Lone Star Appoints Donald Quintin to Lead its European Business

27 February 2018 – Eje Prime

Lone Star is reordering its management team across Europe, including in Spain. Following the departure from the fund of one of its strong men, Juan Pepa, the company has appointed Donald Quintin to lead its business in the old continent (Europe). Mr Quintin, a former director of Hudson Advisors and Vinson and Elkins, is now going to take over the role of CEO for Lone Star in Europe.

Despite this change in its leadership, Lone Star is nevertheless pushing ahead to close operations that it had open in the Spanish market, and is also undoing positions in the real estate business in the country. Those include the sale of the last major asset of Project Octopus, a portfolio comprising more than €4 billion in real estate loans from Eurohypo in Spain and Portugal, which the US fund acquired together with JP Morgan three years ago.

Also, at the end of last year, the fund sold the former headquarters of Fecsa-Endesa in Cataluña, a building measuring 35,000 m2, whose three chimneys form part of Barcelona’s skyline and regarding which it is negotiating exclusively with the Tramway group and the German vehicle Indigo Capital.

That property has been empty for five years and has both environmental and change of use problems, which have conditioned its sale. Constructed on the site of a former coal generation plant dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century, it may be converted into an office building in the short term and could attract attention from coworking giants or large groups looking to set up their headquarters in Barcelona, according to sources in the sector.

But the move that caught the most attention in the real estate sector was Lone Star’s exit from the share capital of Neinor Homes following that firm’s debut on the stock market. The US fund completed the accelerated placement amongst institutional investors of 9.85 million shares in Neinor Homes in January, representing 12.5% of its share capital and worth €174 million.

After concluding that operation, Lone Star’s presence in Neinor Homes, a company that it had controlled in its entirety prior to its stock market debut, was reduced to a token 0.4% or 350,918 shares in total, which it held onto in order to agree the terms and conditions of the incentive plan for “certain directors and key employees”.

In practice, this sale represented the exit of Lone Star from the real estate developer that it had constituted just three years ago, in 2015, with assets purchased from Kutxabank. The divestment was completed before Neinor had the chance to celebrate its one year anniversary as a listed company, after it made its stock market debut at the end of March 2017.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Norwegian Pension Fund Acquires 4.8% of Neinor Homes

17 January 2018 – Expansión

The Norwegian Pension Fund has acquired a 4.8% stake in the share capital of the property developer Neinor Homes. This package, acquired through the manager Norges Bank Investment Management has a market value of around €70 million. The sovereign fund of the Nordic country is positioning itself as one of the key investors in the company led by Juan Velayos, together with several other international funds, including Wellington Management Group, with an 8.5% stake; Fidelity (6.8%); Adar Capital Partners (5.2%); Invesco (5.01%); King Street Capital Management (3.9%); and the Bank of Montreal (3.25%).

The Norwegian Fund first acquired shares in the company when it debuted on the stock market last year and has taken advantage of the two accelerated placements made by the US fund Lone Star to strengthen its position in the share capital of the property developer. Lone Star exited the capital of the company, which it constituted three years ago with the purchase of the real estate subsidiary of Kutxabank, a week ago, after selling the 12.5% stake that it still controlled.

In March 2017, the US fund placed 40% of the shares that it owned on the market as part of the stock market debut, and in September, it sold off another 27% stake through an accelerated placement that generated proceeds of €395 million and decreased its participation to around 13%.

Incentives

Finally, a week ago, Lone Star sold an additional 12.5% stake for €173 million – also through an accelerated placement. Following that sale, Lone Star retained 350,918 shares in Neinor, representing approximately 0.4% of the firm’s share capital, which it is reserving in order to agree the requirements for the incentive plan for directors.

The company’s shares closed at a price of €18.54 yesterday, having fallen by 0.64%.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lone Star Exits Neinor after Selling its 12.5% Stake for €174M

11 January 2018 – Expansión

Following this operation, the stake owned by the US fund in the property developer, which was its largest shareholder before its stock market debut, will be reduced to a token 0.4%.

Lone Star is folding up the sails in Neinor Homes, whose share capital it is almost completely exiting less than a year after the property developer’s debut on the stock market, which took place in March last year. The US fund has undertaken an accelerated placement of 9.85 million shares in Neinor, representing 12.5% of that firm’s share capital, amongst institutional investors.

Yesterday, the property developer closed trading at €18.04 per share after a decrease of 1.1%, which means that the package put up for sale was worth €177.8 million.

Nevertheless, today, Neinor has informed the National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV) that the price at which the placement was closed was €173.99 million, equivalent to €17.65 per share.

After completing this operation, Lone Star’s presence in Neinor, the company that it controlled 100% prior to the property developer’s debut on the stock market, will be reduced to a token 0.4%, equivalent to 350,918 shares that it is retaining to ensure that it agrees the conditions of an incentive plan for “certain directors and key employees”.

With the sale of this latest package, Lone Star is culminating a divestment process that it began in March last year with Neinor’s stock market debut, when the American fund placed 60% of the property developer’s shares on the market, for which it received revenues of around €800 million.

A few months later, in the middle of September, Lone Star divested another 27% of Neinor, receiving proceeds on that occasion of €394.6 million and obtaining profits of €166 million as a result.

Following the accelerated placement completed yesterday and entrusted to BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and JP Morgan, the resources raised by the US fund from the sale of Neinor now exceed €1.37 billion in total.

Neinor, whose origins date back to 2015, when Lone Star acquired Kutxabank’s real estate assets, debuted on the stock market with a valuation of €1.34 billion. Currently, its market capitalisation amounts to €1.425 billion, up by 6.3% from that figure.

Neinor’s main shareholders include the investment firms Wellington, with an 8.5% stake; Fidelity, with around 6.8%; and Invesco, with 5%, according to the CNMV’s registers.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Díaz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Axiare Closes Accelerated Placement Ahead Of Its Capital Increase

18 May 2015 – Expansión

The Socimi has just closed an accelerated placement with investors ahead of its capital increase.

The listed real estate investment company (Socimi) Axiare Patrimonio wants to maintain the speed of investment that has enabled it to disburse €460 million since its IPO last summer. To this end, the company has announced a capital increase of €394 million, with the aim of doubling its share capital.

Last week, the Socimi led by Luis López de Herrera Oria launched a brochure containing the details of the transaction, which would involve the issue of around 35.87 million new shares, at a nominal value of ten euros per share, plus a premium of one euro (per share).

The capital increase will have preferential subscription rights. The Socimi’s shareholders include funds such as T. Rowe Price and Taube Hodson, and Citigroup.

Axiare owns assets worth €507.95 million, including office buildings in Madrid and logistics warehouses in Guadalajara (pictured above). During the first quarter of 2015, the Socimi generated revenues of €7.59 million and a profit of €2.32 million.

Placement

Ahead of this capital increase, Axiare closed an accelerated placement of the shares of one of its largest shareholders, Perry Capital, on Friday. The objective of this placement was to provide greater liquidity for the company’s stock.

The placement of 3.5 million shares (representing 9.721% of its share capital) was closed in record time (one hour) and with a slight issue premium (€12 per share). Buyers of these shares included institutional investment funds from the US, Britain and Norway, according to sources at the company.

The subscription rights for these shares will begin trading on 20 May, whilst the shares themselves will begin trading on 10 June. On Friday, Axiare’s share price closed down 0.29% on the stock exchange at €11.94 per share.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake