Blackstone Finalises Sale Of The Tucumán Building To Axia RE

26 March 2015 – El Confidencial

The Tucumán Building, located on the Glorieta de Mar de Cristal in Madrid measures 5,083 square metres. Until August 2013, when it was leased by Aegis Media, the asset was very “distressed”.

The talks are in their final phases. The fund Blackstone is finalising the sale of an office building measuring 5,000 square metres in Campo de las Naciones. The purchaser is the Socimi Axia Real Estate and the amount of the transaction is unknown. Blackstone is divesting the Tucumán Building, which it acquired from Sareb at the end of 2014 as part of the so-called Corona project, which also included the Delta Norte II and III office buildings, located to the north of Chamartín, and another office building in Montecarmelo, to the north of the capital. Three other properties also fell outside of that project, which were initially included in the portfolio of the “bad bank”, initially valued at €140 million.

It is not the first acquisition made by Axia Real Estate in Campo de las Naciones. In December 2013, five months after its stock market debut, the Socimi closed the purchase of a portfolio of buildings from Credit Suisse Asset Management for €180 million. The portfolio included the building at number 28 on Calle Ribera del Loira, in the business district of Campo de las Naciones in Madrid, as well as two other properties on Calle Vía de los Pobaldos, in the same area.

“The transaction will not be very relevant in terms of size, but it is very significant in several other respects. Firstly, the buyer is a Socimi, one of the most active investors in the market in the last year. This purchase would be clear signal that these companies are in ‘equity call’. That is, they are resorting to financing or may be considering capital increases to continue buying property”, explain financial sources.

Axia Real Estate raised €360 million through its IPO in July 2014. Since then, not only has it invested all of the funds it raised, it has also turned to financial institutions. In this way, for example, it financed the purchase of a portfolio of assets from Credit Suisse through a combination of own funds and bank financing.

Moreover, this future sale will involve the rotation of the first assets acquired from Sareb and “the fact that those who bought assets are selling them now, and obtaining a profit, sends a clear message to investors, that they can make money from assets purchased from the “bad bank””, explains one real estate source.

On the other hand, according to the experts consulted, this transaction is a clear symptom of the recovery in the Spanish real estate market, since investors have increased their scope beyond the prime area of Madrid. Campo de las Naciones is a fully consolidated business park where several transactions have been closed in recent months.

Besides Axia Real Estate, at the end of 2013, Lar España Real Estate closed the acquisition of the Egeo office building in Campo de las Naciones from the German company MEAG for €64.9 million.

The Tucumán Building, located on the Glorieta de Mar de Cristal has a surface area of 5,083 square meters. It was a very distressed asset until it was occupied by Aegis Media in August 2013. “The building was empty, with no tenants and located in an area that has nothing to do with the main business area of Madrid”, say real estate sources. “Now, however, the real estate situation has changed and the fact that the building has a tenant removes the risk of the property remaining vacant”.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Elena Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake