Tag Archives: Standard and Poor credit rating

Spain, 1M Euros, and graphene

A Dec. 5, 2013 news item on Nanowerk features a 1M Euro investment being made in graphene in Spain,

Repsol and the Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI in its Spanish initials), a body dependent on the Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness, have signed an agreement with the Graphenea company through which both will invest jointly a million euros in the share capital of these technological companies.

Graphenea is a start-up company which has developed innovative technology for the production of high-quality graphene and whose products are supplied to 40 countries and to multinationals such as Nokia, Philips and Sigma-Aldrich, amongst others. This is a company which was founded in 2010, in the Basque city of Donostia-San Sebastián, by a group of private investors and the CIC nanoGUNE research centre.

Given the Spanish economy this is very interesting news (more about the economy further down), I found this about Graphenea on its About Us webpage (on the company website),

We are a leading graphene company that manufacture, produce and supply graphene for industrial and research needs. We have developed a synthesis and transfer process to obtain high uniformity monolayer graphene films on any substrate.

Industry: Nanotechnology

Function: Graphene Manufacturer, Graphene Producer, Graphene Supplier

Specialties: CVD Graphene Films, Graphene Oxide

Type: Privately Held

Founded: 2010

Address: Graphenea S.A. A75022608 Tolosa Hiribidea 76 20018 Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain. Located in the CIC nanoGune Nanoscience Research Centre

Contact

Sales – sales@graphenea.com

Job Opportunities – jobs@graphenea.com

General Enquiries – info@graphenea.com

I found this Company Profile: Overview webpage on the Repsol website,

Repsol is an integrated global energy company with vast sector experience. It carries out Upstream and Downstream activities throughout the entire world.

At Repsol we believe in innovation as an engine of change to create a new energy model. That is why we are present in areas of high energy potential such as Brazil, Russia and the U.S. Thanks to a steady, consolidated growth strategy, we have developed new and attractive areas of business within the company.

We are concerned with achieving people’s well-being and the economic growth of society; at Repsol we contribute with talent, effort and enthusiasm to building intelligent and sustainable energy solutions in the long term. And always with processes that respond to the strict controls on safety and respect for the environment.

As for the Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI), there’s this on the Taftie (The European Network of Innovative Agencies) website,

www.cdti.es

Mission:
The Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) is a Spanish public organisation, under the Ministry of Science and Innovation, whose objective is to help Spanish companies to increase their technological profile. It is a state-owned company, and, established in 1977, has financed more than 15,000 technology development projects so far.

CDTI is manned by more than 300 employees, three quarters of which is made up of engineers and graduates. Although the bulk of the infrastructure of CDTI is located in Madrid, the Centre has built a strategic network of offices and representatives abroad available to Spanish companies (Japan -SBTO-, Belgium -SOST and a Permanent Eureka Secretariat-, Brazil -FINEP-, Korea, Chile, Morocco, China, India, Mexico and USA) to give them support in their international technological activities.

Its main activity is to evaluate and finance technological development, innovation and modernization projects developed by Spanish companies: CDTI grants financial help of its own to companies and facilitates access to that of third parties (bank financing from the Line for the Financing of Technological Innovation) for the execution of both national and international research and development projects.

Budget:
The budget available to fund R&D&I projects managed by CDTI is about 1400 M€.

Activities:
Domestic

  • Funds market-oriented technology development with zero interest, long term loans.
  • Funds pre-competitive research projects by companies and research centres.
  • Promotes technology transfer.

lnternational
CDTI manages the Spanish participation within several industrial research and development international programs:

  • European Union R&D Programs. Head of the Spanish delegations and National Contact Point in the Thematic Priorities and Research & Innovation of FP7.
  • Eureka: National Project Coordinator (NPC), including the responsibility of approving and financing projects
  • Bilateral agreements with its foreign innovation agencies countries with the objective to promote, assist and fund the development of joint technology cooperation in areas of mutual interest.(China, Japan, India, Canada and Korea)
  • Iberoeka: National Project Coordinator (NPC). A program with similar objectives to Eureka, with 19 countries from Latin America, plus Portugal and Spain.
  • European Space Agency (ESA): Spanish delegate.
  • European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). Spanish delegate in the Financing Committee.

So it seems the government of Spain and Repsol (an energy company) have co-invested in Graphanea presumably for the production of and/or developing applications for graphene. This investment announcement comes within days of Spain’s economic ranking being shifted from ‘negative’ to ‘stable’ by Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s credit rating agencies. A Dec. 4, 2013 news item on BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) news online tells the story,

Moody’s said there had been a real improvement in the economy and government finances.

Last week, the Standard and Poor’s ratings firms also raised its outlook for Spain on signs of economic improvement.

Debt-laden Spain has emerged from a two-year recession, with export growth and companies becoming more confident.

But unemployment remains high, at 26%, and economic growth is expected to be shallow.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government is hoping economic growth will help reduce Spain’s spiralling public debt, currently 943bn euros (£792.5bn; $1.3 trillion), or more than 92% of the country’s entire gross domestic product (GDP).

Given the circumstance, this is a gutsy move and I hope, a successful one.