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Vía Célere Boosts Its Land Portfolio Ahead Of Stock Market Debut
18 July 2017 – Expansión
The property developer Vía Célere is advancing with its growth plans ahead of its stock market debut. The Madrilenian real estate company was acquired in February by six funds led by Värde Partners, which owns 51% of its share capital. Following the operation, for which they disbursed €90 million, the company has been working on increasing its size and will debut on the stock market at the beginning of 2018, with a market capitalisation of more than €1,000 million.
The first step in this process was the integration of DosPuntos, the real estate company that Värde and its partners (the funds Attestor and Marathon, as the second and third largest shareholders, respectively, as well as Barclays and Bank of America) had created from the former subsidiary of San José (Parquesol). The operation saw the incorporation of 800,000 m2 of land into Vía Célere’s portfolio (meaning that the firm will be able to build around 7,000 extra homes).
Having closed that merger in record time (less than a month) Vía Célere, led by its former owner and CEO, Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado, has since launched several land purchase operations with the aim of increasing its real estate portfolio.
New portfolio
In total, Vía Célere has invested almost €100 million in nine plots of land through three operations. The land, located in several different provinces, will allow the property developer to increase its buildability by 212,016 m2 and construct 1,907 new homes (…).
Following the contribution of funds from the new shareholders, Vía Célere set itself the goal of investing between €200 million and €250 million per year between now and 2023 in order to maintain a construction rate of around 3,000 homes per year. This year, it plans to start building around 1,800 units: “Our intention is to continue identifying new opportunities and to expand our portfolio of land and projects over the next few months”.
Before these purchases, the property developer’s real estate portfolio contained land covering 1 million m2, making it one of the largest land owners in the country, exceeded only by Metrovacesa, which, following the contribution of €1,108 million from its shareholder banks, now owns land spanning 6 million m2; Neinor Homes, which, following investment of €147 million this year now owns 1.2 million m2 of land on which to build homes; Aedas, the property developer backed by Castlelake, which owns 1.35 million m2 of land.
In total, Vía Célere’s assets are worth €704 million and it currently has 10,054 homes in progress or under construction. Before the integration with DosPuntos, the property developer recorded revenues of €75.4 million in its most recent full year.
Stock market
The property developer led by Värde Partners plans to debut on the stock market next year. In this way, Vía Célere will follow in the footsteps of Neinor Homes, the first real estate developer to debut on the stock market in almost a decade, with a value of €1,340 million. The market capitalisation of that firm currently amounts to around €1,498 million.
Aedas, the company backed by the fund Castlelake, is another of the property developers that has set its sights on the stock market; it plans to make its debut before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the new Metrovacesa, led by Santander and BBVA, has already met with several investment banks to manage its return to the stock market, which it exited in 2013 after 72 years of trading (….).
Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)
Translation: Carmel Drake