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Blackstone’s Socimi Will Spend €25M On Corporate Operations

3 July 2017 – Eje Prime

Fidere, the social housing Socimi owned by the US fund Blackstone, is growing rapidly through acquisitions. Over the course of this year, the company will spend €25 million on the acquisition of Spanish companies dedicated to rental housing. In this way, Fidere will add new assets to its portfolio, according to explanations provided by market sources to EjePrime.

Fidere’s purpose is to acquire and manage residential rental assets in Spain. Since its incorporation onto the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on 29 June 2015, the group has acquired 3,365 new residential units (as well as storerooms and garages) for rental in the Community of Madrid. As at 31 January 2017, the average occupancy rate of these residential units amounted to 92.9%.

With this declaration of intentions, Blackstone is going to continue adding assets in the Spanish market with the aim of leading the residential rental market in the country. With a portfolio of 12,000 homes under ownership in Spain, the fund has constituted several companies to implement its strategy after having invested €7,000 million in the country.

The fund, which owns the majority of its properties in Cataluña (followed by its portfolios in the Community of Madrid, the Community of Valencia and Andalucía) has decided to back the rental market in Spain in the face of changes in residential demand in the country, above all, amongst young people.

To carry out its plans, Blackstone has added three new Socimis to its portfolio of Socimis, which until now comprised Fidere alone. It now owns Albirana Properties, which has been trading on the MAB since March, Pegarena and Tourmalet (which have not debuted on the stock market yet) and the servicer Anticipa Real Estate (…).

Albirana Properties, for example, manages 5,000 homes, whilst Pegarena and Tourmalet, companies that have been constituted already, will start incorporating some of Blackstone’s portfolio in Spain. The fragmentation will allow these asset packages to be sold more easily in the future. Created in New York in 1985, Blackstone manages assets around the world worth €335,950 million.

Blackstone and its commitment to property

The fund, which is one of the largest private investment vehicles in the world, set a new milestone at the beginning of the month by managing to raise €7,800 million to launch its fifth fund specialising in real estate. The new instrument, classified as opportunistic by the firm itself, will operate under the name Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe V (BREP Europe V).

The strategy that Blackstone adopts with these types of funds is to locate and acquire high-quality, well-located assets at significant discounts, to manage them appropriately and then sell them, after achieving the proposed objectives.

The Blackstone group, which founded its real estate arm in 1991, administrates around €91,000 million in capital from various investors through its real estate subsidiary. Its real estate portfolio includes offices, retail premises, hotels, industrial assets and residential properties in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Original story: Eje Prime (by C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake