Spanish energy giant Abengoa's collapse predicted by 17-year-old

Teenager's economics project noticed flaws in accounting a year before solar and wind power firm tries to avoid becoming Spain's biggest bankruptcy

As Spanish engineering and renewable energy giant Abengoa struggles to avoid becoming the country's biggest bankruptcy, it has emerged that a 17-year-old schoolboy predicted its collapse a year ago, spotting accounting discrepancies apparently overlooked by both Deloitte and Standard & Poor's.

Pepe Balti, a secondary school student in Barcelona, chose Abengoa as his economics project and noticed flaws in its accounting. "If it does not act soon, there is a strong risk Abengoa will go into bankruptcy," Balti wrote last year in his 18-page paper, titled Analytical report on Abengoa, 2012 and 2013.