2023-08-06 10:00:48
Private capital investment in Spain fell by 46% during the first half of 2023, to a total of 3,005 million euros in a set of 469 investments, according to calculations by SpainCap (formerly Ascri) published in July.
SpainCap, which represents the venture capital industry in spainexplained in a meeting with the media that, despite the drop in the first half of the year, the second best figure in the historical series has been recorded after the 5,656 million euros that were reached in the first half of 2022 (period with which which precisely compares what is harvested in this first half of the year).
Within the total of 3,005 million euros in this first semester, practically three-quarters have gone to ‘private equity’ and the rest to ‘venture capital’, have pointed out the representatives of the association.
The situation of reduction in volume can be extrapolated to the 469 operations that have been carried out in this half of the year, the second best historical record, but which represents a decline of 16% compared to the same period in 2022.
The president of the association, Oriol Pinya, has pointed out when analyzing the current situation that 2023 is a year full of challenges due to the war in Ukraine, the rise in interest rates (in the eurozone they are at 4%) and the persistence of underlying inflation.
“Decision-making is slower, because there is less visibility,” he declared when explaining the reduction in the volume of investments, although he has predicted a good second half of the year because some uncertainties, such as general inflation, are already clearing.
The study confirms that, depending on the type of investor, the appetite from abroad is maintained, both for ‘private equity’ and ‘venture capital’, given that they contributed 75% of the total volume invested in Spanish companies in this first semester through 105 investments, while national managers invested 659 million through 273 agreements.
The economic environment has also had an impact on the size of the investments and operations of more than one hundred million euros have been cut in half and have registered a volume of 1,668 million in the semester, almost half that of the previous year.
Similarly, operations of between ten and one hundred million euros have represented a total volume of 800 million in a total of 38 operations, which represents an amount 58% lower than in the first half of 2022 (about 1,916 million). .
Regarding the sectors of preference in this first half of the year, SpainCap highlights the preference for those that generate cash and that can best weather the economic slowdown, for which reason close to 70% of the total volume invested has gone to companies related to consumer products, ICT and, especially, health (almost half of the total volume).
The report also focuses attention on the dynamism in attracting new resources, which reflects the maturity of the sector, according to the representatives of SpainCap, since the ‘fundraising’ (funds raised by private capital to invest) from national investors has reached 1,343 million euros in the semester, 22% more than in the same period of 2022, which is a record.
Likewise, they have highlighted that the lower investment volume of this semester is due to waiting for a better context to operate, since at the end of last year the Spanish private managers recorded a ‘dry powder’ (amount of liquidity available) of something more than 6,000 million euros.
Regarding the divestments during the first six months of 2023, they presented a total volume of 502 million euros, which implies a decrease of 58% compared to the data for the first half of 2022, as a result of the lower number of exits in operations of relevance.
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