Last year, large sovereign funds injected 3,000 million euros into Spain, which was distributed to a dozen national companies. This number is the highest in the last fifteen years. Mubadala, Norges and GIC, the most active, tripled their participation in our country in the last two years. Their attention is distributed from the hydrocarbon and real estate sectors to the important digitization and sustainability, which goes through nursing homes, which seems to be a profitable business in a country of the elderly. Quickly, the State of Spain became a bargain for other states. The paradox arises that the same arguments with which our large headquarters companies were privatized at the end of the last century, saying that the public sector should not put their hands on the private sector, serve to eliminate the same companies from the heart of Spain is in the public pockets of other countries.
Almost everyone who was there paraded in Madrid, because some from the Middle East were not included in the exclusive league of rich sovereigns represented by the Ifswf, and not because of a lack of money, what it means, but because because in some countries they want to settle the practices against human rights that they themselves have implemented will not be considered much in their land. Some choose to eat, they think back to Arabia as they count the petrodollars and smooth their kufiya.
It looks like a motorcycle, as Pedro Sánchez said, who stopped at the last minute of the event in Madrid to take his photo to the delight of those who consider him a ‘seller of the homeland’. There are now one hundred large sovereign funds compared to 73 that existed ten years ago, and they operate more than eight times the GDP of Spain. It is to understand that the strong Moncloa and his family made it a point to appear there and present themselves as one more. Because that is the drama: foreign investment is welcome, but it is to create wealth, create jobs and grow our companies so that they can talk face to face with the great North American and Chinese titans. But not that, not that. These funds are actually masked countries, state fortunes trying to surf geopolitical tensions, high interest rates and runaway inflation. And what can I tell you about that, Spain and Sánchez know a little about it.
The big sovereign funds smell the blood of Spain and see with their eyes how interesting their investment is, with Ibex at a cheap price and a weak, deliquescent Government, which cannot stand in case of controversy. The bets are now on the developing countries and Spain, which should be the closest thing to them. In parallel they removed the positions of China, where the Administration strictly follows the entry of money from abroad and more so if it comes from the sovereign treasury. In an environment of difficulties and increasing regulation since the pandemic, these investment vehicles prefer to travel on the soft carpets of Spain, which also opens many other doors in Latin America. The beneficial effect on dividend yields after completing a complete whitewashing of the image set off alarm bells in the European Union, where even the short-sighted officials in Brussels saw that they were being fed by back door and to the agreement of some managers who believe that they have found the white knight that can save them from their financial difficulties with a ‘soft’ and long-term investment. They put down the dough and kept quiet. Pure chocolate. And there is none, because no one gives rials for pesetas.
While others are studying where to eat in Spain, inflation continues to snack on the Spanish, fueled by the price of olive oil, gold, and olives that look like caviar. The vice of money, Nadia Calvino no longer celebrated the holding of data on the cost of living and allowed the INE to take care of the work of thanatoesthetics, with other acronyms, the EIB, and the ‘happy’ Vestager determined to close the retreat in a ‘Sanchestein’ the government is even worse.
As a consolation, we are left with the trumpet of Sanchismo, which, fresh from the praise of the beloved leader of the United States, decided to rejoice that the core inflation fell below the 6% threshold for the first time in fourteen months, which reached 5.8 %..
It is worth reminding these sovereign funds of government cronyism that underlying inflation does not take into account the cost of energy or the cost of unprocessed food, which is exactly what is drowning families with debts and consumer loans to get by . They better stop talking and apply their calculations and instead of providing political aid for the few, they dedicate themselves to the economic relief of the many who are hitting rock bottom.
