CaixaBank sells its real estate división Servihabitat to TPG for 185 million Euros.

Another real estate company from a great bank ends up in the hands of the venture capital firm. As done by CaixaCatalunya in August and Bankia this week, La Caixa has reached an agreement with Texas Pacific Group (TPG) to sell 51% of the capital of Servihabitat Gestión Inmobiliaria, the company that had gathered most of the assets awarded after the non-payments in the construction business.

The agreed price is 185 million Euros, as the company is valued at 370 million Euros. This is therefore a price that doubles the one obtained by Bankia when getting rid of its bad bank (90 million Euros) and multiplies by nearly five the 40 million Euros obtained by the other Catalan bank in the hands of the State.

Nevertheless, this is a fairly lower price than the one initially foreseen, when La Caixa put its subsidiary on the market, as it planned to receive 200 million Euros. In any case, this is a positive operation for the group led by Isidro Fainé and Juan María Nin, which will have millionaire earnings.

The agreement between La Caixa and TPG transfers the management of the real estate services for a period of ten years, included those of the real estate company Building Center, the subsidiary where CaixaBank accumulates all assignments in payment that entered its balance sheet after going public. The bank with headquarters in Barcelona will liberate resources for the sale and rental of homes, the installments linked to properties, the foreclosures and the recovery.

Texas Pacific Group, a fund of 54.000 million dollars advised in Spain by a former executive of Bankia, Fernando Magnet, has won Bridgepoint, which has been fighting until the last moment, on the bid for Servihabitat.

Other funds such as Fortress and Starwood, also participated in the auction, as they were interested in a very interesting recurring business as the flow of operations is guaranteed, regardless of Servihabitat or Building Center carrying out operations with capital losses, as usually happens in the current market situation.

The sale takes place after La Caixa segregated the company Servihabitat Gestión from the group Servihabitat at the beginning of this year, a subsidiary where the savings bank had located all the real estate assets included in its balance sheet before CaixaBank went public. This division changed Servihabitat into its own bad bank, where it gathered awarded properties and land in order to be able to place the financial business on the market without having to cope with the burden of the construction business.

La Caixa has not been able to finalize the sale of 12.000 properties, an operation that ran parallel with the Servihabitat one. The decision was taken after receiving binding offers for 800 million Euros, half of the valuation made by the bank on that portfolio of properties. (…)