Opinion GADFLY: Is Montreal really the way Barcelona wants to go? Montreal lost 30% of its head offices when Quebec started making independence noises; in Barcelona, it may already be too late BL PREMIUM

Catalonia is starting to feel the "Montreal Effect" — before even deciding whether it will secede or not. Top firms are weighing whether to leave the region, one of the richest in Spain, rather than face the risk of being cut off from the eurozone, the wider EU and the international investment community in the wake of an unofficial referendum that Catalan leaders claim supports independence. Unilateral secession would be a brave gamble indeed given the referendum’s illegality and lack of international support. Independence would be a "hard sell", reckons Barclays, and there is no clarity on how and when Catalonia would carry out its threat to go it alone. However, that’s not stopped Banco Sabadell from deciding on a move of headquarters to Alicante after a board meeting held on Thursday, according to Bloomberg News. CaixaBank, meanwhile, is said to favour the Balearic Islands. One small drug maker has already changed its legal domicile to Madrid from Barcelona. The share prices of a...