EU and sovereign wealth funds

This diploma thesis is focused on investment activities of sovereign wealth funds on EU markets and Spain market in particular. European Union is traditional destination for capital inflows however, this region is struggling with low level of investments in the recent years. For this reason, European Commission introduced the Investment Plan for Europe, the so-called Juncker Plan in 2014. The purpose of the plan is to support inflow of foreign investments and mobilize private capital. On the other hand, there are sovereign wealth funds, state owned entities managing significant amount of assets derived from balance of payments or commodity exports of the country. EU and European companies are one of the principal recipients of SWF’s capital however, concerns have risen claiming SWF’s investments may put in danger some strategic areas in domestic economies or acquire technological know-how and transfer it to the third countries. The thesis confronts the investment behaviour of important sovereign wealth funds with those concerns. An analysis evaluates which type of investments SWF prefer, how the preferred investment prevails and if SWF’s investment activities can represent a threat to EU markets.