LEX They’re back. Tuesday’s move by Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company to increase its stake in Cepsa, Spain’s second biggest oil producer, is the latest sign that Gulf investors are returning to form.
The region’s sovereign wealth funds hunkered down last year after a series of ill-timed bets on struggling banks was exacerbated by a sharp fall in oil prices. Gulf investors no doubt thought they were getting a great deal when they injected capital into banks such as Citigroup and Barclays. Events proved otherwise. Still, no one expected them to sit still forever. IPIC is paying €3.3bn for the 38 per cent of Cepsa held by Union Fenosa and Banco Santander. The deal, which will take IPIC’s stake to 47 per cent, came barely a week after Aabar Investments, an Abu Dhabi fund controlled by IPIC, paid €2bn for a 9 per cent stake in Germany’s Daimler.
