Fernando Rodríguez| Sovereign wealth funds’ investment in Spanish companies last year was the third largest in total volume in the last 10 years. This is according to the report Sovereign Wealth Funds 2021 Changes and Challenges accelerated by the Covid 19 pandemic, presented today by Icex and the Instituto de Empresa (IE).
GIC, one of Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds, and Abu Dhabi’s investment vehicle were the two most active names investing in Spain in 2021.
GIC, with historical exposure to the Spanish market, has taken stakes in Cellnex, GMP, Allfunds, Biomat – the US subsidiary of Grifols – and data centre company Equinix in the past year. It has also provided financing to renewable energy company Forestalia.
The two Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds participated in a joint venture to enter real estate company Healthcare Activos. In addition, along with other investors, they entered nursing home manager DomusVI and a fish production company in Spain and Greece.
Sopef, the mixed fund of Cofides – a Spanish public investor – and the Oman Investment Authority took minority stakes in technology companies – Logalty -, pharmaceuticals – Uriach – and agriculture and food -lusar.
The list of funds investing in the Spanish market is heterogeneous and includes Canadian pension funds such as Caisse de Depot et Placement, Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) or Cubico -the joint venture of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and PSP Investments-; global alternative management funds such as Brookfield, KKR or Macquarie- and numerous banks providing project finance. This list also includes China Three Gorges, the Chinese company that already owns 23 wind farms and 14 photovoltaic plants in Spain.
