Month: April 2016

Carmena Unblocks Construction Of 1,300 Homes In Arroyo Fresno

29 April 2016 – Cinco Días

Around 1,200 cooperative members can now see the way out of their housing investments in the new Madrilenian neighbourhood of Arroyo Fresno. Yesterday, at the meeting of the Governing Body, the Town Hall of Madrid approved the the plans to unblock the urban development of this new area in the north of the city, next to Herrera Oria.

According to a statement from the Town Hall, the team led by Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) hereby “put an end to a long process”, which began in 1999. The new neighbourhood, which was divided into two sections, saw the completion of the construction of 1,957 homes in one section, and the paralysis of the construction of 1,283 homes in the other section, due to the absence of the necessary land subdivision plans. In this way, the uncertainty that was looming over 1,200 families, registered with the different cooperatives, has come to an end.

The paralysation of the project was caused in part by the fact that the Municipal Housing and Land Company (EMVS) had not paid off the debt that it owed to the Town Hall of Madrid, amounting to €29.7 million, according to sources at the Town Hall. Furthermore, the amount was not even recognised in the accounts of the municipal company. This has been now corrected, with the recognition of a liability by the current Board of Directors of the entity, a review of its accounting statements and a capital increase.

The affected area in Arroyo Fresno is located in the south west of the neighbourhood. With a surface area of 734,154 m2, the plots resulting from the plan that has been approved have a total buildable area of 23,087 m2 for residential use, allocated in its entirety for social housing, and 145,031 m2 for other uses (other housing, commercial and tertiary).

According to a study performed last year by the real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank and the Fundación Asprima, the land in this area has become the most expensive of all of the new urbanisations in the city, with prices ranging between €1,600/m2 and €1,800/m2.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Oceanwood Becomes NH Hoteles’ 2nd Largest Shareholder

29 April 2016 – Expansión

The British fund manager Oceanwood Capital Management has strengthened its shareholding in NH Hoteles to obtain a 10% stake in the hotel chain, whereby overtaking the second largest shareholder, Hesperia, which holds a 9.1% stake. Oceanwood has informed the market that it owns 10% of the share capital, split between shares (8.746%) and financial instruments (1.254%), compared with the 7.58% stake that it held before. According to the latest data from the CNMV, the group has 350 million voting rights, which are worth more than €1,510 million, at market prices.

In addition, the co-Chairman of NH Hoteles, José Antonio Castro, the Chairman of Grupo Inversor Hesperia, has reported the purchase of 130,000 indirect shares with a unitary value of €3.60, which represents a total price of €468,000. Castro acquired these shares at a 20% discount with respect to yesterday’s closing price.

Of the twelve members that currently sit on the Board of Directors of NH Hoteles, besides the CEO, who serves as an Executive Director, there are four representatives from HNA, two from Hesperia, one from Oceanwood and four independent directors. Moreover, at its next general shareholders’ meeting, NH Hoteles will propose the appointment of Taisa Markus as an Independent Director, and so the Group’s Board will once again comprise 13 members.

HNA continues growing

Meanwhile, the main shareholder of NH Hoteles, the Chinese group HNA Group, with a 29.5% stake, has agreed to buy the hotel business of Carlson Rezidor, the thirteenth largest hotel chain in the world by size, according to the Hotels ranking and the owner of brands such as Radisson, Park Inn and Park Plaza.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Carmena Authorises Wanda’s Plans For Edificio España

29 April 2016 – Expansión

The Governing Body of the Town Hall of Madrid, chaired by the mayoress, Manuela Carmena, has tenatively approved the detailed plans for Edificio España and has authorised the “volumetric remodelling” proposed by the Chinese Group Wanda, which owns the property.

Now, a 20-day period of public consultation will begin. Following those discussions, the document will be approved definitively and then the relevant building permits may be requested.

The approved document defines the plans for the volumes of the rear part of the property and also requires the maintenance of its original protected façades.

A representative from the Sustainable Urban Development team, José Manuel Calvo, explained yesterday that he has agreed a work schedule with Wanda, which includes holding a preliminary meeting on 4 May to form a technical team.

Calvo added that, the different detailed aspects may well be defined within the next two months, so that the necessary measures can be taken to “grant the licences and allow the construction work to begin”.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Banco Sabadell Launches Fund To Invest In Parking Lots

29 April 2016 – Expansión

Banco Sabadell is exploring new ways of diversifying the investments of its private banking clients in the current low interest environment. The financial entity has just created a private equity fund called Parking Rotation Capital FCR, a vehicle through which it will invest in the purchase of short-stay car parks in Spain and Portugal.

The fund, which has already been registered in the CNMV, will be managed by Sabadell Inversión and is starting life with a committed capital of more than €31 million. This figure has been contributed by the clients of Sabadell Urquijo Banca Privada and by pension funds, says Cirus Andreu, Director of Investments, Products and Analysis at Banco Sabadell.

“We are launching this fund in order to offer better returns to our private banking and institutional clients”, says Andreu. The objective is to reach yields equivalent to those generated by other private equity investments, rather than those currently being generated by fixed income.”We expect to see very low interest rates until 2018, which means that we need to diversify portfolios and invest in liquid positions, with maturity horizons of seven to nine years”, explained the Executive of Sabadell, who hopes to achieve yields of more than 8% through this new vehicle.

The idea is that Parking Rotation Capital FCR will co-invest in the car park sector with two other Spanish funds so as to be in a position to invest in larger operations. Thus, Sabadell has joined forces with the financial services firm Altamar Capital Partners, founded by Claudio Aguirre, and with Firmium Capital, a new investment company, which has created a division specialising in car parks with funds raised from high net worth individuals and institutional investors.

Sabadell, Altamar and Firmium expect to spend €150 million on the acquisition of short-term car parks that are already operating and that have extensive future operational time horizons. They are looking for urban car parks that generate cash flows and recurrent yields.

According to Cirus Andreu, the car park ownership market in Spain is very fragmented, which means there is a great opportunity for a specialist fund to lead the concentration of the sector. During the first phase, it will optimise the commercial and operational management of the parking lots and, over the medium term, it will group together assets into different portfolios for their subsequent sale to wealthy investors.

Experience

Firmum’s partners include the son of Juan Abelló, Cristian Abelló Gamazo – who was a Director at Saba, the leading company in the sector -, Bernardino Díaz-Andreu, who has spent his professional career at Torreal – owner of 20% of Saba -; Estanis Jasinski, who comes from UBS; and Fernando Pire Abarca, who led the car park division at the Isolux Corsan group. The partners of Firmum have been involved in the purchase of 34,000 parking spaces in total.

Meanwhile, in September 2015, Altamar Capital Partners launched Altamar Infraestructure Income FCR, a fund that expects to raise €400 million to invest in infrastructures and “real assets” to combat the volatility of other financial assets and circumvent the low interest rates.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergi Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Málaga Is The Most Profitable RE Market In Spain

28 April 2016 – Málaga Hoy

The city of Málaga is centre stage once again for dozens of domestic and international investors and not just because of its good climate and cultural facilities, but because there is money to be made there. And more so than in the country’s other capital cities. In the real estate market, Málaga generates higher returns than the national average and, what’s more, the highest returns of any city on its commercial premises and the second highest returns on its garages.

That is according to a study published yesterday by the real estate portal Idealista, which analyses the percentage profit obtained from investments in a real estate product and their subsequent rental income. In the specific case of Málaga capital, the gross yield during the first quarter of 2016 exceeded that obtained during the same period last year across all parameters, which were already positive.

This year, if you acquire a home and then rent it out, you obtain, on average, a return of 5.9%, i.e. seven tenths more than last year. That exceeds the national average, although only just, given that the average for Spain is 5.7%; Lérida is the most profitable province, with average returns of 8%.

That is one of the factors that has driven the sale and purchase of homes in Málaga over the last two years. The crisis caused a collapse in house prices, which fell by up to 50% in some cases, but encouraged investors, who bought houses for around €100,000 or €150,000 in cash to rent them out. It is worth noting that the returns on private and public financial products are very low…For example, a 10-year government bond generated a return of 1.4% in 2015 and now offers 1.5%, four points lower than the return generated from buying (and leasing out) a home.

According to this report, in Málaga city, the best assets to buy are commercial premises, because they generate a gross return of 10.4%, the highest in the country. The improvement in one year is striking – during the first quarter of 2015, the yield of commercial premises amounted to 8.1%, which represented the third highest in the country, after Córdoba and Granada. In just one year, that yield has increased by more than two points and has exceeded the growth in the other provinces, in such a way that Córdoba has remained almost equal and others, such as Lérida, Zaragoza and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have surpassed 8%. At the opposite end of the scale, Castellón and Cáceres are the Spanish capitals where yields on commercial premises generate the lowest margin, although even there, they come in above 5%, which is not bad at all considering the return on fixed income securities.

Garages also represent a good investment in Málaga, given that they offer returns of 5.5%, the second highest in the country, surpassed only by Murcia. In the case of offices, returns amount to 6%.

And so, following the catastrophe of the crisis, the real estate market is gradually building up its strength again. Property developers are increasing the number of permits they are requesting to build new homes, although the overall levels are still low, and many banks have started developing properties themselves to improve their assets.

Original story: Málaga Hoy (by Ángel Recio)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde Finalises Acquisition Of 40% Of La Finca Business Park

28 April 2016 – Expansión

Procisa– the real estate company owned by the García Cereceda family – is finalising an agreement with the American fund Värde Partners to sell it a 40% stake in its office business, which includes, amongst others, assets in the exclusive La Finca Business Park, located in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), according to sources in the sector. (…)

Procisa, the group that specialises in offices and luxury residential developments, recently constituted a company under the name Grupo La Finca and divided its business into two distinct areas: one operating in the office segment, which is where Värde will acquire its stake; and the other operating in the residential business, which will continue to be fully owned by Procisa.

Susana García Cereceda will continue to lead the new Grupo La Finca, where she will serve as CEO, the same role that she currently performs in Procisa’s family business.

In the same way, García Cereceda will lead the two business lines into which the group has been divided.

To complete the organigram of the new real estate company, it is expected that new members with experience and background in the sector will join the company over the next few months.

Residential business

In terms of the residential business, Grupo La Finca wants to expand through new housing developments, as well as in the exclusive development in Pozuelo de Alarcón, next to the Parque Empresarial. The main features of this urbanisation include security, privacy and exclusivity. The group’s intention is to develop a new complex, to complement the detached and terraced houses that currently comprise La Finca.

With its upcoming investment in La Finca Global Assets (the name of La Finca’s office division), Värde Partners, which currently controls the real estate division of Grupo San José, with a 51% shareholding, and which also owns a stake in Popular’s servicer Aliseda, will take a leap into the high standing office business, which will allow it to expand its presence in the commercial and professional business segment in the future.

The private equity fund Värde Partners has been one of the most active investors in Spain since the crisis began. Its first major operation was closed last August, when it acquired 51% of the real estate company San José to construct 1,500 homes in Spain.

In 2014, it purchased 51% of Banco Popular-e’s card business, whereby the entity recorded profits of more than €400 million.

Moreover, a year earlier, it acquired, together with Kennedy Wilson, the real estate arm of Popular, Aliseda, for approximately €800 million. At the global level, the fund, founded in Minnesota in 1993, manages more than USD 40,000 million and has 200 employees around the world, of which 65 are professional investors with more than 12 years of experience.

From now on, its assets in Spain will include La Finca Global Assets, whose assets comprise not only the La Finca business park, but also other iconic buildings owned by Procisa, including a business centre comprising seven, 7-storey buildings on Calle Marcelo Spínola and another property comprising three, 7-storey buildings on Calle Martínez Villergas. (…).

Meanwhile, the park in La Finca, has a surface area of premium leasable space covering 27,000 m2, comprising 20 buildings (16 offices and 4 for the provision of services for use by office workers). Current tenants include companies such as Orange and Microsoft. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

INE: Mortgage Signings Rose By 15.9% In February

28 April 2016 – Expansión

The signing of new mortgages to purchase homes increased by 15.9% in February, up from the 10.6% increase recorded in January, but well below the rises seen in years gone by. In total, 24,887 mortgage contracts were signed, according to the provisional data published yesterday by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE).

Experts in the sector point to a slight slowdown in the recovery, given that although the data is positive and growth remains in the double digits, it is significantly lower than the rate of growth recorded just a year ago, according to Fernando Encinar, Head of Research at the real estate portal idealista.com.

In the same vein, Beatriz Toribio, Head of Research at fotocasa.com, notes that we have seen a moderation in the growth of mortgage lending in Spain in January and February, and that this has come despite the broad and competitive range of mortgage products that the banks are offering. Nevertheless, Toribio points out that we have now seen 21 consecutive months of increases “and that tells us that mortgage lending is now normalising in our country”.

In her opinion, for the real estate sector to recover completely, the lending figure has to be consolidated because without financing, there will be no recovery.

Meanwhile, the Director of Research at pisos.com, Manuel Gandarias is more optimistic. He thinks that “the annual variation will continue to grow in a significant way, and if it does so throughout the next quarter, then we will be talking about continuous growth in mortgage lending for two consecutive years”.

During 2015, and so far in 2016, the number of homes purchased using financing has grown stronger as a percentage of the number of total purchases to account for three out of every four acquisitions.

The value of mortgages constituted over homes in February amounted to €2,699.2 million, up by 14.4% compared with the same month in 2015 and by 9.7% compared with the previous month. This type of loan, for the acquisition of homes, accounted for 54.2% of the total in February. One of the main findings to emerge from INE’s data relates to the interest rates being applied to loans.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cinven Offers €1,300M To Outbid EQT In Auction For Hotelbeds

27 April 2016 – Expansión

The private equity firm Cinven, which has invested heavily in Spain over the last two years, may take a leap forward if its bid for the Hotelbeds group goes ahead. TUI AG put the company up for sale at the end of 2015.

Sources close to the sales process indicate that Cinven has put an offer on the table, which values the tourism company at €1,300 million. The Nordic fund EQT is also participating in the bidding and sources do not rule out the possibility of other interested groups participating in what now seems to be the final stretch of the sales process of the Hotelbeds Group.

The company, a subsidiary of the Germany group TUI AG, works with 75,000 hotels all over the world and offers rooms to tour operators and travel agents around the globe. Hotelbeds, which receives more than 25 million hotel bookings per year, is one of the companies that emerged from the tourism sector thanks to new technologies and it has high growth projections.

Entry into the hotel segment

This would be Cinven’s first major foray into the hotel segment, but it would represent a return to the tourism business. Cinven, a fund headquartered in London, was created in 1977; it went on to acquire Amadeus in 2005, together with BC Partners.

The tourism sector’s technology provider, which was acquired from the major European airlines, was then delisted. In 2010, Cinven and BC Partners returned the company to the stock exchange and sold their shares.

Since its creation, Cinven has made acquisitions amounting to more than €70,000 million, specialising, above all, in investments with a significant technological component and always with holdings that exceed €100 million. (…).

Meanwhile, Hotelbeds has been on the market since last Autumn. Financial sources valued it at around €1,000 million. TUI had hoped to complete the sales process during the first three or four months of the year, and so a final agreement could be very close. Nevertheless, the emergence of the fund EQT in the process will intensify the Hotelbed operation.

Similarly, financial sources do not rule out that other funds may be preparing their own competitive offers.

Diversified portfolio

EQT, of Swedish origin, has assets under management of €29,000 million and its investment portfolio is very varied. In Spain, it holds stakes in two companies, Islalink and Parkia, which operate in the telecommunications and car park sectors, respectively.

EQT opened an office in Madrid in the middle of last year with the aim of looking for new investments in the Spanish and Portuguese markets. The fund hired a specialist team led by Fernando Conte, the former Chairman of Iberia and the tourism group Orizonia.

At the beginning of February, EQT bought the Swiss tourism group Kuoni for more than €1,100 million and, according to sources in the sector, it plans to integrate that business with the Hotelbeds Group.

For TUI AG, the sale of this company will mean saying goodbye to the online sector to focus on its traditional businesses: hotels and cruises. During the year to 30 September 2015, TUI AG generated revenues of more than €20,000 million, with an EBITDA of €1,069 million, up by almost 23%. Its shares closed at €13.09 on the stock exchange yesterday, up by 0.47%.

Original story: Expansión (by M.Á.Patiño and Y.Blanco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankia, Sabadell & CaixaBank Have Sold €17,000M Of Problem Assets

27 April 2016 – Expansión

Spain’s banks still need to get rid of €350,000 million of problem assets from their balance sheets, despite having already divested €65,000 million over the last five years. The leaders in the disposal of non-core assets so far have been CaixaBank, Sabadell and Bankia, although experts indicate that divestment of toxic loans and foreclosed assets may taken another ten more years.

That was the view of the Heads of Advisory for Financial Divestments at KPMG, Deloitte, N+1 and PwC. “After ten years in this market, I think that we still have another ten years worth of divestments ahead. This market is here to stay”, said Joel Grau yesterday, Partner and Co-founder of N+1’s Corporate Portfolio Advisors, at an event organised by Europa Press and Servihabitat.

In recent times, the rate of asset sales has amounted to between €16,000 million and €22,000 million per year and experts at KPMG predict that this year will be the second best in the history of the sector in Spain: “We expect to see an increase of 7% in terms of portfolio sales with respect to 2015, to reach €19,500 million, with the weight of mortgage portfolios and foreclosed assets accounting for 49% of the total”, said Amparo Solía, the Partner responsible for Corporate in the Finance and Real Estate Sector at KPMG, the consultancy firm that participates in half of all operations.

Of that figure of almost €20,000 million, there are currently almost €15,000 million in the market, according to Jaime Bergaz, the Partner responsible for Deals – Financial Sector at PwC. Of that amount, around half relates to portfolios with a real estate component: debt to property developers, mortgages and foreclosed assets.

Once again this year, the entities that are proving to be most active in the divestment market are Sabadell, CaixaBank and Bankia. According to KPMG, those three financial groups have sold off problem assets amounting to €17,000 million in the last three years, which represents 30% of all of the assets sold by Spain’s banks.

Bankia is the leader in the ranking, with €9,000 million sold in the last three years, according to the different consultancy firms, followed by Sabadell, with €4,500 million and CaixaBank, with €4,000 million. (…).

Sareb, BMN, Santander and BBVA have almost sold portfolios worth more than €2,000 million in the last three years.

In addition, Sabadell currently has two portfolios up for sale worth €1,300 million and is studying the possibility of bringing a third onto the market worth €1,700 million. Meanwhile, CaixaBank has an operation underway involving a portfolio of doubtful debts to property developers, worth €800 million; and Bankia is considering launching the sale of a package of doubtful mortgages. Moreover, Cajamar is also proving very active; Abanca has a portfolio of NPLs up for sale; and Popular is expected to be involved in some major deals during the second half of the year.

Solía, from KPMG and Grau, from N+1, predict a higher volume of portfolio sales in 2017, due to the new provisioning circular and the banks’ need to increase their returns.

Ahead of this improvement, funds are already managing 80% of the banks’ problem assets, through platforms that they have been buying up in recent years. Investors paid €4,000 million for the servicers and have absorbed 3,200 jobs from the financial institutions.

The acquired platforms include Altamira, in which Apollo owns an 85% stake; Aliseda, in which Värde and Kennedy Wilson hold a 51% stake; Servihabitat, of which 51% is controlled by TPG; Haya Real Estate, which Cerberus acquired from Bankia; and Aktua, which Centerbridge bought from Banesto and is now selling to Lindorff. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pierre & Vacances Plans To Double Turnover In Spain By 2020

27 April 2016 – Expansión

The holiday apartment manager and developer, Pierre & Vacances, which has been operating in the Spanish market for 10 years now, has recorded average annual growth of 44% since it launched in Spain in 2005, with a portfolio of 215 apartments. Moreover, it intends to maintain that growth rate over the next few years, and whereby double its presence by 2020.

Specifically, the firm expects to expand its operations from more than 4,000 holiday apartments across 45 complexes in 2016, to 8,000 apartments by 2020, at the same time as doubling its turnover from €50 million to €100 million. In 2016, the group will incorporate five new complexes and 600 apartments. Moreover, it has renovated the Hotel El Puerto in Fuengirola.

Over the last ten years, Pierre & Vacances has invested €70 million in Spain, however, it does not currently own any assets, according to the Chairman of the Spanish subsidiary, José María Pont. One of the group’s business lines involves searching for institutional and private investors willing to purchase real estate assets with lease contracts spanning 10-15 years and returns of between 3.5% and 5% per annum. In addition, the firm has reached agreements with investment funds, which have invested €65 million in assets managed by the firm.

Looking ahead to the future, given the lack of stock in certain areas such as the Costa Brava, Balearic Islands and the Costa del Sol, the group is considering launching projects “from scratch”, including constructing and operating the assets itself. “In certain areas, the circumstances in the market lend themselves to taking on more risk”, says Pont. The Director says that Spain is one of the group’s strategic axes, along with China, where Pierre & Vacances has reached an agreement with HNA to develop five large projects over the next three years.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake