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Via Célere Hires Credit Suisse to Lead Its IPO

 

24 August 2017

The investment bank will lead the initial round of contacts with investors, along with Jefferies-Arcano.

The US fund Värde Partners, one of the most active investors in the Spanish real estate market, is finalizing plans to list the real estate developer Via Célere on the Spanish stock market. The Madrid-based company was acquired last February by Värde to merge it with its property development company DosPuntos. After wrapping up the merger, the fund is preparing to take the merged company public in the coming months. To do this, the US firm has hired the companies Credit Suisse and Jefferies-Arcano to lead the initial rounds of contacts with investors, according to Bloomberg. CaixaBank will act as a placement bank, sources close to the process confirmed to Expansión. Sources at Värde declined to comment on the matter.

Värde’s objective is to list around 60% of the company on the stock market, following in the steps of its counterpart Lone Star, which last March listed its Spanish real estate development company Neinor Homes on the Spanish stock market. Initially, Värde had intended to take the company public at the beginning of 2018, but other sources now believe that the listing may be brought up to the end of 2017. This is due to favourable investor sentiment regarding Spanish real estate companies, with large socimis, such as Neinor Homes, trading above the value of their assets. In the case of Neinor, the company’s IPO was oversubscribed by 4.3 times and shares have since appreciated by 13%.

Investments

In addition to hiring the investment banks, Via Célere has accelerated its investment plan to grow the company before the public listing. In recent months, the real estate company founded and chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado has spent close to 100 million euros expanding its portfolio of land to 1.2 million square meters.

In February, Värde Partners, along with five other funds, bought Via Célere from its founder for 90 million euros. Värde is the largest shareholder, holding 51% of the capital, followed by Attestor and Marathon, the second and third largest shareholders respectively.  JP Morgan, Barclays and Bank of America also have smaller stakes.

At the time, the estimated value the combined operations of Via Célere and DosPuntos was put at roughly 700 million euros.

Värde and its partners’ plan is that the company’s listing should be at a valuation superior to 1 billion euros. After the purchase, the new shareholders targeted investments between 200 and 250 million euros per year until 2023, to achieve a rate of construction of 3,000 homes a year (this year, the figure amounts to about 1,800 units).

At present, its portfolio is valued at more than €800 million, with 1.2 million square meters of land available for building.

Another listing

Another company in the real estate sector, Aedas Homes, is expected to go public even before Via Célere’s IPO. The developer, also controlled by a U.S. investment fund, Castlelake, hired Goldman Sachs and Linklaters for its IPO. At present, Aedas has assets valued at 1.1 billion euros, highlighted by a 1.35 million-square meter portfolio of land.

In addition to being the largest shareholder in Vía Célere, Värde controls another real estate developer, Aelca, and 40% of La Finca Global Assets, which owns several business parks in Madrid.

Original Story: ProOrbyt Expansion – R. Ruiz

Translation: Richard Turner