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Meridia Buys 2 Office Portfolios For Its Socimi

7 October 2016 – Expansión

Meridia Capital, the fund manager controlled by Javier Faus, has gone shopping again. The company has invested around €70 million in two real estate acquisitions.

On the one hand, Meridia has acquired two office buildings located in the Viladecans Business Park complex in Barcelona. This development was inaugurated at the end of 2007 by the property developer Goodman, which specialises in business parks. It houses the headquarters of companies such as Unilever. There, Meridia has acquired two properties with a combined surface area of 23,000 sqm and 282 parking spaces. The occupancy rate of the offices is around 80%, say real estate sources.

In addition, the manager has completed the purchase of a portfolio of offices with a surface area of 17,500 sqm, spread over several properties. Most of these buildings are located in Barcelona, although the portfolio also contains one asset in Pamplona. In Barcelona, the key asset is the Alta 1 building, located in Esplugues de Llobregat, next to the headquarters of Nestlé, which is also owned by Meridia.

The occupancy rate of this portfolio, acquired from a Catalan family office, stands at 84%.

Both acquisitions will be included in the portfolio of the Meridia Real Estate III fund, which filed its request to become a Socimi in April. This fund, which was created less than a year ago with initial capital amounting to €250 million (from large international investment firms) has an investment capacity of up to €600 million. The aim is that it will list as a Socimi on the MAB in 2018.

In addition to the two latest purchases, the new Socimi owns nine buildings (eight offices and one logistics warehouse) that Meridia bought from Inmoseguros in May for €50 million.

It is not the manager’s only fund. Meridia is also finalising the closure of its Meridia II fund, launched in May 2014, with an investment capacity of €400 million.

In total, Javier Faus’ management company has invested €180 million so far this year and expects to close some more deals before the end of the year. “We want to invest another €400 million over the next 18 months”, said Juan Barba, Director General of Real Estate at Meridia Capital.

Offices

Meridia Capital’s purchases come after several other office deals in Spain in recent times, such as the acquisition of Parque Adequa in Madrid – for which Merlin paid €380 million – which reflect the recovery of this segment.

In this way, the average return on the office market in Madrid increased by 9% during the third quarter of 2016 with respect to the same period in 2015 and by 18% with respect to Q3 2014, according to a report about the office segment by BNP Paribas Real Estate.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake