What Opportunities Bring Spain To Foreign Investors?
What Opportunities Bring Spain To Foreign Investors?
Recently, more and more enterprises have attempted strategic expansion through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In a situation in which European states such as France, Great Britain, and Germany are undergoing negative growth in investment received, Spain is in the course of developing into European market’s new center, especially relying on Chinese investors, who have altogether invested 850 million Euros in Spain. Such a ‘going out’ movement is not only a hot trend in the current Chinese market, but also a brand-new service that A&Z Law Firm provides to its clients.
Appreciating this trend, A&Z Law Firm and its Spanish partners, namely Business Landing Group, co-organized the “Forum on Investment Environment in Spain and M&A Case Analysis” (hereinafter referred as “Forum”) on November 10th, 2016. The aim of the Forum was to make a holistic introduction on the Spanish investment environment and some real cases to Chinese investors, so that investors can make better decisions when investing in Spain.
More than ten junior and senior managers from enterprises like Shanghai UDC Business Consulting Co. Ltd. and Zhejiang Investment and Finance Association, who have interests in investing in Spain or investing in other countries through Spain, participated in this Forum.
First of all, Mr. Borrell, and Mr. Lluch, General Manager, made a speech on the topic of “Investment Environment in Spain and M&A Case Analysis,” putting an emphasis on the investment environment in Spain, especially on business opportunities in some key investment industries (including automobiles, medicines, cosmetics and renewable energy), followed by some analysis on actual M&A cases in those industries.
Mr. Marc Borrell and Mr. Lluis Lluch, by making specific case analysis, summarized and explained some common problems and main obstacles that foreign investors come up with when they are conducting M&A in Spain. For these problems, the speakers recommended Chinese investors to hire some credible local consulting companies to build up good communication channels with investment targets. The speakers further advised that the investors should ensure that their team includes persons with certain international investment expertise, fully utilize publicly known information on investment targets, understand local public investment organizations, obtain reports on market analysis and development trends of key investment industries, study other investors’ success experiences, demonstrate investors’ payment and technology capacity, as well as respect local life and work culture. At the same time, the speakers made more specific analysis on several key investment industries, accentuating the advantage of these industries in Spain, and used more actual cases to expand the scope of discussion.
After the speakers’ session, Ms. Catherine Wang, a partner lawyer at A&Z Law Firm, made a specific speech on the topic of “Main Legal Problems to Consider when Investing in Spain”. Ms. Wang introduced some legal problems and possible risks the Chinese enterprises may encounter when investing in Spain, and offered some specific suggestions on how to tackle such problems, by making an introduction-to and analysis-upon Spanish laws and regulations involving foreign investment, M&A, labor and employment, as well as anti-trust regulations.
After the Forum, audience members engaged with the main speakers, and created a solid foundation for more opportunities to cooperate in the future.
