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CaixaBank Announces Building Center´s Assets Sell-Off

25/07/2014 – Expansion

CaixaBank has decided to shed majority of its REO assets originating from developer in-lieu payments and foreclosures. The properties are lodged in Building Center, a company founded in mid 2011 by the bank. At present, the firm owns assets valued at €6 billion.

The sale is a part of a larger, non-core asset divestment plan of the entity and it will be carried out by an orderly liquidation process.

The first two packages, named the “Port” and the “Bridge” have already been spotted by investment funds eyeing the Spanish property market in search of opportunities.

In detail, the “Port” portfolio consists of finished and empty houses and it was put up for sale at an asking price of €120 million. If it comes to the “Bridge”, the lot includes rental housing units valued at between €700 million and €800 million. This portfolio is said to be enjoying great popularity among such funds as Azora and Blackstone.

Residential units (homes and land) account for 80% of the entire CaixaBank´s firm´s portfolio, whereas the rest represent industrial properties, offices and shops, mostly located in Andalusia but also in Madrid and Barcelona.

The sale of Building Center´s assets embraces also land, to be apportioned in portfolios soon. Talking about their class, they are urban plots with approved building permits.

Building Center served to La Caixa as a warehouse for all REO assets foreclosed after March 2011. Prior to that time, the entity stored its reposssessions in Servihabitat XXI which mergered with Criteria and then vaporised.

Both the properties held by Building Center and Criteria are managed and traded by Servihabitat Servicios Inmobiliarios.

 

Original article: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: AURA REE