Bill Gates invests more than €100 million in Spanish construction company

Bill Gates's interest in Spain's construction industry could spell good news for the sector

Microsoft co-founder and multi-billionaire Bill Gates has purchased shares worth €113.5 million in Spanish construction firm FCC in a vote of confidence that could signal the beginning of an upturn in Spain’s beleaguered construction industry.

Since the economic crash of six years ago, Spanish construction firms have struggled to finance projects, hamstrung by weak demand, a lack of bank credit and oversupply. But Gates’s latest investment may be a sign that a recovery in Spanish property may be on the cards…

FCC’s main shareholder is Esther Koplowitz, philanthropist and heiress. She owns 10 per cent of the company, with Bill Gates now the second-largest shareholder, holding six per cent of the company.

Earlier this week shares in FCC rose to €17.25, even though the company is still locked in talks with lenders about a €4.3 billion debt that the company totted up before the end of last year. Despite making a profit in 2012 and losing €607.6 million in the first half of this year, FCC’s shares have risen by 152 per cent in the last six months after the company secured the rights to build a part of Saudi Arabia’s new metro system in its capital, Riyadh.

The Financial Times reports that the bulk of FCC’s business is now coming from orders outside Spain, which is perhaps what tempted Bill Gates to invest. However, such news should be treated with cautious optimism within Spain, where the construction industry has been streamlined, scaled back and made more profitable and transparent in the past few years.

With labour reforms stabilising the Spanish economy, foreign investors still tempted by Spain’s property offering, and unemployment no longer rising as fast as it once was, 2014 promises to be the year that Spain finally emerges from the financial straits that have mired the country in economic gloom for more than four years.