Tag: Abu Dhabi

Ipic Finalises Sale Of Torre Cepsa For €500M+

3 May 2016 – Expansión

Ipic, the Abu Dhabi state fund behind the oil company Cepsa, is trying the sell the so-called Torre Foster for a price that could range between €500 million and €600 million.

Ipic is negotiating with a small group of foreign funds, including, some investors from the Middle East. The operation will mark a milestone in the new boom that the real estate sector in Spain is currently experiencing and will serve to boost other projects currently on the horizon, such as the so-called fifth tower, which the businessman Juan Miguel Villar Mir wants to construct in the Cuatro Torres complex, where the Foster skyscraper is located.

That price is significantly higher than the figure of between €400 million and €450 million that the Torre Foster, now renamed Torre Cepsa, given that it houses the headquarters of the oil company, was valued at when Ipic signed a call option to purchase the building from Bankia back in 2013.

That option has not been exercised yet. It will be exercisable after the summer. Hence, Ipic has accelerated the negotiations to acquire the building and, almost immediately, sell it on to a third party. Technically, the property is still owned by Bankia.

Gain for Abu Dhabi

The additional value that Ipic obtains for the building, if it manages to sell it to a third party for more than the price established in the call option, will represent a gain for the fund, in other words, for the Government of the Arab Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Ipic (International Petroleum Investment Company) operates as a sovereign fund for channelling investments in energy and other similar sectors by the Government of Abu Dhabi. The group owns assets amounting to USD 68,000 million and holds investments in around twenty companies, of which Cepsa is the largest.

Bankia’s agreement with Ipic seemed like a great deal for the bank at the time. Back then, in the midst of the hangover from the real estate crisis, the price established for the option to sell the building was very attractive. In addition, Ipic rented out the whole building to house Cepsa’s headquarters, although the oil company did not end up occupying all of the floors.

The tower has a surface area of more than 100,000 m2, of which around 72,312 m2 relates to above ground offices and a further 37,500 m2 corresponds to five underground floors.

The agreement between Bankia and Ipic included a lease contract for an extendable eight-year term. This long-term contract is another of the elements that will increase the value of the building in the event that Ipic ends up selling it to a third party. At the moment, Bankia charges Ipic a monthly rent of €1.6 million, through the company Torre Norte S.A.. Ipic pays for the rent through the company Muscari Development, B.V., which is domiciled in The Netherlands. That price includes discounts that end in June 2016. The lease contract includes the call option to buy the entire building. (…). The Ipic group began to evaluate options for selling the building at the end of last summer, following the collapse of the global oil prices. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by M.Á.Patiño and R.Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Manchester City’s Owner Buys 8,300ha Estate In Extremadura

18 April 2016 – El Mundo

Mansour Al Nayhan (pictured above), the owner of the English football club Manchester City, for which he paid more than €300 million, is a different kind of sheikh. Far from setting his sights on Marbella or Ibiza, like other wealthy Arabs, one of the 19 siblings of the emir of Abu Dhabi has been seduced by the Extremaduran countryside. Last Friday, it was revealed that he has acquired Los Quintos de San Martín, an 8,300 hectare estate in the small Extremaduran town of Valencia de las Torres, which has been owned until now by the Mora-Figueroa family. The price: almost €55 million. (…).

Specifically, the member of the Emirati royal family has done business with Ramón Mora-Figueroa Domecq, from Jerez, one of the most important landowners in Andalucía, who has managed the family estate until now. According to Forbes’ rich list for 2015, Ramón and his siblings (Silvia, María and Fernando) have a combined fortune worth more than €7,000 million. The four manage an extensive network of estates, land, vineyards, properties, industrial warehouses and concessions – Los Guadares, Canteruelas, Agriculturas Diversas and Netco are the largest ones – which makes them one of the most influential families in the south of the peninsula. (…).

Mansour’s fortune comes from black gold (his father, the sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyad discovered oil in the UAE in 1958 and was the first President of the country). The sheikh plans to improve sheep farming on the estate, through which the Matachel river runs, to include another 8,000 heads (there used to be 12,000) and to export thousands of lambs each year (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Borja Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Corpfin Launches A Socimi That Will Invest €100M

22 April 2015 – Expansión

New Socimi / The real estate division of the Spanish fund manager has obtained €50 million from individual investors, including one from Abu Dhabi.

A new Socimi is preparing for its stock market debut. Its name is Corpfin Capital Prime Retail Assets, a vehicle created by the real estate division of the Spanish fund manager Corpfin Capital. “Since we created a specialist fund manager for the real estate sector in September 2008, our goal has been to create a vehicle and we think that a Socimi is the perfect formula for our investors”, says Javier Basagoiti, Managing Partner at Corpfin Capital Real Estate.

The new company will, in turn, channel the investments of two other Socimis: Corpfin Capital Prime Retail II (CCPR II) and Corpfin Capital Prime Retail III (CCPR III). The first company was created in September 2013 with capital of €30 million, and CCPR III was launched in 2013 with €20 million from small investors. “We have signed a co-inversion agreement, which gives us greater purchasing power”, says Basagoiti. The €50 million obtained (to date) will be supplemented with bank financing, which has already been committed, to take the total (funds available) to €100 million. “We are not listing to obtain financing, we already have funds. But we want to ensure that our vehicle has the greatest transparency possible”.

Listing on MAB

The new Socimi will make its stock exchange debut on MAB and will be dedicated exclusively to the management of commercial property. “We will not invest more than 15% or 20% of the total in a single asset. We prefer to diversify”.

For its IPO, which is scheduled for May, the fund already has assets worth more than €50 million. “We have already invested 56% of the funds. The objective is to invest 100% before August 2016, but I think we may have completed our purchases before Christmas”. All of the assets are retail premises located on the major streets of large capital cities, such as San Sebastian. In Madrid, they own properties on streets such as Serrano (where they own number 4, which they lease to the firm Hasteens), Fuencarral (where they have numbers 37 and 74), Goya and Velázquez. “The objective is to obtain an annual return of 15%. We are a firm that adds value; we do not buy properties that are already being rented out for a return of 6%, rather we focus on off-market transactions and we (actively) manage our assets”.

Unlike the Socimis that are already listed (on the stock exchange), the share capital of Corpfin Capital Prime Retail Assets will not be owned by large international funds or a single high profile shareholder, but instead by hundreds of smaller investors. “We are not going to have an “anchor” investor. We are a boutique Socimi, which is what our investors prefer”, explains Basagoiti. The contributions to the new Socimi range between €250,000 and €500,000 from small savers and between €1.5 million and €5 million from family offices. “90% of our investors are Spanish but we also have foreigners, for example, one investor from Abu Dhabi, who is contributing just over €6 million”. Moreover, the team at Corpfin Real Estate will also participate in the share capital. “The fund manager will acquire between 2% and ·3% of the Socimi’s capital, as a means of clearly demonstrating our commitment”.

Socimis for the acquisition retail premises is not Corpfin’s only plan. “The idea is to create more specialised listed companies. I think that prime areas in the residential sector are attractive, as are medium-sized retail spaces and offices, but not entire buildings, rather mix-used properties for SMEs.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake