MADRID, Oct. 6 -- The Spanish government has passed on Friday a decree that makes it easier for companies to leave Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia, where an illegal independence referendum was held on Sunday and fears of a unilateral declaration of independence are rising.

The Spanish government announced this decree on a press conference after the cabinet meeting where Spain's Minister of Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, said that "the government does nothing, it only changes the body where the decision lies, but the move depends on the company."

The decree makes it easier for companies to leave Catalonia and move their headquarters to other places in Spain as the decision would not need to be passed by the shareholder meeting, unless the company's statutes say the opposite.

Several companies are considering leaving Catalonia due to the illegal referendum held on Sunday whose final results were released on Friday with a 43.03 percent of participation, 90.18 percent voting "Yes", 7.83 percent voting "No", 1.98 percent voting in blank and 19,719 ballots were considered nulls.

Meanwhile, Friday saw three companies take the decision to leave Catalonia: Banco Mediolanum to Madrid, Arqui cooperative to Valencia and Gas Natural to Madrid, local media reported.

On Thursday Banc Sabadell took the decision of moving its headquarters to Alicante. Other companies took the same decision of leaving Catalonia such as Oryzon Genomics, Eurona or Dogi, while others are discussing the issue.