Ayco Plans To Raise Up To €100M Through A Capital Increase

21 November 2017 – Expansión

The property developer Ayco plans to carry out a capital increase amounting to between €50 million and €100 million to allow new investors to acquire shares and to accelerate its business plan for the next few years. “We would like to carry out this capital increase, which has been authorised by the General Shareholders’ Meeting, at some point in 2018. For us, it will represent our definitive return to the market”, explained the firm’s President and CEO, Francisco García Beato.

Ayco is the oldest listed real estate company in Spain. The property developer, founded in 1941, with the name Inmobiliaria Alcázar and in which the Valencian businessman Onofre Miguel held a stake at the time, was one of the many victims of the real estate crisis that took hold in 2007. The property developer went on to complete a restructuring process, involving the transfer of some of its assets to Sareb at the end of 2014, and several months later, it welcomed the entry of new investors, including Alpha Moonlight, amongst others.

“After successfully completing the restructuring process, the company, which is currently listed on the “open outcry market”, is the ideal vehicle for investors looking for transparency, governance and to make their investments liquid through the stock market”, added García.

Ayco, which has own funds amounting to €8 million and a market capitalisation of €26 million, is currently working on a property development project in Palma de Mallorca, involving the construction of 24 homes on independent plots. It also owns a plot measuring 25,733 m2 between the municipalities of Gibraltar and La Línea de la Concepción, where it is building a four-star hotel with 250 rooms.

Hotel Byblos

In addition, last year, Ayco purchased Hotel Byblos (in Mijas), one of the most iconic establishments on the Costa del Sol in its heydey, for €9.75 million. This hotel, which has been closed for six years, used to be owned by the property developer Aifos, which filed for insolvency in 2009. Following a comprehensive renovation, the company plans to reopen the hotel – which will have 288 rooms, of which 65 will be newly built luxury suites – in the summer of 2019.

To this end, the firm is currently holding negotiations with hotel operators interested in participating in the project, from both a management and financing perspective. “Having a significant volume of resources tied up in a single asset has an opportunity cost. The ideal scenario would be for us to identify an operational and financial partner that would allow us to retain control and in turn participate in the generation of value for the project”.

García revealed that Ayco is negotiating with one international chain that does not currently have a presence in Spain and one Spanish hotel operator. In both cases, the partners work with real estate investors.

Ayco also owns land with a buildable surface area of 85,000 m2 in Málaga, Sevilla and Cádiz, where it plans to build around 800 homes. Moreover, it is evaluating operations to buy plots for the construction of another 1,000 homes in Andalucía, the Balearic Islands, Madrid and the north of Spain. Specifically, it plans to spend €15 million on the execution of those purchase opportunities.

The company will close 2017 with a turnover of around €5 million and a net profit of €500,000. It expects to generate earnings of €10 million in 2018 and of up to €24 million in 2022.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake