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Oaktree Joins Forces with Sabadell to Promote Iberdrola Land

17 May 2018 – El Economista

Oaktree and Sabadell, through its subsidiary Bitarte, have requested permission from the European Commission to constitute a joint venture through which they will dedicate resources to residential development in Spain. Most of this new joint venture’s portfolio, at least initially, will comprise land that the US fund is going to buy from Iberdrola Inmobiliaria, which has declined to comment in this regard.

According to experts in the sector speaking to this newspaper, Oaktree is going to close the operation to acquire at least five plots of land worth approximately €100 million during the course of this month. As soon as the US fund’s alliance with Sabadell has been approved, the land will be integrated into the new company, whose purpose is going to be to continue growing through new land acquisitions.

Sabadell has chosen its subsidiary Bitarte, an instrumental company dedicated to the world of real estate, to carry out this association with Oaktree, although its stake in this new company is going to be managed by Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios, the arm of the bank that is responsible for property development. The entity constituted that firm, which owns land worth around €1.2 billion when it completed the carve out of Solvia Servicios Inmobiliarios.

According to explanations from the same sources, Sabadell’s role in its alliance with Oaktree will be that of industrial partner with experience in the property development market, and so the fund will have a financial role, contributing the majority of the capital.

Assets

At first, the possibility was raised of an alliance between all three parties, which would see Iberdrola not only contribute assets, but also hold onto a stake in the company, and for that deal, the figures that were bandied around at the time amounted to around €130 million.

In the end, the alliance will be signed between the fund and Sabadell, and so the electricity company will contribute somewhat fewer plots. Of the chosen sites, in the absence of the definition of the final plots to be transferred, one in Móstoles (Madrid) stands out, where Iberdrola has already started work on a residential development project: Villas del Sur 2. This development comprises 22 terraced homes with three and four bedrooms and a private garden.

The other plots selected are located in Salamanca, the Costa del Sol, Pamplona and Pozuelo de Alarcón. This is a small part of Iberdrola’s land portfolio, which owns assets with a buildable surface area of 3.5 million m2. Specifically, the real estate company is working on the construction of more than 330 homes located in different places around Madrid, Murcia, Santander and Valencia.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake