Javier Santiso (ESADE): "Spain should become the gateway to Europe for the multilatinas"

More than 2,500 ESADE graduates attended the 18th ESADE Alumni Annual Conference today at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya in Barcelona. The event featured an appearance by Antonio Brufau, Chairman and CEO of Repsol, who was presented with the 2013 ESADE Award in recognition of his distinguished career.

The Annual Conference opened with welcome remarks by Miguel Trías, President of ESADE Alumni, and Eugenia Bieto, Director General of ESADE, and it closed with an address by Andreu Mas-Colell, Catalan Minister of Economy and Knowledge.

Spain as Europe's Latin American hub
Javier Santiso, Vice President of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics (ESADEgeo), delivered the keynote address, entitled "Latin America 2.0: The Rise of the Multilatinas". In his talk, Mr. Santiso noted that the world is realigning in a way that favours emerging markets. "This is not just a rebalancing of the financial, commercial and industrial wealth of nations," he declared, "but also a massive rebalancing of innovation and technology." According to Prof. Santiso, the rise of Latin American economies presents two opportunities for Spanish companies: the chance to internationalise towards these burgeoning markets, and the chance to benefit from the internationalisation of multilatinas. "This is a unique opportunity for Spain to position itself as a hub for Latin American countries in Europe – a bridge and a gateway for these multinationals to enter Europe, and even Africa and Asia," declared Prof. Santiso.

"Of all the Latin American multinationals, about 150 are currently ramping up their internationalisation efforts," said Prof. Santiso. "And that's without counting the medium-sized companies." At the top of a ranking of global Latin American companies published by América Economía, he explained, is the Brazilian giant JBS-Friboi, a food-processing company with more than 128,000 employees and a presence in 22 countries. Next in the ranking – dispelling one of the persistent myths about the region – is the Miami-based wireless distributor Brightstar, which was founded by Bolivian entrepreneur Marcelo Claure and is now the global leader in its sector. In third place is LATAM, an airline formed by the merger of Chile's LAN and Brazil's TAM, which employs more than 53,000 workers and transports 65 million passengers each year. The other top-ranked global companies include Mexico's CEMEX and Bimbo, Argentina's Tenaris, and Brazil's Vale, each with an annual turnover of more than US$10 billion.

"Spain has the chance to become a key player in the expansion of these companies," declared Prof. Santiso. "What's more, over the past five years, Latin America's foreign direct investment in Europe has shot up by about 20%." Noting that fewer than half of the top 150 multilatinas have offices in Europe, Prof. Santiso urged Spanish companies to reformulate their relationship with Latin America in order to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the region. He added that Spain is home to the European offices of just 12 Latin American multinationals – fewer, in fact, than the number present in the United Kingdom. Prof. Santiso also noted that the internationalising multilatinas "have a higher market capitalisation than many European multinationals, including the Spanish ones".

"Spain should act as a receiver – not just an issuer – of investments and settlements," said Prof. Santiso towards the end of his address. "The crisis has transformed the European business landscape into a vast hunting ground filled with prey that are very appetising to emerging multinationals."

Antonio Brufau, winner of the 2013 ESADE Award
During the Annual Conference, ESADE Alumni presented the 2013 ESADE Award to Antonio Brufau, Chairman and CEO of Repsol. Mr. Brufau accepted the award personally.

The ESADE Awards are sponsored by ESADE Alumni, the school's alumni association, as a means of honouring organisations and individuals whose careers, activities or services have demonstrated the values that define the founding spirit of ESADE Business School and set a good example for others.

This year's ESADE Award was granted to Mr. Brufau for his "brilliant management career and extraordinary combination of strategic vision, innovation and sustainability".

At last year's ESADE Alumni Annual Conference, the 2012 ESADE Awards were presented to Inditex Chairman Pablo Isla and IKEA President Mikael Ohlsson.

An outstanding executive career
Antonio Brufau: Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the University of Barcelona and Honorary Doctorate from Ramon Llull University. Over the course of his business career, Mr. Brufau has served on the board of directors of various companies and banks, including Enagás, Abertis, Aigües de Barcelona, Colonial, Suez, CaixaHolding, CaixaBank France and CaixaBank Andorra. Until December 2005, he was the only Spanish member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). From July 2002 to July 2005, he served as President of Círculo de Economía in Barcelona.

Today, in addition to holding the post of Chairman and CEO of Repsol, Mr. Brufau is Vice Chairman of Gas Natural Fenosa and Chairman of the Repsol Foundation.