If at first you don’t succeed, try harder. Sacyr Vallehermoso, the overleveraged Spanish construction company, has long struggled to ease its debt burden by selling its 20 per cent stake in oil company Repsol. At first Russia’s Lukoil was touted as a putative buyer. But Madrid greeted that idea with all the warmth of a Siberian winter. Then Sinopec reportedly stepped into the frame. But the Chinese company is unlikely to fare much better. That leaves Sacyr’s creditors, especially Santander, as its best hope.

Spain’s biggest bank has the heaviest exposure to the loan that funded Sacyr’s detour into energy. For Sacyr to spend almost €7bn on Repsol shares was as financially stretching as it was strategically illogical – even if it was a patriotic urge. The stock is now worth almost half what it paid. But it was just as foolish for Santander and other lenders to get involved. Furthermore, Santander has been here before: it helped fund Acciona’s 10 per cent stake in Endesa – another effort to keep a Spanish utility “Spanish”. BBVA, Spain’s second-biggest bank, meanwhile took the lead funding ACS, another property firm, to build a stake in Iberdrola.