BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – Political uncertainty over the future of Catalonia’s secession bid has started spreading to the economy, with stock markets falling and big Catalan firms relocating – or considering a move – elsewhere in Spain.
Executives in Banco Sabadell, one of Catalonia’s largest banks, are set to decide later Thursday on whether to move the company’s official registration from Barcelona in order to remain under European regulations even if regional separatist authorities succeed in declaring independence as early as next week.
The news pushed the bank’s shares up 4 percent, following heavy losses of almost 10 percent this week. On Wednesday, Spanish stocks suffered the biggest drop since the Brexit referendum in the U.K. last year.
In a sign that investors are taking the financial risks of independence seriously, one company, biotech firm Oryzon Genomics, saw its shares jump 23 percent since announcing Wednesday that it would move its headquarters out of Catalonia.
Around 40 percent of Catalonia’s electorate of 5.5 million voted over the weekend in a divisive referendum marred by violence when police moved in to close polling stations and confiscate ballot boxes. The ‘Yes’ scored a landslide victory that was also expected given that the majority of those who want Catalonia to remain in Spain ignored a referendum that courts had suspended.