Month: May 2021

• The financial institution will sponsor a new edition of this initiative bringing together family businesses from all over Spain to share their experiences and strategies

The network of Family Business Regional Associations made up of 18 organizations, including the Catalonian Family Business Association (ASCEF) has subscribed an agreement with Credit Suisse by which this financial institution commits to sponsor the organization of a new series of conferences entitled “The Family Business Shares“.

In this way, an initiative born a year ago just after the Covid-19 pandemic was declared will be extended through 2021. This initiative has allowed family business entrepreneurs from all over Spain and a wide variety of industries, to share experiences and strategies to address this situation.

The new edition of “The Family Business Shares” consists of four sessions to be held online between May and November this year.

The associations involved in this project cover all Spanish autonomous communities and include 1,200 companies from all industries representing 10% of the GDP.

Their mission is to advocate for the Spanish family business as driving force for the productive economy and job creation in the region, as well as to further entrepreneurial culture and promote the continuity of this kind of enterprise.

The agreement’s subscription took place today online between Matilde de la Peña Elías and Mr Rafael de Villar Álvarez as proxies for Credit Suisse, and David González Pescador, Director of the Cantabrian Family Business Association (ACEFAM) and representative of the Family Business Association Network during this series.

The Catalonian Family Business Association (ASCEF) organized a conference in collaboration with Deloitte, entitled “Family Legacy vs. Legacy and Business Project“, which offered a more academic vision of the business family, as well as a view of the current situation of the country’s Family Office and its role in the management of companies.

Carles Garcia, professor IESE Business School, dissected the family business and its corporate governance from an academic point of view, pointing out that “if we seek to improve the company’s management and make it efficient, the bigger the companies, the more necessary it is to relied on a greater number of external members than family members“. He, nevertheless, wished to underscore that the family council is to be taken into account.

In this way, professor Garcia asserted that “a greater number of independent consultants contributes to a greater satisfaction of the council performance“. “It is the family who should bring in the company’s values and mission,” he pointed out, after suggesting that “from the third generation on, it is essential to teach these values to the new generations, so they endure over time“.

Throughout the conference professor Carles García reminded the three basic points to be considered by the business family: unity, commitment to business and development: “Without unity, we are only stakeholders, with more than that, we are a family. We cannot appreciate what we don’t know, when it is known, it is appreciated and it feels represented“. “Having valuable and responsible stakeholders is what we are more interested in, they should have a professional attitude at they do“, he commented in relation to the business family presence in the company.

Fernando Vázquez, Law Associate and Head of the Deloitte‘s Family Business Program, delivered the main conclusions about the FOMM Deloitte survey taken by administrators and coordinators of Family Offices in Spain. About these, he noted that most of them are located in Catalonia, where two generation coexists, most of them managing up to €150 million.

“Despite the apparent rise of the Asian market, 90% of investment by the Family Office in Spain is made geographically in North America and Europe“, Vázquez illustrated, who also explained that these investments rally on real estate (44%) and financial assets (32%).

Lastly, Ignasi Botet, consultant for CABOEL, member of ASCEF, explained his professional experience in the family business realm, particularly in their transition to Family Office. Regarding Family Offices’ management and organization, Botet reminded that “although there is not one method that stands out above the rest, all of them take Family Office as a risk diversification strategy, for it is, in fact, a matter of managing the family legacy long term“.

All the information about the lecture is available through the link provided on the web site’s private.

62% of family business managed to increase or retained their personnel during 2020 compared to the previous year. This information was among the data gathered by the Family Business Watch, a body created by the Family Business Institute (IEF) and Deloitte; and was presented at the Annual IEF Conference attended by the President of the Catalonian Family Business Association (ASCEF), Amadeu Jori, on behalf of its associated companies.

Among other data, the Family Business Watch, gathers the pandemics’ impact on the business activity, as well as the balances of the family businesses that constitute the IEF and ASCEF, and the rest of the Territorial Associations of Spain Family Business. Despite the good employment data, the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemics had an adverse impact on family business turnover and economic performance.

Namely, the number of family business that registered losses last year tripled in 2020 compared to 2019, up 12% from 4%. In relation to this aspect, 46% of companies did not render profits, while the remaining 42% did. Alternatively, with regard to business turnover, more than half of family businesses (57%) saw it reduced: One out five companies suffered a decline of over 20%. According to the Family Business Watch, 36% managed to increase their turnover; this improvement, however, was mostly below 10%.

In the closing session of the Annual Conference, IEF President, Marc Puig, reaffirmed before the Government Deputy Vice-President and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, the family business commitment to contribute to the economic recovery by claiming a favorable environment for investment, with clear and predictable rules, and a tax frame that “shall not the be worst of the rest of Europe’s.”