68
68

MAB’s Director Encourages Socimis to Generate Trust to Attract Investment

30 October 2018 – Finanzas

The Director General of the Alternative Investment Market (MAB), Jesús González Nieto (pictured below), has today encouraged the Socimis to “generate trust” through the transparency of their corporate governance arrangements to attract new investors and “to depend on the market for growth”.

González Nieto closed a conference about Socimis at the headquarters of the CEOE by underlining that generating trust is a task for everyone so that the real estate investment formula, which has been on the Spanish stock market for five years, can become increasingly well known.

In his opinion, the French and British markets have many more small investors in the real estate sector thanks to the structures that they have, which are similar to Socimis, and so he expects growth in the Spanish market if the entities can manage to provide good information about that possibility of stock market investment.

At the moment, 61 Socimis are trading on the MAB, whilst another five trade on the main stock market.

The Director General of Renta 4 Banco, Jesús Sánchez-Quiñones, has inaugurated a process for the concentration of Socimis over the coming years and has said that “they are avoiding stock market crashes”, due to their strong expectations and lower liquidity.

Representatives from eleven Socimis participated in the conference, ten on behalf of Socimis that are trading on the MAB and one that will make its debut soon: Park Rose Iberoamericana, which will start trading on 15 December.

The President of Park Rose, Luis Alberto Akel, explained that his firm has Chilean capital and is diversifying its real estate investments in Chile, the USA and Spain.

The CEO of Témpore, Nicolás Díaz Saldaña, warned that “there is a lot of international interest in the Spanish residential sector”, and, after reminding the audience that his Socimi arose as an “additional mechanism for the divestment of assets by Sareb”, he said that when that operation concludes, they will go “and look for new investors”.

Díaz Saldaña has indicated that he would like for Témpore to be listed on the main stock market and the Director General of GMP Property, José Luis García de la Calle, also noted that his firm has considered that option, but that the growing “demands” of the MAB are already broad enough, without having to implement audit and remuneration committees.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Castellana Properties, Alfonso Brunet said, “We are getting ready to comply with the requirements of the main stock market”.

The CEO of Vitruvio, Joaquín López-Chicheri, highlighted that “the Socimis allow us to diversify risk” and to be present in the four segments (residential, commercial, offices and logistics), whilst other participants in the conference indicated that they prefer to focus on a niche market.

In this way, José Nistal, from the Socimi Almagro, explained its specialisation in the purchase and rental of flats for the elderly, where the tenants have an average age of 84.3 years.

The latest Socimi to join the MAB, Azaria, in September, focuses exclusively on the long-term, stable, rental of offices and its only asset, for the time being, is the headquarters of El Páis, which is leased until 2033, explained its manager, Teodoro Díez.

Sergi Mirapeix, from Tander, explained that his firm only invests in commercial premises in the most central areas of cities (currently, it is present in four: Barcelona, Santander, Bilbao and San Sebastián) and Jorge González, the representative of the Socimi Asturias, has indicated that its sole objective is to focus on large retail parks.

Josep Turró, from Barcino, said that his firm is going to seek to diversify as much as possible, by “adaptating to demand”, and Fabrizio Agrimi, from Vbare Iberian, said that his Socimi is committed to “added value, without property developer risk”.

Original story: Finanzas 

Translation: Carmel Drake