Businesses move HQs over Catalan uncertainty

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Nearly 3,000 Catalan businesses have relocated their registered offices elsewhere in Spain since the region's independence drive intensified last October.

They include some of Catalonia’s most emblematic companies, such as the largest Catalan banks, Caixabank and Sabadell; influential Spanish-language publisher Planeta, and the global cava wine brand, Codorníu.

Tourism to the region's capital Barcelona has declined as well, with some experts blaming the uncertainty of the political situation.

“Many companies with a big part of their market in the rest of Spain view having headquarters in Catalonia as hurting them. We could say, ‘Catalonia doesn’t sell,'” said Enric Rius, an economist and financial adviser in Barcelona.

Banco Sabadell, a bank that's relocated its headquarters out of Catalonia /CGTN Photo

But economics and public policy professor Germà Bèl disagrees, insisting that the firms' operational headquarters haven’t changed. So “this has no fiscal or labor-related effects, at all,” he said.

As for tourism, In October and November, visitor arrivals dropped by six percent, especially among Spaniards, Britons and Americans visiting the Catalan capital, said Manel Casals, director general of the Barcelona Hotel Association.

He said the news about Catalonia has spread globally, adding, “This has caused uncertainty for the people who should visit. As we always say in the tourist sector, tourism needs a lot of tranquility.”

He and others say there is more tranquility now, since snap elections are set for December 21 for the Catalan parliament.

Visitors outside Gaudi's La Pedrera although tourism declined /CGTN Photo

Voters will have the chance to choose between pro-independence parties or unionist parties that want to remain part of Spain. Experts say many voters are sure to also be thinking about their jobs and the Catalan economy.

Barcelona has also suffered a setback in its bid to host the European Medicines Agency, which approves pharmaceuticals used in the European Union.

The agency, with nearly 1,000 jobs and frequent visits from medical experts from around the EU, is leaving Britain because Britain is leaving the EU. But in the end, the agency went to Amsterdam, not Barcelona.

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