In total, the Spanish real estate sector doubled the number of transactions last year, to a total of 48, as revealed in the Spanish Real Estate, which is based on the report “Sovereign Wealth Funds 2016", published by IE Business School, KPMG in Spain and ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, where the behaviour and main tendencies of these inversion vehicles were analysed throughout 2015 and the first half of 2016.
The report was presented this Thursday by Francisco Javier Garzón, Managing Director of ICEX, Fernando García Ferrer, Responsible Member of Private Equity at KPMG in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA) and Javier Santiso, President of Sovereign Wealth Lab, IE Business School. According to this study, what stands out is the dynamism of the hotel sector, which received investment totalling 7,100 million dollars of sovereign funds, with Qatar Investment Authority as the most active investor. In turn, the technological sector saw 51 transactions, principally channelled through sovereign venture funds. On the other hand, the sector of commodities and natural resources became less attractive for funds, due in large part to the low price of crude. Another less active sector was luxury, where Qatari investment also predominates.
"Spain has an economy open to the world, sustainable and balanced, which is attracting the international investor with renewed interest, leading to an increase in direct foreign investment in recent years. With this favourable scenario sovereign funds have also increased in Spain in recent years. The transactions in these funds are ever more numerous, larger in volume and increasingly diversified form the sector point of view", states Francisco Javier Garzón, Managing Director of CEX, quoted in the same source.