(Visited 253 times, 1 visits today)
(Visited 253 times, 1 visits today)

Beni Stabili has become Covivio and sold non-core assets

20 December, Il Sole 24 Ore

Last days on the Stock Exchange for the shares of Beni Stabili. It will soon become Covivio, as the French group has acquired the Italian real estate company.

After over one century, the story of Beni Stabili comes to an end. It was established in Rome in 1904, after several changes of ownership, the company went to the group of Leonardo del Vecchio. With this merger that was decided after the summer, a new era will begin.

Covivio Ceo Christophe Kullmann commented: “We plan to focus on Italy, especially on Milan, and to simplify the structures. The market greatly supported the merger”. The group will keep the Italian headquarters and will pursue a strategy based on three major European cities: Paris, Milan and Berlin.

On 2nd January 2019, the new shares will debut on the Milan and Paris stock exchanges. The merger will be effective at the midnight of the 31st December 2018 based on a share exchange ratio of 8,245 Covivio shares every 1,000 Beni Stabili ones. The Covivio share capital will reach then 248,708,694 euro for approximately 83 million shares at three euro each.

Today, Covivio has a European portfolio amounting 23 billion euro and five billion in the pipeline related to real estate development projects. Specifically, 10.6 billion are invested in offices, 5.9 billion in hotels and 5.4 billion in houses in Germany.

In this context, the Italian portfolio is valued 4.1 billion euro. It’s mainly focused on Milan (68%), 19% in Telecom assets and 8% in Rome and Turin.

Alexei Dal Pastro will keep its role as country manager for Italy and Covivio Italia Ceo. He said: “The Milan market has grown throughout the years, representing now 20% of the total portfolio. We want to grow further, especially through development projects, after the implementation of Symbiosis”.

The company will continue its path. Dal Pastro continued: “We’ll continue focusing on Milan, which represented 48% of our portfolio in 2015 and now it has become 70%. This result follows the global trend that sees a concentration in big cities, as Milan is one of the main European cities. The objective is to bring the quota to 90% of the total portfolio by 2022. The second pillar of our strategy is the requalification of the portfolio according to eco-sustainability. Today, 68% of our buildings have a gold or even platinum Leed certification. Finally, we want to reduce risk, as we did with Telecom”.

Covivio is ready to venture in the hotel segment. As Dal Pastro said, “There is great interest in the hotel sector in Italy. We’ve already entered an agreement with Meininger for an asset in Milan, in the Lambrate area. We want to grow further in the segment, in Milan as well as in Rome, Florence, and Venice. We’re looking for hotels, and we have an interesting critical mass, namely over 85 rooms”. Yesterday Beni Stabili announced the sale of non-core assets for 220 million concerning the Excelsior Hotel in Milan and two buildings in Turin.

Source: 20 December

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi