Month: July 2014

Madrid´s Metro Kick-Starts Auction of Its Plots

Since yesterday, Metro de Madrid oficially awaits bids from developers, co-ops and investment funds interested in participating in one of the biggest operations ever launched by Spanish capital´s subway. They shall deposit at least €2.4 million and an offer not lower than €81.8 million in order to be taken into account at the bidding for a 34.834 square meter area in the heart of Madrid.

Metro awards a plot located between the Bravo Murillo, the Reina Victoria and the Avenida Pablo Iglesias streets, where the firm´s depots currently stand on (pictured). The auction´s winner will be obliged to present a reform, reparcelling and develoment plan. Moreover, they will have to invest €30.7 million more in new depots for Metro.

So far, only Ibosa has submitted its bid for the plots. The developer selected the area for its Metropolitan project, assuming construction of 450 dwellings distributed over a residential tower and a building, as well as adding an office structure to the complex.

The operation is a part of a larger real estate enterprise by Metro which expects to earn €120 million from developing the total of 95.000 square meters. Aside from the Cuatro Caminos plot, the subway foresees taking action on the Plaza Castilla square and the Ventas district.

 
Original article: Cinco Días (by A. Ortín)
Translation: AURA REE

Metrovacesa Closes the Sale of Gecina at €1.54 Bn

The real estate firm announced it had sold its 26.74% stake in French Gecina for €1.54 billion. The stake equals to 16.809.610 shares transferred at a price of €92 each to institutional investors: Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridge, Norges Bank, Credit Agricole Assurances and others.

The new holding will be distibuted as follows: Norges Bank with a 9 % stake, Crédit Agricole Assurances (4.68%), joint venture of Blackstone and Ivanhoé (6.92%) and another Blackstone-related firm (1.46%).

Metrovacesa will intend the funds for paying off the company´s €1.6 billion indebtness.

 
Original article: Expansión
Translation: AURA REE

Gowaii to Add Four Hotels to Its Portfolio Each Year

After accomplishing few investments outside of Spain, Gowaii´s president and founder Javier Diaz (pictured) wants to grow in the hotel sector, not only in the country but also on other Mediterranean coasts and the Caribbeans. To achieve that, the businessman is going to open 3, 4 new establishments each year.

Not long ago, Gowaii purchased the Chamartin Hotel in Madrid from Husa, in spite of the fact that the establishment is rather urban.

The company is specialized in holiday accommodation along the Mediterranean Coast, the Canaries, the Balearic and the coasts of peninsular Spain.

For 2014, Gowaii ponders opening a new hotel in Barcelona and several other units in small provincial capitals.

Asked for his predictions for the Spanish tourist sector, Diaz points at July performance turing out to be poorer than expected, although figures might indicate just the opposite.

Original article: Cinco Días (by Laura Salces)
Translation: AURA REE

Greatest 2014 Rental Operation? Axa´s Move to New Headquarters

30/07/2014 – Cinco Dias

Drivers heading to Barcelona through the highway starting in Madrid know the building found at 81 Avenida de America street very well. Over the past three years, the property has been undergoing a refurbishment reaching deep into its concrete skeleton. But it gained a tenant.

Insurance firm Axa has come to agrement with family office Torre Rioja on renting the building and converting it into its headquarters. The operation, advised on by CBRE, has been named the largest office rental of the year.

The 23.600 square meter property rises up to five floors. It disposes of an underground garage for 380 cars and another one above the ground level for over 100 vehicles.

According to sources from the sector, renting a square meter in the area costs between 14 and 16 Euros monthly.

The building will be completely finished in March-April next year. Three years ago, Telefonica abandoned the property which now, thanks to the rehabilitation, is considered “the most technically advanced unit in Spain”.

At present, Axa is based in the Camino de Fuente de la Mora complex and the firm expects to leave it definitely in 2016.

Iñigo Enrich, CBRE´s national director for Office Agency, says the operation “proves the looming improvement in Madrid´s office market“. “A deal like this one was unimaginable a few months ago”, he adds.

Torre Rioja, the vendor, has been present on the Spanish market since 1958. The family owns a number of office buildings in Madrid, found at 10 Julian Camarillo and at 22 Mesena streets, a unit sitting near to the highway direction La Coruña, the Torre Rioja building close to the Plaza de Castilla square and the property which now will be rented by Axa. Apart from these, the company holds two 4* hotels and a housing development in Argandas del Rey.

At the moment, the 5-storey, 20.000 square meter building located adjacently to the unit bought by Axa is still occupied by Telefonica that will eventually move out from it in the mid 2015. Then, Torre Rioja will launch refurbishment works.

Original article: Cinco Días (by Alberto Ortín Ramón)
Translation: AURA REE

Hispania Purchases 199 Dwellings in Madrid For an Amount of €29.9 Mn

30/07/2014 – Press Release by Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios

Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios, S.A. (Hispania), through its subsidiary Hispania Real SOCIMI, S.A.U., has acquired in two separate deals two residential buildings totalling 199 dwellings located in the Madrid region, out of which 115 are in Majadahonda and 84 in San Sebastián de los Reyes. The deals include the purchase of 227 parking spaces and 115 storage units. The total acquisition price has amounted to €29.9 million euros.

The dwellings are currently rented, with an overall occupancy rate of 87%. They are high quality assets, located in consolidated areas in the north and north-west of the Madrid region.

“These new acquisitions of residential assets fit perfectly in our strategy of investing in high quality assets with a value creation potential through an investment and management plan. We are very confident in the value creation opportunity which these assets present, given their location in consolidated areas within the Madrid region”, asserted Concha Osácar, Board Member of Hispania.

Azora, external manager of Hispania, has extensive experience in the investment, repositioning and management of residential assets under rent through a team of c. 95 professionals, who manage c. 100 buildings with more than 10,500 dwellings across 17 Spanish provinces.

Majadahonda assets

The 115 dwellings acquired are within a closed residential community. They have an average surface of 85 square metres, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, as well as associated parking spaces and storages.

This promotion is located next to the commercial area of El Carralero and has multiple additional services in its surroundings: hospitals, schools, universities –Francisco de Vitoria and Somosaguas Campus of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid– and sport facilities, including golf course.

With a population close to 71,000 inhabitants, Majadahonda is one of the municipalities with the highest rent per capita in the Madrid region. Majadahonda is located in the north-west of the Madrid region and is well communicated with the city centre by the A-6 and M-503 highways and thanks to a wide public transportation network.

San Sebastián de los Reyes assets

The 84 acquired dwellings have two and three bedrooms and are distributed across two buildings. They have an average surface of 100 square metre and have parking spaces and storage units linked to the apartments.

Located in the north of Madrid, next to the commercial areas of Plaza Norte 2 and Factory, the dwellings have access to numerous services in the surroundings: hospitals, sports facilities, including golf course and subway.

 

Article published by the courtesy of: Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios

Socimi Lar Acquires Two Buildings in Madrid For Joint €33.3 Mn

Yesterday, Lar España Real Estate Socimi bought a building of commercial type located in Villaverde (Madrid). The newly listed Spanish REIT purchased the property rented to Media Markt since 2003 for around €9.1 million. Constructed in 2002, until now it had belonged to Invesco Real Estate. The bulding´s GLA (gross lettable area) spans over 4.391 square meters distributed over two floors. Additionally, there are 114 parking spaces underground.

Today, Lar España Real Estate Socimi has closed a purchase of an office building found at the number 336 of the Arturo Soria street in Madrid. The REIT vehicle paid €24.2 million to IVG Institutional Funds GMBH for the property.

The nine-storey building presently houses companies like Clear Channel, Banco Santander and Segurcaixa Adeslas (occupying three floors alone), having an overall occupancy rate of more than 80%.

In total, the property offers an 8.663 m² GLA above the ground level, as well as 193 garage spaces.

This is the third investment of Lar España since its flotation on March 5th. The Socimi plans to improve the building with view to strengthen its perception in the area and optimize its energy efficiency.

The Socimi barged in the market with the purchase of two shopping malls: the Txingudi in Irun and the Las Huertas in Palencia earlier in March.

Together with that investment, the total amount spent on real estate by Lar España reached €72.7 million, representing about 18% of its IPO (€400 million).

The Socimi poaches office and retail properties in Spain.

 
Original article: Expansión (after: EFE), El Mundo
Translation: AURA REE

Servihabitat Makes €106 Million in H1, Up 26% YOY

30/07/2014 – Expansion

Servihabitat, a property and loan servicer controlled by TPG (51% of the stake) and CaixaBank (49%) earned a staggering €106 million during the first half of 2014, meaning by 26% more than in the same period of 2013.

In total, Servihabitat took in over €1.5 billion through sales and rentals (developer balance excluded). The firm´s ebitda post €41 million.

The servicer managed a real estate portfolio consisting of 166.466 units at the end of June, a volume by 8.5% greater in comparison to the second half of 2013. The value of both financial and property assets hit round €43 billion.

Real estate assets solely represent a €24.89 billion worth, whereas property-backed mortgages amount to €3.24 billion. Other financial assets taken under Servihabitat´s management recently represent €14.98 billion.

 

Original article: Expansión

Translation: AURA REE

Hispania Earns €364.000 in the First Half of 2014

Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios, a Spanish REIT firm held by magnate George Soros, gained a net profit of €364.000 during the first half of the ongoing year, according to the information made public by the National Stock Exchange Market Commission (or the CNMV by its acronym in Spanish).

The group told the result is mostly due to the first returns proceeding from the new acquisitions: Hotel Guadalmina (Marbella) and Parque Diagonal Mar (Barcelona), as well as the income obtained from its cash management.

Socimi, as REITs listed in Spain are called, debuted on the Continuous Market on March 14th, raising €550 million at its IPO and later on appreciating by 4%.

The total investment by the firm reached €132.39 million at the end of June, representing 24.81% of its initially raised funds.

 
Original article: Expansión
Translation: AURA REE

Acciona Boosts Turnover by 43% Due to Asset Transfers

Acciona´s net profit showed a fair €68 million in the first half of this year, meaning 42.9% more than in 2013. According to the group, the positive result was driven by asset sales and enlargement of its wind plants.

The firm chaired by José Manuel Entrecanales prolonged service life of its wind power plants, cutting in necessary funds by €61 million.

Moreover, Acciona´s accounts include €28 million capital gains deriving from sales of its wind farms in Germany and another €8 million from a divestment in Barcelona´s tram. The company´s earnings have been seriously crippled by a reform in renewable energy regulation.

 
Original article: Expansión
Translation: AURA REE

Acqusition of 1.152 Offices of Santander Brings Oleguer Pujol to Anti-Corruption Investigation

29/07/2014 – El Confidencial

The reason why the ex-leader of Catalonian Government (Generalitat), Jordi Pujol, confessed having undeclared heritage in Andorra becomes perfectly clear. Local police have been interrogating one of his sons, Oleguer Pujol Ferrusola, for the purchase of Santander´s office network for which he paid over €2 billion at the end of 2007 and four other suspicious transactions. Once the police report delivered, Spain´s anticorruption prosecutor´s office opened criminal investigations.

The Internal Affairs Unit has been watching the businessman carefully since it had received an information about some odd movements linked to the purchase of 1.152 offices from Santander. The murky element is the origin of the funds necessary for the purchase, thought to be a subject to money laundering. The acquisition was conducted through Samos Servicios y Gestiones,  a firm established only one month prior to the transaction with social capital floor of €3.010. Later in December, a sole partner joined the company – the Netherlands-based “Cuius Holding” chaired by Oleguer Pujol.

Changing the companies´ addresses or names, although the owners remained the same, was a quite popular practice that time, excercised in Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and in Luxembourg. Among the firms based in these countries and related to the youngest Pujol one may find, for instance, Drago Real Estate, Mare Nostrum Capital, Drago Mediterranean, Cuius Holding, Sant Capital or Pavone Investment. In Spain, the suspect operates via Samos Servicios y Gestiones, Drago Capital and Longeshore.

In 2008, Cuius changed the name and Oleguer Pujol stepped back from the president´s office to take this position in Madrid-based Drago Capital the following year. Controlled from Amsterdam by Drago Mediterranean Cooperatief, the affiliate purchased the network of Santander, as well as several properties in Barcelona and Madrid from Grupo Prisa in 2008 for €200 million through another arm Drago Real Estate. Also, he acquired some land in Melilla for €15 million, a few properties from Bankia for €100 million and another unit in the Canaries through firm Servifonia Plus.

Oleguer Pujol had continued to play his roles as a proxy, CEO and vice-president of Samos until 1st April 2013, when revelations about the foreign accounts of Pujol started to leak out. He also led Drago until January 2013 when the real scandal burst.

For the investigators, the very fact that Cuius Holding was based in the Netherlands was not random but it could have been created to redirect funds to the Netherlands Antilles, however the data is still unconfirmed. Two years ago, the police scrutinised the younger Pujol for owning a €137 million in real estate and almost €400 million in assets in Switzerland.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor´s Office has decided to run the criminal investigations to examine and analyze possible penal repercussion on the firms. Probably, the National High Court will have to intervene in the foreign companies´cases.

Oleguer Pujol´s interrogation follows an earlier trial of his older brother Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, who was accused of money laundering and fiscal offence by damping money to tax paradises and dodging contribution to the Spanish Treasury. Precisely, the judge is awaiting a report by the Police´s Fiscal and Economic Crime Unit and the Tax Office before it decides whether or not to carry on with the interrogation and declare him and his wife Merce Girones the defendants.

In its last but not final report, the Police stated a considerable amount of money could be involved in the case, initially stated at €32 million, might have proceeded from commissions charged for public works and not from service providing as he keeps defending. If this is true, famous political party CiU might get into trouble.

Another son of the politician, Oriol Pujol, is also involved into an issue concerning selling Technical Inspection of Vehicles certificates, far away from the money diversion behind the back of the Treasury.

 

Original article: El Confidencial (by Carlota Guindal)

Translation: AURA REE