Slim Submits His Takeover Bid For Realia With A €257M Aval

29 February 2016 – Expansión

On Friday, the businessman Carlos Slim took another step forward in the process to acquire Realia through his holding company Inversora Carso, by requesting authorisation from Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) to launch a takeover bid for 100% of the company.

Slim, who currently owns a 30.3% stake in Realia, announced his commitment to submit a bank guarantee within the next seven days, issued by CaixaBank for €257 million, to cover all of the payment obligations that may result from the offer.

The Mexican magnate announced his intention to launch a takeover of Realia at the end of January, at a price of €0.80 per share, which values the company at €369 million. Slim plans to clean up its debt and turn it into a company with “a stable level of recurring revenues, in line with its level of indebtedness”. FCC – the largest shareholder of Realia, with a 36.9% stake – is not expected participate in the takeover bid.

With respect to the shareholder loan acquired from Sareb in 2015, Inversora Carso said that, in the event that the option to capitalise the convertible tranche of that loan was exercised, then a maximum number of 14,077,669 new shares could be subscribed, whereby increasing the company’s stake in Realia’s share capital by up to 2.96%.

A return to profits

Realia, which published its accounts on Friday, managed to reverse its losses in 2015 to generate profits of €17.2 million, compared with a loss of €77.5 million the previous year, thanks to the revaluation of its asset portfolio and a decrease in financial expenses resulting from a reduction in its debt balance.

The real estate company generated total revenues of €94.93 million in 2015, down by 17.7%, due to a decrease in the sale of properties and land, meanwhile the property business remained stable.

According to the financial plan, Realia reduced its gross financial bank debt by €457 million in 2015, to €1,254million, i.e. by 26.7% compared with the previous year.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake