Nacho Cano, the composer and former member of the Spanish pop group Mecano, is facing two very different financial pictures across his businesses. Newly filed accounts show his record label, Laika Récords SL, posted record revenue for the 2025 fiscal year, even as his stage musical Malinche remains under voluntary insolvency proceedings.
Laika Récords billed 1,241,992 euros in 2025, an increase of around 60% on the previous year, when it turned over roughly 700,000 euros. But despite the rising sales, the company closed the year with losses of 127,815 euros, according to accounts filed with Spain's Companies Registry, the Registro Mercantil.
Record Revenue, First Loss
Cano has been the sole administrator of Laika Récords since January 2021. The company, formally dedicated to sound recording, music publishing and radio broadcasting services, has 12 employees on its payroll and reported holding close to 560,000 euros in assets to cover potential liabilities.
Turnover at the company has climbed every year since 2023, when it billed just 155,000 euros. That figure rose to 755,000 euros in 2024 before reaching more than 1.2 million euros in 2025. The loss recorded for the year, however, has raised questions about the company's solvency going forward.
Renfe, Spain's state rail operator, separately ended its own collaboration agreement with Malinche, citing possible reputational harm, according to the accompanying report.
Expansion Into Property
Looking for new sources of profit, Cano twice broadened Laika Récords' registered business activities in 2024, in May and November. The additions covered the buying, selling, leasing, construction, development and even renovation of properties, buildings, flats and premises. The change followed the company's move of its registered address in January 2022, from Calle Navas de Tolosa in central Madrid to the Malasaña neighbourhood.
Malinche's Insolvency Proceedings
Cano's difficulties are not confined to Laika Récords. Mecano, the pop trio Cano formed in the 1980s with his brother José María Cano and singer Ana Torroja, became one of the best-selling Spanish-language acts of its era, and Cano went on to write and produce the musical Malinche as one of his biggest solo ventures.
Performances of Malinche in Spain were cancelled in early March 2026 after mounting losses. Cano subsequently filed for voluntary insolvency on behalf of the production company, Malinche The Musical Spain SL, and a commercial court confirmed the firm was insolvent. The case is now in what is known as the common phase of the proceedings.
The company's accumulated financial liabilities exceeded 6.2 million euros, leaving a string of major creditors unpaid. The worst affected was IFEMA Madrid, the trade fair organisation, which is owed close to 1 million euros for unpaid rent on the venue where the show was staged, plus a further 250,000 euros it had to cover to forcibly dismantle the installations after repeated breaches by the production company.
The consortium pursuing Cano for the debt includes the Community of Madrid, led by regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who is a personal friend of the composer.
Debt to Sandra Ortega and Other Creditors
Malinche also owes money to Spain's Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social, the Social Security treasury, over unpaid contributions for the company's workers. Private firms that provided services, security and sponsorship, along with technical and lighting suppliers linked to the production, have also filed as creditors.
Other creditors include Hijos de Rivera, the company behind the Estrella Galicia beer brand, as well as Prosegur, Orion Southern Europe and private investors. Among the largest debts is one owed to businesswoman Sandra Ortega, daughter of Zara founder Amancio Ortega and reportedly the richest woman in Spain. The debt, formalised through her company Ferrado QT LLD and linked to her investment holding Rosp Corunna, amounts to 1.98 million euros, stemming from a series of loans granted to the production company since 2021 and later refinanced.
After the insolvency was confirmed, the law firm Medley Administración Concursal is now compiling an inventory of Malinche's assets, which are valued at around 2.5 million euros.
