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Villar Mir Attracted by Jewels of Colonial

Focus on the patrimonial business, mainly on the offices, and not to get involved into the real estate development. This is the business plan of Juan José Brugera, the chairman of Colonial. His strategy had called attention of Juan Miguel Villar Mir, who has declared willingness to invest 300 million Euros and thus become the main shareholder in the quoted real estate company.

Colonial is already working on retaking strategy of asset rotation once it finalizes the capital enlargement. The management board of the firm has been considering various solutions for repairing its balance for last 2 years. Last week it announced fresh capital injection of 1.000 million Euros, out of which half is already assigned to Villar Mir group, to a SICAV of Mora Banc and the Colombian group Santo Domingo.

(…) Colonial possesses 49 office buildings split among Paris (managed by its subsidiary SFL), Madrid and Barcelona, amounting to 1.1 million square meters and valued at 5.222 million Euros.

At present the French portfolio (precisely the Parisian one) is the most important, both for surface (equal to 44%, compared to 29% of Madrid and 29% of Barcelona) and the revenues it brings (70% of total rents procedes from France (…)). Colonial is now considering selling a part of SFL in order to pay off the debt but the new investors set the sale maximum level at 20%.

Some of the assets have been released by now, like Casa de les Punxes in Barcelona for 25 millon Euros and the Ágora Towers in Madrid sold recently for 73 millones.

Apart from the strong portfolio of buildings situated in the big national market places and one of the most significant at the European level, Colonial´s power lies in its tenants as well. Companies like Aben-goa, Banca Cívica and Iberia in Madrid; Natixis and Hugo Boss in Paris; and Gas Natural, La Caixa and Accenture in Barcelona are only an example of the relevant occupiers of Colonial´s buildings.

Source: Expansión

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