Investors See Spain As No-Brainer, Juicy Risk

December’s drop in unemployment meant a lot for Spaniards, but also for international investors.

Recovery could give many companies’ equity a big boost. And some big names are taking that into account. As we’ve been reporting for quite a while, there is a trend of major foreign investment operations in Spain in strategic sectors: Bill Gates’ purchase of 6% of Spanish construction company FCC for €113.5 million is a good example. And this will continue and speed up in the coming months.

“Pick one with net debt of 8 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation. A lively bet, known as FCC,” pointed out the Financial Times’ Lex on Friday, advising investors who are hungry for risk to take construction and infrastructure companies into account.

For T. Rowe Fund Manager Dean Tenerelli, Spain is a no-brainer: “It’s doing the right thing on a macro level. It had over 60 banks going into the crisis, and it will be down to a dozen. Spain will have a much better banking sector now. Bankia SA was one of the problem banks, but the bad properties were taken out,” he commented for The Washington Post when asked to weigh in the most interesting places to invest in 2014.