Témpore Properties Secures Sufficient Minority Shareholders Ahead of its MAB Debut

23 February 2018 – La Información

The team at Sareb has overcome the penultimate obstacle to enable the Socimi that it has created, Témpore Properties, to take the final step towards starting to trade on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB), as set out in the initial plan drawn up by Jaime Echegoyen (pictured above) almost a year ago. According to sources familiar with the process, Témpore has now successfully completed the incorporation of around twenty minority shareholders into its share capital, as required by the MAB, so that the Socimi can trade on that market.

And this latest milestone is no mean feat. Sources in the sector say that around half a dozen Socimi projects, driven by large fortunes and family offices, have run aground due to their inability or lack of interest in fulfilling that requirement. Specifically, the MAB requires at least €2 million of a company’s share capital (or 25% of the equity if the company has a share capital of less than €8 million) to be owned by around twenty minority shareholders. The managers of the MAB also require that those minority shareholders have no family or business links with the owners of the company and that no single shareholder holds a participation equivalent to more than 5% of the total or worth less than €60,000. The reasons? On the one hand, to emphasise the nature of Socimis as collective investment instruments; but also, to prevent any kind of activity that seeks to use investors as “mariachis”, which is what triggered the inspections against Sicavs back in the day.

Over the last two months, Nicolás Díaz Saldaña, the Director General of Sareb and person responsible for the Témpore Properties project, and his team have maintained permanent contact with investment banks, funds and offices representing large fortunes to search for the most appropriate and most interested profiles to form part of Témpore. That process has also been supported by Ázora, Sareb’s advisor in everything relating to the Socimi’s stock market debut.

Offers to buy Témpore

According to financial sources, investors have welcomed the presentation of the Témpore project with enormous interest, and not only with a view to participating as minority investors. Sareb has received several offers from investment funds and even from other Socimis to acquire Témpore Properties, an investment vehicle in which the so-called bad bank has placed 1,554 of its best rental assets (mainly homes) with an aggregate value of €175 million.

Sareb’s Management has even been seriously considering some of the offers received, according to sources familiar with the contacts, but in the end, it has opted to go with the initial plan and push ahead with the project to have the Socimi debut on the MAB independently, at least to begin with. The next step in this process will be the presentation of the prospectus, which will mark the beginning of the final phase of the stock market debut of Témpore Properties.

The debut of Sareb’s Socimi on the stock market has taken longer than originally planned. Initially, Témpore Properties was expected to make its debut before the end of 2017 and, in fact, in September last year, Sareb formally requested the mandatory authorisations from the MAB and the Ministry of Finance to make its debut in 2017. Nevertheless, the turbulent political panorama and the difficulties that have marked the configuration of the project have delayed the timeframes initially established and now the only objective is for Témpore to make its debut before the end of June 2018.

Original story: La Información (by Bruno Pérez)

Translation: Carmel Drake