Marina d’Or’s Real Estate Company Capitalises Debt Amounting to €11.1M

7 October 2018 – Valencia Plaza

On Friday, the Official Gazette of the Mercantile Registry reflected a capital increase amounting to €11.1 million undertaken by the company Comercializadora Mediterránea de Viviendas SL. In other words, Comervi, the real estate company behind Marina d’Or, which said no more by way of explanation to this newspaper than: the manoeuvre came as a response to a “conversion of debt into capital” – without offering any more details -.

This possibility had been contemplated in the agreement signed by the company and its creditors to emerge from the bankruptcy proceedings, as explained by this newspaper. Specifically, the agreement gave the creditors a choice between collecting the debt with a discount of 65% over a period of 10 years and the option of capitalising their loans and going on to become shareholders of the company.

Depending on who has signed this capital increase for the real estate firm behind Marina d’Or – controlled in its entirety by Jesús Ger to date – a new shareholder may have joined the fold. Nevertheless, the possibility that the capitalisation has been subscribed by a company owned by the Catalan businessman himself has not been ruled out.

In fact, as stated in Comervi’s most recent financial statements – corresponding to 2017 – the company has debt amounting to €55.8 million with “related companies”, as detailed in note 13 of the annual accounts.

When asked about this, sources at Sareb – which according to Marina d’Or is Comervi’s main private creditor – explained to Valencia Plaza on Friday that the entity agreed to apply the aforementioned discount of 65% to the amount owed by the company and that, as a result, the bad bank is not the entity that has capitalised the €11.1 million.

In the same vein, Banco Sabadell explained to this newspaper that its agreement with Comervi was written off following the handover to the financial institution of 40 apartments and one warehouse, as this newspaper revealed.

It has also been ruled out that the capitalisation has been carried out by the Tax Authorities or Social Security – the other two major creditors of Comervi – given that the State does not make a habit of becoming a shareholder in private companies that have filed for creditor bankruptcy.

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Dani Valero)

Translation: Carmel Drake