Spanish private capital 2021 recovery with its second-best historical data and breaks record in venture capital investment with 1,942 million
The Spanish private equity sector is looking forward to the recent end of 2021 with satisfaction. The total investment reached 7,494 million euros, the second-best figure in the historical series, 2,583.8 million captured by the managers and a record year of venture capital, with 1,942 million euros invested in Spanish companies, 133% more year-on-year.
"The sector is living an excellent time (...) Is a market that has not stopped, that continues to find opportunities and that has a mature investment structure," said Aquilino Peña, president of the Association of Capital, Growth, and Investment (Ascri), which groups the managers and investment funds.
"The capture of resources has also been a good one, which means that it is a consolidated area, but that has capital to invest, so we can expect very good years, whenever we encounter operations, and nothing tells us that we no longer finding them," added the president of Ascri, which obtains its data from the platform European Data Cooperative (EDC) that contribute their data to several European associations of the sector.
Spanish private capital 2021 recovery
The 7,494 million euros invested in Spain between private equity and venture capital represent an increase of 19% compared to 2020, a figure only exceeded that of 2019 (8,527 million).
The invested assets are clearly marked by the international managers, who invested about 6,000 million of the totals. "This shows that Spain is still a good country to invest, where you can find profitability," said Peña, who heads Kibo Ventures and announced that the association of venture capital managers is preparing a report on the profitability of its investments.
These investments are distributed in 841 companies, the highest number in history, but very close to that of 2020 (838), but recorded a significant progress and major operations, more than 100 million euros, which were grouped 4.140 million, a 44% increase over the previous year, when accounted for 2.882 million.
Operations consolidate Spanish private capital 2021 recovery
These large operations include consolidated companies such as the purchase of Urbaser by Platinum Equity or Restaurant Brands Iberia by Cinven, but also digital companies such as Idealista or Jobandtalent. "These companies exist thanks to private capital, a few years ago we saw them in operations of less than 5 million", pointed out Oriol Pinya, vice president of Ascri.
Within the sector, venture capital has been the highlight, with a "completely record" year in the words of another of the vice presidents of the association, Alberto Gómez, since the 1,942 million euros invested in 691 operations represent a growth of 133% compared to the previous year.
This figure reflects the international trend but is higher in the case of Spain. "Investment in the United States has grown by 80%, in a highly evolved market, and at a European level it has grown by 100-110%. It's good to see the Spanish market growing faster," said Gómez, who heads the Adara Ventures fund.
Among the most important operations in the sector are Jobandtalent, Logtrust (Devo), TravelPerk, Wallapop, Factorial, Wallbox —referring to its round of the first half of the year, not to its exit to the New York Stock Exchange— or Playtomic. "In this list there are companies of technology, consumption, electric car... The composition of the grand rounds is very diversified," said the investor.
Resource needed for Spanish private capital 2021 recovery
The uptake of resources also reached a historical peak in 2021, until the 2.584 million, a 21% increase over the previous year, which means that asset managers private Spanish have an availability of 5,000 million to invest in companies, considering that these resources are in addition to the support of public funds as FondICO Global (ICO-Axis) and Innvierte (CDTI).
Private equity managers have been " happy "with the Startup Bill approved in December with news regarding the first project that was known in July, since for them it responds to" a historical demand "of the sector in terms of the taxation of their investments, although Peña has admitted that they are working on amendments to the text with “some nuances".
"We are satisfied with the music of the Startup Law and the part that touches us closest, which is the taxation of funds. We are doing mainly technical issues that clarify and leave no room for doubt," Peña added.
The text finally approved in December raises the maximum base of deduction for investment in start-ups from 60,000 to 100,000 euros per year, and increases the rate of deduction, which goes from 30% to 50%.
For his part, Oriol Pinya, CEO of Abac Capital, stressed that with this rule, "the Government has realized that the growth of the country has to come from innovation, not luck" "We have to continue advancing to have an innovation cluster and be in leading sectors worldwide", he added.
# Spanish private capital 2021 recovery #
