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Hispania Prepares To Convert Itself Into A Socimi

22 February 2016 – Expansión

First full year of operation / The real estate company quadrupled its net profit in 2015, to €73.4 million and will bring forward its dividend payment to this year.

Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios, the real estate company owned by the billionaire George Soros, is preparing to convert itself into a Socimi, after closing 2015 with a net profit of €73.4 million, which represented a four-fold increase in its earnings compared with 2014.

The company, which has maintained its status as a public company until now, in order to benefit from maximum flexibility to invest and create its asset portfolio, announced on Thursday that it will propose its conversion into a Socimi at its next shareholders’ meeting. The real estate company, which was constituted in January 2014 and which has been listed on the stock exchange since March last year, current owns one subsidiary 100% – Hispania Real – which is already registered as a Socimi.

Dividends to be paid sooner than expected

The company, which is managed externally and exclusively by Azora, also communicated its intention to bring forward its dividend payment to 2016. The real estate company closed 2015 with a gross operating profit (EBITDA) of €10 million, compared with the negative balance of €2.5 million it recorded a year earlier.

Last year, it generated net rental income of €38 million, compared with €9 million in 2014. By division, hotel revenues amounted to €16.69 million, plus €4.29 million from hotels under management. Hispania’s hotel portfolio closed the year with 8,234 rooms across 27 hotels, plus two shopping centres.

Meanwhile, the revenues from the office segment amounted to €12.15 million. The company owns a total gross leasable area of 53,621 m2 spread across 25 assets.

In the housing segment, revenues amounted to €4.66 million. Hispania manages a residential portfolio that includes four assets, one in Barcelona (the Isla del Cielo homes) and the other three in the Community of Madrid (Sanchinarro, San Sebastián de los Reyes and Majadahonda). In total, the company’s residential asset portfolio contains 684 homes (200 in Barcelona and 484 in Madrid). The group explained that it purchased 33 assets with an acquisition value of €841 million last year, including the formalisation of the two phases of operation Bay with the Barceló Group, which has a total portfolio value of €458.6 million.

Moreover, since its debut on the stock exchange, the real estate company has invested in 58 assets, with a consolidated value of €1,425 million, according to a valuation performed by CBRE.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

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