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25 June 2018 – Valencia Plaza
The sale of 48.62% of the Valencian real estate company Nuevas Actividades Urbanas (NAU) by Bankia Habitat was closed for a price of less than €6 million. That is according to the latest accounts deposited by Bankia Habitat – corresponding to 2016 – in which the company indicates that it sold a set of shares whose net book value amounted to €6.973 million.
In addition to the shares in NAU, the sold package included the 46% that Bankia held in the company Costa Bellver SA, which was acquired by the Calabuig family for €1 million, as well as other stakes in the firms Espai Comercial Vila-real SL and Viladecavalls Park Centro Industrial Logístico y Comercial SA. As a result, the price at which Bankia sold its stake in NAU must have amounted to less than €6 million.
It is also a lower value than the amount assigned to the company just a year ago. According to the accounts of Bankia Habitat, in 2015, the company recognised an impairment provision amounting to €11.7 million.
When asked about this, sources at Bankia explained to Valencia Plaza that “the stake in NAU was adjusted in 2015 to reflect the estimated market value of that stake, to get it ready, from an accounting point of view, for its possible sale”. “There was no more to it”, they underlined.
In terms of the exact sales price of NAU, Bankia explained that it is not authorised to divulge the figure “for reasons of confidentiality agreed between the parties when the transaction was signed”.
A firm that started life with a share capital of €503 million.
Atitlan and Gesfesa have controlled NAU since March 2017, when they acquired 79.66% of the company through the firm Demeter Aurea SL. The rest of the shares are held by Sabadell Real Estate Development SL (15.22%) and Multiactividades Reunidas SL (5.12%).
The company, created in 2009 with a share capital of €503 million, holds stakes in important buildings including the Aqua and Arena Multiespacio shopping centres, but it is weighed down by a heavy debt, amounting €200 million, according to its new owners.
At the end of 2017, following divestment operations such as the sale of three plots by the subsidiary MAI for €33 million and the stake in the Cirsa Valencia casino, that amount had been reduced to around €95 million, of which €35 million corresponded to the consolidation of subsidiaries.
Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Dani Valero)
Translation: Carmel Drake