and its profit margin of 3.38% had decreased by 11.52%.
All this was pretty much on target, though, and in line with forecasts for these three months – unlike in the third quarter of 2021, when profits were 23.49% lower than expected, despite earnings being 3.43% higher.
Share prices, at the time of publication, closed at €1.67, up by 0.91%.
Companies with the highest increase in value this year
Infrastructure management and development firm Acciona, involved in construction, mains water, renewable energy installations, and similar, with a presence in 65 countries, soared a whole 98 positions in Europe's top 500 most-valuable brands ranking in the past 12 months, making it the second of two from Spain among the 10 with the greatest growth in capital value on the continent.
Acciona's consolidation is largely responsible for this growth – its brand is valued at 51% more today than it was a year ago, and its strength is scored at 78.2%, having gone up by 13.1 percentage points in that time.
This is reported to be due to favourable evaluation of its sustainability strategy, a positive perception of its visibility, and positive coverage in the media.
Shares at the time of publication were priced at €177.20, down by 2.64%.
Spain's first private-sector petroleum company and one of its oldest brands – founded in 1929 – Cepsa has rocketed 112 positions up the European top 500 ranking, and is the one which has most increased in value in the past year.
Despite demand in the service-station sector still being below pre-pandemic levels, Cepsa's value has increased by a whole 63% in 12 months; at the close of 2021, its turnover had soared by 56% based upon that of the previous year, when lockdowns and movement restrictions meant fuel sales plummeted, but based upon the last full pre-pandemic year, 2019, earnings were up by 3% by the end of 2021.
During the first quarter of 2022, unsurprisingly, Cepsa's profits trebled, due to petrol and diesel prices shooting up, although it remains to be seen whether the trend continues if the population as a whole opts to cut right back on non-essential road travel.
Seven brands fall out of the top 500
According to Brand Finance España managing director Teresa de Lemus, the fact Spain's entries in the top 500 have dropped from 31 to 24 is due to the country's 'slower recovery' following the pandemic.
Prior to Covid, approximately 15% of the nation's GDP came from its hospitality industry and around 3% from tourism, and it is only now – the first completely restriction-free summer and the first since the vaccine was made available to every single age group – that these two sectors may be able to regain lost ground which, it is hoped, may speed up the recovery Teresa de Lemus speaks of.
Where financial investment in the growth of a business is not possible due to 'inconclusive or unclear' benefits, or where profit does not allow for it, brand value can still increase if the company opts to focus on its 'sustainability strategies', according to Brand Finance's head of valuation for Spain and Latin America, Pilar Alonso Ulloa.
Even though Inditex's star brand, Zara, is the second-most valuable in Spain, another of its lines, the cut-price 'rock-chick' and young fashions label Stradivarius, has dropped out of the top 500, along with the country's other most-internationally-known high-street clothing label, Mango.
Beer manufacturer Estrella Damm is another, showing how the pandemic has affected sectors linked to leisure and lifestyle.
Banco Sabadell has fallen from the top 500, although as a brand, it was set to disappear altogether over a year ago – its merger with the BBVA would have made the latter potentially the largest high-street bank in the country, and it was planned to drop the Sabadell part from the name.
But around a year after the intended merger was announced in November 2020, it was revealed that the move had fallen through as neither party was able to agree on an acquisition price.
Bankia, now owned by CaixaBank and with its name gradually being erased, has fallen below the 500 mark, as have construction and civil engineering giant ACS and high-street insurance company Catalana Occidente.
Those which have slid down the ranking or are now below number 500 have not necessarily reduced in financial value since the 2021 results were published – in some cases, it is because other brands from elsewhere in Europe have reported capital growth and overtaken them.
Brands linked to commercial services, cosmetics, technology, and distribution sectors in northern European countries have tended to rise in value over the last two quarters of 2021 and the first six months of 2022, allowing them to leapfrog former entries in the 500 list which, even though they may not be performing any worse than a year before – or are actually improving their figures – are pushed down as a result, says Teresa de Lemus.
This said, Spain accounts for 4% of the total financial value of all Europe's brands, which comfortably exceeds its 'national quota': With the continent having 43 'full' countries, each one of these represents 2.33%, or when including the other seven nations which it 'shares' with Asia, each single country represents 2% of Europe.
As a result, and notwithstanding the vastly different land masses and population sizes of each of these countries, Spain's share of Europe's brand values is, effectively, double its 'percentage' of the list of nations.
Related Topics
EUROPE'S top 500 most valuable brands in terms of overall financial worth include 24 from Spain, with seven of them in the first 100, putting it in seventh place on the continent as a whole – not just in the EU-27.
Two Spanish corporations appear in the top 10 in Europe for greatest increase in their net worth in the past year.
The annual ranking for 2022 has just been published and, once again, features German motor brand Mercedes-Benz as the largest on the continent, valued at just under €52.4 billion.
Despite only moderate growth in the past 12 months – just 6% - against a backdrop of a generally difficult year for the motor industry, Mercedes-Benz has managed to hold onto its top position through a concerted effort to focus on electrically-powered cars, sales of which soared by 90% for the luxury family saloon brand over the second half of 2021 and first half of 2022.
Which is Spain's top-valued brand?
The two highest-ranking national brands from Spain both have a female leader – Banco Santander, whose chairwoman is Ana Botín, and Zara, the most international of the fashion empire Inditex's clothing labels.
Founder Amancio Ortega's daughter, Marta Ortega, took over as CEO of Inditex last year and, although habitually one of the country's biggest corporations in terms of financial worth and turnover at any one time in recent history, this has reportedly increased with Marta at the helm.
She has always been a key player in the family firm, starting as shelf-stacker and check-out worker in Bershka in London after she graduated, working the shop floor in stores around the world, later becoming one of the design team for Zara and, more recently, its product manager, back in her native Galicia.
Although sales at Inditex increased by 36% in the first quarter of Marta's reign, Zara has fallen from number 28 to number 32 in Europe, but this is largely due to other brands rising in value as opposed to Zara's losing any.
The opposite, in fact, is true – the first three months of the year closed with earnings of around €760m for Inditex, far exceeding analysts' expectations.
Banco Santander, which has long been present in Latin America and broke into the UK market in 2004 when it acquired the Abbey National bank, increased its value by 9% in the last 12 months and has risen from Europe's number 26 to number 23.
At the time of publication, shares in Banco Santander were worth €2.62, up 0.48%, and Inditex as a firm – which currently features nine major brands – was at €22.51, down 0.27%.
Banking, retail and telecomms dominate top positions
Spain's third-most valuable brand is its prolific department store, El Corte Inglés – present in most provincial capital cities, especially the larger ones, and also in major cities in Portugal, the main product lines are clothing, accessories and cosmetics, covering its own brand, but also with a huge array of concessions starting from cut-price to top-of-the-range designer.
Books, audio-visual, electronics, household, finance, furniture, travel, and an upper-end food hall are among El Corte Inglés' fare, and is often a go-to for those seeking international brands and for those who want to stagger their spending, such as at Christmas, through its store card system.
Naturally, it was going to be one of the firms that most suffered through the pandemic, despite its online sales and delivery facilities, as it was far less able to rely on passing trade, but the gradual ending of restrictions on movement means El Corte Inglés' financial worth has risen 17% in the past year, putting it at number 75 in Europe.
Led by chairwoman and CEO Marta Álvarez, El Corte Inglés is a family-owned corporation, but announced plans early this year to float its shares on the stock market before the year 2028.
BBVA bank, whose shares at the time of publication stood at €4.19, up 0.96%, saw growth of 36.4% in the first quarter of 2022 compared with its performance in the same period in 2021, and in the whole of that year, its earnings trebled those of 2020, when these took a huge hit due to the pandemic.
Currently the second-largest bank in Spain in terms of share capital – below Santander and above CaixaBank, which now owns what was the fourth-largest entity, Bankia – BBVA, chaired by Turkish-born Onur Genç, former financial analyst at American Airlines, is 79th in Europe at present.
Movístar, the retail brand for the main national telecommunications company Telefónica, is number 85 in Europe and number five in Spain and, as at the beginning of 2022, was valued at just under €16.6bn.
Once, Movístar barely had any competition, but in the past decade or so has had to work hard to attract and keep customers, since the fast-developing world of mobile and internet technology has gradually led to a proliferation of providers and network operators, not only nationally but in other territories where Telefónica operates, such as Latin America.
Telefónica, led by CEO José María Álvarez Pallete, had a share price at the time of publication of €4.41, down 0.81%.
Mercadona, one of the country's key supermarket chains – which also has a presence in Portugal – started off as a family-owned grocery shop in the province of Valencia; nowadays, its founder Juan Roig is frequently among Spain's top five richest residents.
The firm has long ranked favourably among Spain's best employers, with a graded pay scale that sees entry-level staff earning €17,100 per year (about €1,218 a month take-home), rising to €23,148 after four years' service (about €1,553 per month net) for store workers, of whom over 90% have permanent job contracts, with temporary contracts only given for reinforcement during summer and Christmas periods.
It is one of the mainstream supermarkets which has announced long-term strategy for sustainability and circular economy, including adapting branches to be more energy-efficient, and aiming to recycle 100% of its plastic, paper and other disposable packaging and materials.
Its value soared by 31.6% in a year, according to first-quarter figures for 2022, and although it is only sixth in Spain and 89th in Europe, is considered one of the country's strongest corporations, and does not float its shares on the stock market – all capital is in the hands of the Roig family.
Energy and finance
Service-station, bottled-gas and mains-gas chain Repsol, now 35 years old and electricity retailer since 2018, classified as the 645th-largest public limited company on earth in Forbes in 2020, reported takings of just under €52.2bn in 2021, with net profits of nearly €2.5bn and share capital of just below €22.8bn.
It holds the dubious honour of being the Spanish firm responsible for the largest carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the country in 2020, being behind 0.33% of the world's greenhouse gases between 1988 and 2015 – but the very nature of its activities means this is hard to avoid. Until electrically-powered vehicles become mainstream and majority – which is not likely to be the case for up to 20 years after the last petrol- or diesel-fuelled cars are manufactured – people will always need these polluting substances to be able to get about.
As at the time of publication, the petroleum and chemical corporation's shares stood at €15.16, having opened at €15.00 and risen by 1.34%, and it is currently the seventh-largest brand in Spain in terms of financial value, and 91st in Europe – the last of the Spanish companies in the top 100 on the continent.
Still within Europe's top 200, CaixaBank – currently the third-largest bank in Spain and the one with the highest number of cashpoints nationwide – has gone through several variations on its name over its lifetime, but its instantly-recognisable logo has always remained the same. Any attempts to change it would probably cause mass public outcry, given that it is one of the most famous works by legendary surrealist artist Joan Miró, along with the national Spain tourism 'sun', the red-and-yellow 'fried egg'.
Once called Caixa Catalunya, after the region it was founded in, then La Caixa, the entity known as CaixaBank absorbed State-owned Bankia last year, consolidating its position on the high street.
Despite a blip in the fourth quarter of 2021, when its earnings were 44.37% below forecast, the past year has been a positive one in financial terms for CaixaBank, with 31% more than expected in the third quarter of 2021 and 25.43% more than budgeted for in the first quarter of 2022, with gross income at the close of the latter reaching just under €2.55bn, net earnings of €707m, and as a brand, was worth just under €2bn.
Spain's eight-largest brand, the bank comes 136th in Europe, and its shares at the time of publication were worth €3.22, up 1.48%.
The country's main electricity board Iberdrola, which retails as Curenergía, is Spain's ninth-largest brand and comes 142nd in Europe, reporting gross earnings of just under €12.2bn in the first quarter of this year, net earnings of nearly €1.06bn, representing increases of 20.44% and 3.23% respectively, and a profit margin of 8.71%, representing a fall of 14.27%.
Announced government caps on electricity prices might affect second- or third-quarter results, but it remains Spain's largest and the world's fourth-largest energy company by share capital, supplying power to over 100 million people – more than double the population of its native country.
Named following the fusion of Iberduero – a mix of Iberia and Duero, after the river – and Hidroeléctrica Española, in 1991, the company has a presence in Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, the UK, the USA, Brazil, México and Australia, and is now heavily focused on research and development into renewable energy sources.
At the time of publication, its share price was €9.87, down by 2.26%.
Completing Spain's top 10 brands, insurance company MAPFRE is 166th in Europe, and is one of the nation's oldest, having been set up as a mutual confederation for farm plots and buildings in 1933.
Its reinsurance arm, MAPFRE RE, is the leader in this field in Spain and Latin America – 'reinsurance' being, effectively, 'insuring the insurance company', enabling these to cope with massive claim payouts.
Present in 49 countries and on every continent, around 40% of MAPFRE's earnings and 50% of its profits come from Spain; although involved in all types of insurance business, its most recognisable or 'visible' are its personal lines, such as healthcare, household and motor.
Insurance companies tend to experience greater volatility in terms of turnover and profits, given that they are directly exposed to phenomena outside the control of any commercial enterprise – the weather, particularly – and this is especially true of those with a heavy involvement in personal insurance, as their claims loss ratio tends to widen dramatically in winter.
MAPFRE's first-quarter income this year was just under €4.6bn, up 0.97%, but its net earnings were down 10.85%, to €154.5m, and its profit margin of 3.38% had decreased by 11.52%.
All this was pretty much on target, though, and in line with forecasts for these three months – unlike in the third quarter of 2021, when profits were 23.49% lower than expected, despite earnings being 3.43% higher.
Share prices, at the time of publication, closed at €1.67, up by 0.91%.
Companies with the highest increase in value this year
Infrastructure management and development firm Acciona, involved in construction, mains water, renewable energy installations, and similar, with a presence in 65 countries, soared a whole 98 positions in Europe's top 500 most-valuable brands ranking in the past 12 months, making it the second of two from Spain among the 10 with the greatest growth in capital value on the continent.
Acciona's consolidation is largely responsible for this growth – its brand is valued at 51% more today than it was a year ago, and its strength is scored at 78.2%, having gone up by 13.1 percentage points in that time.
This is reported to be due to favourable evaluation of its sustainability strategy, a positive perception of its visibility, and positive coverage in the media.
Shares at the time of publication were priced at €177.20, down by 2.64%.
Spain's first private-sector petroleum company and one of its oldest brands – founded in 1929 – Cepsa has rocketed 112 positions up the European top 500 ranking, and is the one which has most increased in value in the past year.
Despite demand in the service-station sector still being below pre-pandemic levels, Cepsa's value has increased by a whole 63% in 12 months; at the close of 2021, its turnover had soared by 56% based upon that of the previous year, when lockdowns and movement restrictions meant fuel sales plummeted, but based upon the last full pre-pandemic year, 2019, earnings were up by 3% by the end of 2021.
During the first quarter of 2022, unsurprisingly, Cepsa's profits trebled, due to petrol and diesel prices shooting up, although it remains to be seen whether the trend continues if the population as a whole opts to cut right back on non-essential road travel.
Seven brands fall out of the top 500
According to Brand Finance España managing director Teresa de Lemus, the fact Spain's entries in the top 500 have dropped from 31 to 24 is due to the country's 'slower recovery' following the pandemic.
Prior to Covid, approximately 15% of the nation's GDP came from its hospitality industry and around 3% from tourism, and it is only now – the first completely restriction-free summer and the first since the vaccine was made available to every single age group – that these two sectors may be able to regain lost ground which, it is hoped, may speed up the recovery Teresa de Lemus speaks of.
Where financial investment in the growth of a business is not possible due to 'inconclusive or unclear' benefits, or where profit does not allow for it, brand value can still increase if the company opts to focus on its 'sustainability strategies', according to Brand Finance's head of valuation for Spain and Latin America, Pilar Alonso Ulloa.
Even though Inditex's star brand, Zara, is the second-most valuable in Spain, another of its lines, the cut-price 'rock-chick' and young fashions label Stradivarius, has dropped out of the top 500, along with the country's other most-internationally-known high-street clothing label, Mango.
Beer manufacturer Estrella Damm is another, showing how the pandemic has affected sectors linked to leisure and lifestyle.
Banco Sabadell has fallen from the top 500, although as a brand, it was set to disappear altogether over a year ago – its merger with the BBVA would have made the latter potentially the largest high-street bank in the country, and it was planned to drop the Sabadell part from the name.
But around a year after the intended merger was announced in November 2020, it was revealed that the move had fallen through as neither party was able to agree on an acquisition price.
Bankia, now owned by CaixaBank and with its name gradually being erased, has fallen below the 500 mark, as have construction and civil engineering giant ACS and high-street insurance company Catalana Occidente.
Those which have slid down the ranking or are now below number 500 have not necessarily reduced in financial value since the 2021 results were published – in some cases, it is because other brands from elsewhere in Europe have reported capital growth and overtaken them.
Brands linked to commercial services, cosmetics, technology, and distribution sectors in northern European countries have tended to rise in value over the last two quarters of 2021 and the first six months of 2022, allowing them to leapfrog former entries in the 500 list which, even though they may not be performing any worse than a year before – or are actually improving their figures – are pushed down as a result, says Teresa de Lemus.
This said, Spain accounts for 4% of the total financial value of all Europe's brands, which comfortably exceeds its 'national quota': With the continent having 43 'full' countries, each one of these represents 2.33%, or when including the other seven nations which it 'shares' with Asia, each single country represents 2% of Europe.
As a result, and notwithstanding the vastly different land masses and population sizes of each of these countries, Spain's share of Europe's brand values is, effectively, double its 'percentage' of the list of nations.
Related Topics
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