The Diplomat
Madrid received €20,944 million in gross productive investment from abroad in 2021, according to information provided by the Foreign Investment Register (RIE). The figure represents an increase of 14.6% over the previous year.
Madrid Investment Attraction (MIA), the Madrid City Council’s foreign investment attraction office, highlighted in a press release that “this figure means that the Madrid region attracted 72.8% of the total gross foreign investment (FDI) arriving in Spain, which represents 9% of the regional GDP”.
In this sense, they underline that Madrid “continues to lead in attracting companies and investment on a national scale and consolidates its position as one of the main European and global destinations for productive investment”.
Acquisitions had a very significant weight in the investment flows received by the Community of Madrid and accounted for 52.3% of total flows in 2021. Expansions carried out by existing foreign capital companies accounted for 27.1%, while new investments (greenfields and brownfields) accounted for the remaining 20.6%.
Countries with the highest volume of investment in Madrid
In 2021, Madrid received investments mainly from OECD countries (89.6%) and, fundamentally, European countries (58.1%), in line with the trend of the last decade.
The main investor in the year was France, with 6,484 million (31.0% of the total). Of this, almost 5,000 million corresponds to a single operation: the purchase of Cobra (ACS) by Vinci.
It is followed by the United States, with investment at similar levels to the previous year (3,275 million, -5.7%, 15.6% of the total for the year). Australia was the third largest investor in 2021, with 2,479 million (11.8% of the total). The purchase of Naturgy by the IFM fund, for 2,403 million, explains this significant presence of a country that previously had never had so much investment weight.
Greenfield projects in Madrid
In 2021, 178 new cross-border greenfield investment projects were announced in the Community of Madrid (36% more than in 2020), with an associated investment of USD 3,989 million (second best record in the 2003-2021 series) and the generation of 14,884 local jobs.
The municipality of Madrid has accounted for 84% of the projects received by the region since 2003, 73% of the investment and 71% of the employment. Madrid is the third city to receive the most greenfield projects in Europe since 2003 and the twelfth in the world. In 2021, the capital has risen to ninth place in the world.
Recovery of employment linked to foreign investment
Madrid has also led the recovery in employment levels linked to foreign investment. In the last five years available, 2014-2019, the figures reflect a 75% increase in employment linked to foreign investment in Madrid. With 582,928 jobs according to the latest available data, Madrid accounts for 34.2% of total employment in foreign companies in Spain.
