Carlos Slim Positions Himself for a Spanish Real-Estate Recovery
- Mexican's investment in builder FCC seen as sign of optimism
- Soros, Gates among investors lured by Spain's economic rebound
Carlos Slim.
Photographer: Into Ocon/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Mexico’s Carlos Slim is pushing further into investments in Spain, where fellow billionaires George Soros and Bill Gates have also made bets, as he wagers on the European nation’s emergence from a property crash.
Slim, the world’s fourth-richest person on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, made a bid for Barcelona-based Fomento de Construcciones & Contratas SA last month through his financing vehicle, Inversora Carso. The move culminated a series of investments by Slim that began in 2014 to shore up the balance sheet of one of Spain’s biggest builders. As part of the deal, Carso also bid for Madrid-based developer Realia Business SA, of which FCC owns a 37 percent stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.