López de Herrera-Oria Forgets Axiare & Launches a Socimi to Invest €300M

5 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Following Colonial’s takeover of Axiare, Luis López de Herrera-Oria (pictured below) is reinventing himself with Arima. The former CEO of Axiare has constituted a new Socimi that plans to raise €300 million to invest in the real estate market.

The new company will centre its efforts on the office market in Madrid, the star segment for the now extinct Axiare, which will account for 80% of its investments. Barcelona and logistics assets will also be of interest to the Socimi.

The return of López de Herrera-Oria to the real estate sector, as revealed by Eje Prime in June, is expected imminently and his new vehicle is expected to debut on the main stock market without first starting out on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB). In fact, Arima’s stock market debut could even happen before the end of October, according to Expansión.

Alongside the executive, a serial entrepreneur in the real estate business, one of his right-hand men at Axiare, Chony Martín Vicente-Mazariegos, who used to be the Socimi’s Finance Director, will be immersed in the project. Similarly, some of López de Herrera-Oria’s other trusted directors will form part of Arima’s new project, including Guillermo Fernández-Cuesta, Fernando Arenas and Stuart McDonald. Arima means soul in Basque.

Since February, when Colonial completed its successful takeover of Axiare and merged the Socimi into its group,  López de Herrera-Oria has kept a low profile. The director pocketed €26.4 million from the sale of the package of shares that he owned in the manager.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake