Investment funds place their bets on Spain

The CNMV started to publicize data for short positions in June of 2010, although the regulator only noted those who made big moves: traders who kept open positions worth more than 0.5% of a given company.

Four major investment funds are taking speculative short positions of more than 100 million each. Another three funds (Dalton Capital, Discovery Capital and Meditor Capital) hold positions of less than 50 million euros.

The United States firm Amber Capital has the most money on the table. The fund, which has major investments in the global energy sector, is focusing its bearish trades on Abengoa, a stock on the Spanish market. At the end of March, Amber Capital controlled 4.469% of the company, which was the largest stake of any shareholder and valued at 55 million euros in stock. Amber Capital also took a 50 million euro short position in the construction firm ACS. No other hedge fund is an investor in ACS. Amber has more discrete investments in Antena 3 and FCC.

For its part, Marshall Wace has the highest number of Spanish companies in his portfolio. The British company is betting against Indra, Gamesa, Bankinter, Popular, FCC and Red Eléctrica. In the past several weeks, Spanish banks have paid more attention to this fund. Before the quarter ended, it increased positions in Bankinter and Popular and now it holds a majority share. For Marshall, the financial sector is a critical part of its strategy. According to the financial news company Bloomberg, Marshall controls 110 billion euros of public companies, including Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Warren Buffet's investing titan Berkshire Hathaway.