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Lone Star Will Sell Up To 60% Of Neinor When It Goes Public

8 March 2017 – La Vanguardia

On Monday, the US fund Lone Star announced its intention to initiate the flotation on the stock market of its Spanish subsidiary, the property developer Neinor Homes, with the sale of up to 60% of its shares. Neinor, which is due to debut on the stock market in April, will thereby become the first property developer to go public following the outbreak of the real estate crisis in 2007.

Market sources explained that Lone Star is valuing Neinor at around €2,000 million. The fund acquired the former real estate subsidiary from Kutxabank in 2014 for €925 million and then invested another €200 million in a capital increase in order to purchase land: with a cumulative investment of €1,100 million, the debut will allow the fund to capitalise on its commitment to the Spanish real estate sector in record time.

The property developer led by Juan Velayos (pictured above) explained in the preliminary documentation sent to the CNMV that the stock market debut will be performed in two phases. During the first phase, the firm will make a primary offer or IPO aimed at institutional investors, through which it hopes to raise €100 million, which it will use to reduce its corporate debt. It will then carry out a secondary offer, by selling shares that are currently held by Lone Star’s minority shareholders.

According to Neinor, the placement will leave between 40% and 60% of the company’s share capital as free float. Lone Star and the company itself have made a commitment to not undertake any additional sales of its shares for 180 days, whilst the management team led by Juan Velayos, the former CEO at Renta Corporación, has extended that commitment for a period of between one and three years.

Neinor owns land for the construction of 161 developments and 9,086 homes: as at December 2016, those plots had a gross value of €1,120 million and a gross development value of €2,548 million, which guarantees the company’s activity until 2021.

Since its creation, the company has been planning its IPO, applying standards of corporate governance, professionalisation and customary transparency in listed companies. Based on the valuation of €2,000 million that the placement firms are entertaining, Neinor will become the third largest real estate company on the Spanish stock market, behind only Merlin (with a capitalisation of €5,000 million) and Colonial (€2,450 million) and ahead of Hispania (€1,300 million) and Axiare (€980 million).

Original story: La Vanguardia (by Rosa Salvador)

Translation: Carmel Drake