Oaktree to Buy Land from Iberdrola for €100M to Develop it with Solvia

13 March 2018 – Eje Prime

Oaktree is going shopping hand in hand with Solvia. The US fund is just one step away from signing an agreement with Iberdrola Inmobiliaria to acquire a portfolio of land worth more than €100 million. In this operation, the property developer subsidiary of Banco Sabadell would perform the role of developer of the future promotions through a joint venture with the investment fund.

The plots of land that Oaktree is planning to acquire are located all over Spain. More than half of the land that Iberdrola is willing to sell is located in Granada, although the portfolio for sale also includes plots in Madrid, Valencia, Málaga, Navarra, Salamanca, Cantabria and Murcia, according to Vozpópuli, which reports that the operation just needs to be signed.

Other funds and institutional investment groups have reportedly expressed their interest in this land portfolio, including the US bank Goldman Sachs.

For the development of the acquired land, Oaktree is planning to create a joint venture with Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios, the property development arm of Sabadell. Nevertheless, the operation proposes, in addition, that each new development generate new companies in which Iberdrola Inmobiliaria would also have a presence.

In November last year, Banco Sabadell announced the creation of its own property development subsidiary to be responsible for this area of the real estate business for the financial entity. Currently, Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios has a land portfolio worth €1.2 billion, which would now increase as a result of this alliance with Oaktree.

Meanwhile, once the sale is certified, Iberdrola Inmobiliaria would see a reduction in its exposure to real estate, a sector in which it has been very active in recent months, as shown by the project that it is working on in Barcelona, where it is planning to build 88,120 m2 of offices. At the end of 2016, the company owned real estate assets worth €1.7 billion.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake