“MONEY is pouring in from everywhere,” said Emilio Botín, chairman of Santander, Spain’s largest bank, late in 2013. Others in southern Europe might say the same as they stumble over representatives of foreign-investment firms legging it round office blocks and down-at-heel plants looking for the deal of the century.Net foreign direct investment, broadly in retreat since 2007-08, is growing again, most strongly in Spain, followed by Italy, with Greece and Portugal still laggards (see chart 1). The totals are nowhere near their levels before the crisis but the ebbing tide seems to have turned.
Some of that is the old-fashioned sort of investment that foreign multinationals make in their subsidiaries. General Motors, Renault and Volkswagen are putting fresh money into their automotive plants in Spain; VW has done the same next door. Portugal has also attracted foreign investors, notably Chinese, through privatisations, and Greece is belatedly following suit. Private-equity auctions...
from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/1nZThjT
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