While Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, took an interest in Madrid’s creative businesses this weekend, other high-profile visitors, representatives of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, arrived in the city to hold their annual meeting behind closed doors. in one of the four towers on Paseo de la Castellana, that of the Eurostars hotel. If Cook represents a company valued at 2.7 trillion dollars, the sovereign funds do the same with nearly 11 trillion under management, several times the GDP of Spain.
Despite the disparity of origins – the elderly owe their fortune to oil – these funds have in common the need to “adapt investment strategies” to a new global environment, according to the report that served as the basis for the meeting of the International Forum of Sovereign Weath Funds (IFSWF). The moment, they indicate, is marked by inflation and interest in assets related to technology, the ecological transition and real estate.
The governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, and the acting vice presidents of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, and of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, paraded through the meeting. In its meetings with investors, the Government emphasizes the attractiveness of Spain, which several sovereign funds have opted for in recent years.
Representatives from companies such as Iberdrola and Telefonica also participated in the meeting. The first has the Qatari sovereign fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) among its first investors, with 8.6%, while the Saudi fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) has just bought 9.9% of Telefónica. The Government is waiting for him to request permission to exercise his political rights.
The meeting report is based on the premise that, “after several years of increasing globalization, international trade and a benign credit environment, investors face an increasingly complex and uncertain environment.” “Multipolarity” is “evident” and the “digital dimension” gains relevance, he says.
Real estate assets are in the focus of the funds “despite the pressure of rising interest rates.” Its link to inflation offers “a degree of protection, making investments in real estate attractive in the long term.” Last year, sovereign funds tripled investment in this area, says the report, which also highlights the “solid fundamentals” of the commitment to technology. Renewables and the ecological transition complete the main areas of interest.
The Madrid meeting included among its organizers the development financing company Cofides, which in the absence of a large local sovereign fund carries out some of its functions. These days – the meeting ends today with a visit to Toledo – more than 200 representatives from 45 funds and organizations have participated.
The president of IFSWF, Obaid Amrane, highlighted among other things the importance of the meeting to “help promote greater understanding of the different roles of sovereign funds at the national and international level,” according to statements sent by Cofides.
Leading executives from sovereign wealth funds such as the Chinese CIC, the Emirati Mubadala, the Brazilian BNDS, the Indonesian IIA, the Qatari QIA and the Singaporean GIC participated in the discussions, in which access to the press was not allowed.
