Juan March bought Barcelona Traction bonds, had the company declared bankrupt in Reus and took Catalonia's power network

Barcelona Traction, Light and Power was incorporated in Toronto in 1911. By 1936 its subsidiaries supplied most of Catalonia's electricity. Its sterling bonds were paid with money the Spanish subsidiaries sent abroad. Payments stopped in 1936, and after the Civil War Spain refused to release the foreign currency. Time reported in 1961 that Juan March, who had backed Franco's 1936 rising, persuaded Franco to block the transfers and then bought the falling bonds cheaply. In 1948 three Spanish holders of recently bought bonds petitioned the court of Reus, in Tarragona, for a bankruptcy declaration. On 12 February 1948 the court declared the company bankrupt and ordered its assets seized. The company had received no judicial notice and was not represented. New shares in the subsidiaries were created and sold at auction in 1952 to a new company, Fuerzas Eléctricas de Cataluña (FECSA). Time put March's cost of control at $900,000. Spain counted 2,736 court orders and 531 judgments in the case. Belgium, home of most shareholders, sued Spain at the International Court of Justice. On 5 February 1970 the court rejected the claim by 15 votes to 1: only Canada could protect a Canadian company. March had died in 1962 after a car accident^†. In March 2013 his body was exhumed for a paternity test^†. In October 2026 Forbes put his grandson Carlos March Delgado at $3.6 billion; Carlos and his brother Juan own 69% of Banca March, founded by their grandfather in 1926.