Havana/The Spanish Alto Cedro Group Corporate Services, mother’s house of one of the rare international banking entities that can operate in Cuba, reported losses for 137,438 euros in 2024. Experts attribute to the Cuban branch, high Cedro Corporate Bank, the responsibility in those negative results, since the island is submerged in a deep economic and financial crisis.
The company’s accounts were affected by the restrictions imposed by Havana to the private sector and the prohibition of repatriating the benefits of foreign companies, particularly Spanish, who are the main clients of the group’s subsidiary on the island. In 2023, high cedro corporate services recorded a benefit of 89,976 euros.
According to The Objectivethat could access the Economic information of high cedar corporate services, initially the group managed to increase its sales by 14%that same year, which won about 3 million euros. Even so, he failed to prevent his accounts from ending in red numbers.
The conglomerate registered in Madrid is owned by Javier Botín, a member of the Blacks Botín family, which controls, among others, the Santander Bank
The conglomerate registered in Madrid and owned by Javier Botín – member of the Bancros Botín family, which controls, among others, the Santander Bank – has a presence at least since 2019 in Cuba, where a non -bank subsidiary called Alto Cedro International Finance that was dedicated to giving financial advice to companies on the island.
That year, the Spanish newspaper The confidential He revealed that Javier Botín, who had so far maintained a low profile, included Cuba on his investment agenda claiming that the country pointed to a transition with the mandate of Miguel Díaz-Canel. Two years later, the regime allowed the creation of SMEs, but Botín could not create the business it intended.
In 2023, the banker obtained the license for Alto Cedar International Finance to become a high corporate bank, an entity whose purpose – according to its official website – is to be a “reliable financial partner for national and foreign companies that develop international businesses in Cuba”.
Then the official Cuban press listed the Bank’s faculties: open accounts in foreign currencies and pesos, receive and grant loans, handle types of risk and even monitor their debtors. You can also finance, using the different existing financing modalities, export and import operations of goods or services and investments. However, it was prevented from providing services to SMEs, “except those previously authorized by the Central Bank of Cuba.”
Then, a source close to the directive of Alto Cedro informed 14ymedio that the true claim of the corporation was to do business with private companies without restrictions, but the government refused. “The objective of the restriction is to benefit the state instances and the MSMEs that they authorize,” he said on that occasion, hence each subsection of the new license contains the possibility of “special permits” of the Central Bank.
Alto Cedro businesses in Havana do not seem to leave as the banker expected despite being one of the few who has managed to nesting a bank on the island
In summary, high -cedar busines of a Russian bank office Novikombank.
However, if the merger with Sabadell is made for which BBVA has been bidding, the bank could have a presence on the island again.
As for Botín, the entrepreneur belongs to a family of bankers that controls much of the Spanish financial world. Ana Botín, her older sister, is the head of Santander – of which the businessman is an external consultant – and his medium brother has his own banking projects. Among all family members, which also includes cousins and other relatives dedicated to the business, total about 188 million shares valued at 1,334 million euros.
