In 2022, these funds carried out 11 deals in Spain, a record number that equalled the peak reached in 2014. These deals, worth a total of up to €2.9 billion, are as large as those recorded in 2009, when IPIC (now Mubadala) acquired its first major stake in CEPSA. The first quarter of 2023 also showed strong activity, especially with NBIM’s collaboration with Iberdrola in renewable energy and Mubadala’s CEPSA subsidiary, precisely, through a large co-investment deal in biofuels (…) Real estate, both residential and logistics, and technology were the largest deals.” This is the summary of sovereign wealth fund activity in Spain last year included in the report Sovereign Wealth Funds 2023. Investing in a Different World Order by Icex, Invest in Spain and IE’s Center for the Governance Change.
Sovereign wealth funds around the world held positions worth 11.6 trillion euros as of June 2023 – 11% more than a year earlier – an amount eight times Spain’s annual GDP and equivalent to 20 times the market capitalisation of the Ibex-35.
The sovereign investment club is made up of 98 funds -40% more than ten years ago-, although the top ten concentrate 73% of the assets under management, with six countries -the Big Six- accounting for a large part of the investment movement: Norway, China, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. The sector leader, the Norwegian Norges fund, has $1.43 trillion in assets under management.
Five countries account for 85.8% of investments: the United States (59% of the total), Great Britain, China, India and Saudi Arabia, and the largest target sectors are IT, Industry, Real Estate and Financials.
