Tag: annual accounts

Argia’s Bankruptcy Leads to Oviedo’s Largest Ever Land Auction

10 December 2017 – El Comercio

The bankruptcy of the property developer owned by the businessman Blas Herrero, Argia Inversiones Inmobiliarias, and the lack of interest in most of its assets from its banker, Liberbank, have made way for the city’s largest-ever auction of private land. In total, 159 lots worth more than €30 million will go under the hammer, ranging from buildable estates in Cerdeño, to buildable land in Prados de la Fuente, to around fifty finished homes also in Prados de la Fuente.

In reality, the investments are very recent. Herrero did not seek to obtain any returns from the land and housing sectors in Spain until 2005 when he took control of Inverural Capital and turned it into Argia Inversiones Inmobiliarias. After a few years of activity, the company stopped filing its annual accounts – in 2009 – and went off the radar.

In Oviedo, the firm had promoted one of the largest plots of land in Prados de la Fuente, under the commercial name Galana Residencial. The work on that group of buildings…did not go well…The first buyers reported problems with the finishes, as well as humidity in the garages and the poor quality of the padel court.

Eight years after the homes were handed over, 51 apartments in different parts of the development are now going on the market, with appraisal values ranging from €155,484 for a first floor 3-bedroom property to €250,000 for homes that are bigger and higher up (…).

House prices in the city of Oviedo in Q3 2017 amounted to €1,264/m2, according to the appraisal company Tinsa. In YoY terms, they rose by 1.5%, but the number of transactions was still very low and, in 2016, prices fell by 0.8% in YoY terms. Since the middle of 2008, each homeowner in Oviedo has lost 37% of his/her property value, on average (…).

Volatility and low returns are two of the factors that have ended up causing the Asturian businessman Blas Herrero to surrender his real estate ambitions just ten years after launching them and after more than five years of unremarkable activity. In 2015, Argia Inversiones Inmobiliarias filed for voluntary creditors’ bankruptcy. The liquidation plan…was approved in January.

A peaceful end is anticipated with the voluntary auction that is due to be held on 20 December. The 159 lots, which will be bid for independently, include some mortgage charges in favour of Liberbank, who has most at stake in terms of the success of these disposals (…).

Prices and lots

The data is not encouraging. In the last year – between July 2016 and June this year – 633 homes were sold across the whole of Asturias (…). The figures indicate that the crisis is still on-going. A decade ago, the General Council of Notaries recorded three times as many real estate transactions per year. Moreover, some of the lots are far from the reach of most (…). Specifically, three plots from the special plan are together worth €10.5 million (…).

Original story: El Comercio (by Gonzalo Díaz-Rubín)

Translation: Carmel Drake

College of Registrars Creates New CPI Indicator for RE Sector: the IRAI

4 December 2017 – El Confidencial

The recovery of the real estate sector is now a reality that nobody doubts. In fact, activity in the sector in Spain has been growing in a sustained way since 2014, far from the minimum levels of 2013, but also a long way from the peak heights. The volume of – new build and second-hand – transactions is rising; more mortgages are being granted; property prices are recovering; and new build permits are increasing. Moreover, the number of companies linked to the sector filing for creditor bankruptcy is also decreasing. Each one of these parameters has its own indicators proceeding from different sources (e.g. Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE), real estate websites, appraisal companies, Ministry of Development…), that show the evolution of those specific parameters.

Nevertheless, from now on, there is going to be a new indicator that groups them all together and, through a complex weighting system, shows the overall evolution of activity in the real estate sector. This new indicator is the Real Estate Activity Registry Index (IRAI), compiled by the College of Registrars. According to its creators, it is set to be called the CPI of the real estate market, given that its preparation adopts a very similar methodology to that used by INE to measure inflation.

The indicator takes the year 2003 as the base year (100); it serves as the reference for analysing the evolution of real estate activity. In this way, for example, during the third quarter of this year, the IRAI amounted to 98.26% points, 30% below the maximum levels of 2007, the year the real estate bubble burst. During the first 3 months of that year, the index reached its maximum, 139.90 points. Nevertheless, since the historical minimum of 68, to which it fell in 2013, the sector has risen by 45% to date. Like in the case of CPI, the IRAI can be softened or purified to avoid seasonality, in which case, it amounts to 94.34 points.

This new index is a synthesis of different indicators. It includes real estate transactions, mortgage financing and, in addition to the above, another set of commercial activity indicators, such as the number of company constitutions, economic variables from filed annual accounts and bankrupt companies, in all cases relating to the construction and real estate sectors. For its launch, the College of Registrars has constituted a Committee of Experts, advisors from the college in each aspect listed above, who have been responsible for preparing the index and determining the weighting of each one of the indicators in the index. The IRAI will be prepared on a quarterly basis (…).

Evolution of the IRAI so far this year

The variation in the IRAI since January has been an increase of 10.12%, representing the cumulative impact of the ownership element (9.55%) and the commercial element (0.57%). In other words, the part corresponding to house sales and financing has pushed up the index by the most, compared to the boost from commercial activity. In December last year, the IRAI amounted to 89 points, compared to 98.26 now.

In this way, the groups with the greatest positive cumulative impact so far this year have been sales (cumulative impact of 6.98%) due to the significant rise in the number of sales (cumulative impact of 6.11%), especially of new and second-hand homes with growth rates of 31.87% and 27.06% and cumulative impacts of 1.19% and 4.14%, respectively.

Sales prices also grew by 3.74% (impact of 0.87%) with the price of second-hand homes having a greater impact (impact of 0.9% with a growth rate of 5.91%). Meanwhile, mortgages (cumulative impact of 2.56%) due to the significant increase in the number of mortgages (cumulative impact of 2.05%), especially for new and second-hand homes with growth rates of 21.65% and 15.42% and cumulative impacts of 0.92% and 0.94%, respectively.

From the commercial perspective, the greatest boost to activity has come from the decrease in the number of creditor bankruptcies involving both construction companies, which have decreased by 83%, and real estate companies, which have fallen by 57% (…).

Original story: El Confidencial

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Prepares Sale of €1.5bn Property Developer Loan Portfolio

30 November 2017 – Expansión

The property sector / The second largest Spanish bank detects a large appetite from opportunistic funds for the real estate risk it has left over: €4.8 billion, after deconsolidating €13 billion of foreclosed assets.

BBVA is making steady progress to clean up its balance sheet. The entity is preparing the sale of a portfolio of property developer loans with a gross value of between €1.5 billion and €1.6 billion (31% of the total) after deconsolidating the risk associated with its foreclosed assets.

The group’s gross real estate exposure has been reduced to €4.8 billion in the form of property developer loans following the agreement with Cerberus to transfer €13 billion in foreclosed assets to a newly created company. BBVA’s plan is to sell one-third of its property developer loan portfolio to an opportunistic fund.

“It is going to be a very competitive portfolio”, said Javier Rodríguez Soler, Head of Strategy and M&A at BBVA, speaking to Expansión. In parallel to the operation with Cerberus, the bank has identified a large appetite from the big funds, such as Lone Star, Blackstone and Apollo, for loans linked to the property sector. The portfolio comprises finishing buildings, properties under construction and land.

Transfers to its subsidiary

The intention of BBVA is to reduce its risk estate risk to almost zero. The Head of Strategy said that the bank is looking to transfer another €1.5 billion of performing property developer loans to its Spanish subsidiary.

Many banks separated out their real estate businesses to curb the impact of the fallout from the burst of the bubble on their annual accounts. BBVA’s property unit lost €281 million during the 9 months to September this year, down by 10.9% compared to a year ago. Sources at the entity expect the real estate business to stop generating losses in 2018.

Yesterday, BBVA took a giant step to clean up its real estate-related risk. The bank has created a company together with Cerberus to transfer 78,000 properties with a gross value of €13 billion. 47% of the foreclosed assets are located in Cataluña, the historical heartland of Catalunya Caixa (CX) and Unnim, which were both absorbed by BBVA during the crisis. Some of those properties are social housing units, whilst some of those proceeding from Unnim are covered by an Asset Protection Scheme (EPA).

The US fund will own 80% of the new vehicle after paying BBVA €4 billion; the banking entity will own the remaining 20%. Haya Real Estate, Cerberus’s platform in Spain, will manage the portfolio of properties that the bank holds onto. The agreement also involves the transfer of 400 employees from Anida, the real estate arm of BBVA, to the joint company with Cerberus.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Sampedro and R. Lander)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Banco Popular’s Complex RE Clean Up Continues

24 November 2016 – Expansión

Popular was the most profitable bank in Spain’s financial sector until it decided that it did not want to get left behind in the real estate development business. The problem is that it joined the party too late, when the real estate bubble had already begun to burst (….). The result is that, several years after the outbreak of the crisis…Popular is the bank with the highest proportion of toxic real estate assets on its balance sheet. It also has one of the lowest levels of coverage. The bank’s total real estate exposure amounted to €25,376 million in September, with a coverage ratio of 35%.

In this context, the essential axis of Popular’s clean up plan, designed by the heads of the bank and approved by the supervisory bodies, placed the emphasis on the €2,500 million capital increase that was carried out in June (to reduce the bank’s installed capacity by closing branches and reducing the staff), and, above all, on increasing the coverage for toxic assets to bring the entity in line with the rest of the sector, in such a way that it would make it easier for it to divest these assets.

That is what the entity is looking to carry out with its project to create a separate real estate company using some of its assets. Ownership of those assets will transfer from the bank directly into the hands of the financial institution’s shareholders.

But now, data provided by Popular, when it presented its results for the third quarter, has revealed that the net debt of the real estate and associated businesses amounted to €15,518 million in September and that the provisions amounted to €9,858 million. The total exposure therefore amounted to €25,376 million and the coverage afforded by those provisions stood at around 35%. The rest of the financial sector has provisions to cover up to 50% of their respective exposures.

The bank’s plan is to reduce its non-profitable assets by 45% by 2018 and for the coverage of its toxic assets to increase to 50%. In fact, sources at the bank say that the latter was fulfilled at the end of October (…).

The constitution of these new provisions should facilitate both retail sales, as well as the sale of portfolios of toxic real estate assets, because the entity will be able to sell at more competitive prices in the market without incurring fresh losses in its income statement. The new provisions should also allow the headline figures to be outlined for the real estate company that is pending approval by the financial supervisors and the CNMV. Undoubtedly, when authorisation is granted and the bank ceases to be the owner of real estate assets amounting to €6,000 million (book value), it will represent a huge relief for the bank’s future quarterly results.

However, the question is whether that will be sufficient, or not, for investors to consider that Popular is undertaking the clean up process at the right pace and will ever return to profitability.

Whilst decreasing the volume of toxic assets by €6,000 million involves significant effort, even once that hard work has been completed, the entity will still have a high volume of problem assets on its balance sheet, between €19,000 million and €20,000 million, according to its own accounts. The bank will have two years to reduce its exposure to the real estate and associated sectors by €5,400 million if it is to achieve the established objective of reducing this caption of its balance sheet by 45% with respect to its current level.

Original story: Expansión (by Salvador Arancibia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Marina d’Or Launches Aggressive Marketing Campaign

4 October 2016 – Cinco Días

The former hotel and real estate empire Marina d’Or has launched an aggressive marketing campaign to raise revenues. It has put apartments up for sale from as little as €130,000 and retail premises from €200,000, with a “guaranteed” return of 7%.

The empire created by Jesús Ger began to crumble at the same time as the real estate bubble burst in Spain. The Holiday City, which was advertised in the City of London as the best place to spend the summer and as a golden retirement destination for British pensioners, is resorting to aggressive marketing techniques once again to increase its sales in the short term.

The key to the campaign, which is featuring in most national newspapers, is the slogan… “Guaranteed returns of 7%”. The small print explains that these investment opportunities relate to fully operational retail premises, with an established client base, as well as beach-front apartments. It specifies that the return of 7% with guaranteed rent will be over “1, 2 3 or more years, depending on the agreement”.

The reality is that the entity selling these assets is the hotel subsidiary of the group, which has not filed for bankruptcy, unlike its property developer associate.

Hoteles Marina d’Or has been selling homes and retail premises from €130,000 and €200,000, respectively, since the summer. In theory, the guaranteed return used to be 4%, but in September, that figure was increased to 7%.

How does it work?

The mechanism is simple. The company undertakes to pay that percentage over the purchase price on the basis of a signed contract, if the owner grants it the right to rent out its property in return. “In reality, they are apartments that the hotels already manage and given their locations, it is almost certain that they will be occupied; and as such, we are able to promise such returns”, said a sales agent from Marina d’Or. A spokesperson for the firm added that the sale of these apartments represents a direct cash injection and allows them to consider using this formula with more homes in the future. (…).

The hotel and real estate complex, which has half a dozen hotels, ranging from three- to five-star categories, is also home to several leisure facilities and a large spa. (…) The company, which guarantees annual interest of more than €9,000 per year for a flat costing €130,000, held own funds amounting to €86.2 million at the end of 2014, the last period for which accounts have been deposited in the commercial registry.

The company generated revenues of €38.6 million in 2014, in line with the preceding year. Its profit amounted to €627,000, compared with a loss of more than €1 million in 2013. The debt repayment calendar of Hoteles Marina d’Or, a limited company that is fully owned by Jesús Ger, was clear at the end of 2014. Last year, it had to repay €1.2 million; this year €1.4 million; and in 2017, €2.8 million. In 2018, the amount will increase to €4.6 million and from 2019, to €87.5 million. In total, the company’s debt amounts to almost €100 million. (…)

The return means multiplying the average interest rate on one- and two-year deposits by 30, given that on average such deposits paid out 0.23% in July. Nevertheless, the return is not quite so far-fetched in the real estate world. Sources in the sector acknowledge that it is high, given that holiday apartments offer around 4% in their contracts, and that it depends on the tourist occupancy rates in the area. In any case, there is a risk, given that the hotel company is responsible for paying that interest rate.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Pablo M. Simón y Laura Salces)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankia & Apollo Go To Court Re Sale Of Finanmadrid

3 October 2016 – Expansión

Both entities are waiting for the discrepancies that arose from the sale of Finanmadrid to be resolved. The sale was completed in 2013 for €1.6 million

Fracciona Financiera Holding, the subsidiary of Apollo, filed the first lawsuit, in which it claimed €8.5 million from Bankia due to discrepancies in the sale and purchase contract based on the determination of the sales price for Finanmadrid.

The contract included clauses that have an impact on the basis of the evolution of various parameters. These conditions have been common in multiple sales operations closed in the financial sector since the outbreak of the crisis. The asset protection schemes (EPA), which cover the buyers of former savings banks, are the most visible example of these types of operations.

Bankia has responded to the lawsuit filed by Apollo, with its own claim for €6.4 million.

Finanmadrid, which used to specialise in offering consumer credit through retailers and car dealerships, has now been integrated into Avant Tarjetas, a subsidiary of Evo Banco, controlled by Apollo. Previously, it was integrated into Fracciona Financiera Holding. In the company’s accounts from last year, the audit report explains that “in the opinion of the company’s legal advisors, an unfavourable outcome from the lawsuit (with Bankia) is remote, nevertheless, the shareholder (Apollo) would financially support any contingency that may arise in the event that no provision has been recognised”.

Before the integration, Finanmadrid reduced its share capital by €2.24 million to absorb losses and so it was left at €2.79 million.

Apollo’s claim against Bankia forms part of a broad range of claims against the entity chaired by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri. In total, the bank faces claims amounting to €390 million, not including the claims relating to its debut on the stock market and the sale of its preference shares.

Claims

The largest claim, amounting to €165 million, is one presented by ING Belgium, BBVA, Santander and Catalunya Banc against Bankia, ACS and Sacyr. (…).

The construction group Rayet also claims €78.2 million from Bankia for what it considers are accounting irregularities and for differences in the valuation of plots of land linked to the debut of Astroc on the stock market in 2006, an operation piloted by the former Caja Madrid.

The bank has 305 legal proceedings open relating to derivatives with claims amounting to €38.8 million.

Original story: Expansión (by E. del Pozo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Abanca Sells €1,400M NPL Portfolio To EOS Spain

14 June 2016 – Expansión

Two years after taking ownership of Abanca, the Venezuelan company Banesco has started to sell off the bank’s toxic assets. Yesterday, the financial entity headquartered in Galicia reported its first sale of non-performing loans, amounting to €1,385 million, which represents approximately 20% of its total NPL portfolio.

All of the loans were overdue and unsecured, which makes it one of the largest operations of its kind in recent years and also, concentrated in a single buyer.

EOS Spain, a company that specialises in collections management was the winner of the competitive process. It is headquartered in A Coruña and is a subsidiary of the international group EOS. The transaction generated profits of €57.4 million for the bank, according to a statement filed with the CNMV.

The auction generated significant interest, with participation from around twenty investment funds and entities specialising in the recovery of overdue debt. For this competitive process, Abanca was advised by KPMG, the same firm that audits its accounts.

The operation (…) will open a series of future transactions as part of Abanca’s strategy to divest of its non-performing assets. In fact, it says that it is already evaluating similar operations for its non-strategic assets, with the aim of focusing the business on providing credit to families and companies and to boosting the economy.

One of the upcoming operations will involve a portfolio of non-performing loans, secured by mortgaged assets, although that will be smaller than the portfolio just sold. By contrast, the bank will hold onto the other overdue unsecured loans so that they can be managed by Abanca itself.

For EOS, the purchase “represents the strengthening of its relationship with Abanca”, according to a statement from the bank, as well as an intensification of competition and an improvement in its position in the domestic market.

Improved capitalisation

The main effect of the sale has been on the solvency of the entity, given that it had fully provisioned all of the non-performing loans that it has now sold. Abanca calculates that with this transaction, it has improved its capital coefficient by five basis points since the first quarter of the year, when it stood at 14.8%, one of the highest in the sector. Meanwhile, the doubtful asset coverage ratio amounted to 60.8% during that same period. According to the annual accounts, Abanca had decreased its doubtful debt balances by 30% last year to €2,695 million as at December 2015; furthermore, it reduced the weight of foreclosed assets on its balance sheet to just 1%.

Of the total impaired asset balance, more than half (€1,900 million) are secured and only €114 million were overdue by three months or less (as at December 2015), according to details disclosed in the consolidated annual accounts for 2015.

Beyond its consolidated balance sheet, the entity accounted for €5,376 million of financial assets that it had written off. The bank explained that it was not including them on its balance sheet because it regarded (the likelihood of) “their recovery to be remote”, although it clarified that it has not stopped trying to collect the amounts due.

Original story: Expansión (by A. Chas and J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Reduces Its Assets By Just 6% In 3 Years

9 May 2016 – El Economista

Sareb has reduced the number of assets it owns by just 6.1% since its creation at the beginning of 2013. In the last three years, the company chaired by Jaime Echegoyen has decreased its volume of properties and loans by 12,091 units, representing 6.1% of the total, and so still held 186,120 assets at the end of last year, according to its annual report approved by the General Shareholders’ Meeting.

The firm, which was created using the toxic assets of the entities that received state aid, has twelve years left to sell off its remaining assets, which are valued at €43,000 million, after the sales it has already completed and the impairment in its appraisal values as a result of price decreases.

The small reduction in the number of loans and properties is due, in part, to the transformation of the portfolio into more liquid assets. Since it was created, Sareb has been converting loans in homes and land, so as to bring them onto the market more quickly in the face of their non-payment. In this way, the volume of financing lines to property developers has decreased by around 10,000, to just over 80,000, whilst the number of properties has been reduced by around 2,000, despite the fact that its divestments since the creation of its semi-public capital exceed 30,000.

Sareb’s General Shareholders’ Meeting approved the accounts from last year, which are weighed down by the new provisioning circular. Moreover, it authorised the exchange of subordinated debt for capital to strengthen its solvency, after recording significant losses in prior years. The company will convert €2,170 million in total. Following this operation, the State – through the Frob – will slightly strengthen its stake, since it holds more debt that the other shareholders. It will go from owning 45% of the shares to 45.9%.

In addition, several insurance companies will acquire small stakes in the company’s share capital, given that, until now, they only held subordinated bonds. The remaining shareholders – the banks – will see their shareholdings diluted slightly. Santander will continue as the main private shareholder.

Original story: El Economista (by F. Tadeo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The BME Suspends Trading Of Obsido’s Shares

3 May 2016 – Gestiona Tu Dinero

The Board of Directors of ‘Bolsas y Mercados Españoles’ (BME or the Spanish Stock Exchanges and Markets) has suspended trading of shares in the Socimi Obsido, after the company reported that it was unable to provide its audited annual accounts for 2015 to the Alternative Investment Market (Mercado Alternativo Bursátil or MAB) within the timeframe prescribed by law. The company’s shares have plummeted by 62% since its debut last year.

In a significant event notice, the company explained that the reason for the delay “comes as a result of internal difficulties, although the annual accounts and management report were unanimously approved by the Board of Directors at the general shareholders’ meeting, which was held on 25 March 2016”. Sources at the company insist that the accounts will be published “as soon as possible, and, at the very latest, within the next week”, according to the notice dated 30 April.

Obsido debuted on the MAB on 4 September 2015, in a year marked by a flood of IPOs by the Socimis. But it has followed a very different path to those taken by other firms in the sector, with its share price plummeting by 62%, from €19.40 at its debut to its current value of around €7.22.

Obsido was the first Spanish company with Norwegian shareholders to list on the Spanish stock exchange and the seventh Socimi to join the MAB family. At the time, its assets comprised two hotels in Costa del Sol: the Hotel Marbella Inn and the Diana Park apart hotel, the first is located in the centre of Marbella and the second in the town of Estepona.

The company was founded in 2014 with a share capital of €5,512,930, distributed between the Founding Partners, including the Spaniard Joaquín Hinojosa and the Norwegian Häkan Tollefsen, along with almost one hundred Norwegian investors who held the remaining 33.66% stake.

Sources at Obsido are committed to acquiring projects, tourist complexes and hotels in good locations and with potential to be done up. They acquire assets to refurbish them and fit them out. According to the explanation provided by the Socimi in its brochure when it joined the MAB, it wants to focus on establishments “where the current owners have financing problems” or “those whose structures may be improved, through a proper and considered injection of capital”.

Original story: Gestiona Tu Dinero (by Clara Alba)

Translation: Carmel Drake

SEA Sells 43,141m2 Of Industrial Land For €2.1M

25 April 2016 – El Economista

The public company Suelo Empresarial del Atlántico (SEA), owned by the Ministry of Development, through Sepas, has sold 43,141 m2 of industrial land as the result of a public tender that was convened at the beginning of the year.

According to the Ministry of Development, a new public auction was convened at the beginning of the year whose result has involved the sale of 15 new plots of land for €2.1 million.

The company has just approved its annual accounts for 2015, with a positive net result of €431,044.

According to the data published, the company has sold 28 plots in total, spread across 10 business parks, with a combined surface area of 81,087.96 m2, for €3.6 million.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake