Tag: Ashurst

Meridia Capital Sell’s Nestle’s HQ in Barcelona for €87M

6 October 2018 – Real Estate Press

Savills Investment Management, the international real estate investment manager, has brokered the sale of Nestle’s headquarters in Barcelona by the manager Meridia Capital. The buyer in the operation is the Korean manager IGIS Asset Management. The value of the transaction has not been revealed, but sources close to the operation claim that it amounts to €87 million.

The complex, which includes 5 office buildings with a total surface area of almost 50,000 m2 and a GLA of 27,607 m2, is located in Esplugues de Llobregat, close to Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona. It is a prime location, where other large multinational companies also have their offices including Bayer, Cobega and Codorniu. The complex, which has been home to Nestle’s headquarters in Spain since the 1970s, has almost 600 parking spaces. Building 1 has a LEED 1 Platinum certificate and Building 2 and the common areas have a LEED Gold certificate.

Fernando Ramírez de Haro, Director General of Savills Investment Management for Spain and Portugal, said: “Our client has managed to access a complex with unique characteristics. At Savills IM, we are delighted to have been able to accompany them in this operation, which will undoubtedly mark a milestone in the real estate market during the second half of this year”.

In reference to Savills IM’s objectives in Spain, Ramírez de Haro added, “after closing this investment, which follows others recently completed in Spain and Portugal, we are close to recording total acquisitions of €500 million in 2018”.

Ashurst, Cushman & Wakefield, KPMG and Colliers advised the purchaser whilst the law firm Uría Menéndez and Valliance Real Estate Advisors acted as advisors to the vendor.

Original story: Real Estate Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tritax Purchases Mango’s Logistics Centre from VGP for €150M

26 September 2018 – Expansión

Less than two years is the time that Mango’s logistics platform has been in the hands of the Belgian group VGP. In December 2016, the Brussels-based firm paid €150 million for the logistics complex that Mango had built in Lliçà d’Amunt (Barcelona) and which has a surface area of 250,000 m2 together with some adjoining land on which an additional 100,000 m2 may be built.

According to sources speaking to Expansión, VGP has just sold the asset to the British group Tritax Big Box, a firm listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The buyer of the complex, which Mango inaugurated in the middle of 2016, is a real estate investor specialising in the logistics market. Some of its largest properties include logistics platforms leased to large companies such as Amazon, Unilever, Kuehne+Nagel, L’Oréal, Hachette, Whirlpool, Kellogg’s, Tesco and DHL.

At the end of 2017, Tritax’s portfolio was worth GBP 2.61 billion (€2.92 billion at current exchange rates), 38.1% more than the previous year. Tritax has been advised by the law firm Ashurst in what has been its first operation in the Spanish market. VGP has been advised by the real estate consultancy firm JLL.

Last summer, Tritax raised €300 million through a public offer for sale on the London Stock Exchange. The objective of its managers is to use that money, together with external financing, to acquire logistics properties in Continental Europe.

“Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain and its logistics market is one of the strongest in Europe, with high demand and a limited supply of buildings and land, especially for logistics assets of this kind”, said Nick Preston, manager of Tritax Eurobox, in a statement.

The lease contract for the logistics centre, which has a surface area of 186,138 m2, has a 30-year term, until 2046, although Mango has the option to cancel it in 2036, 2039 and 2042. According to Tritax, the annual rent that Mango pays will allow it to obtain an annual yield of 5%.

Isak Andic decided to build this logistics platform in response to the increase in sales that the fashion chain was experiencing, although that growth has slowed in recent years.

Last year, Mango recorded losses of €33 million, down by 46% compared to 2016, the year in which the company recorded negative results for the first time in its history, with losses of €61 million. In 2017, sales decreased by 2.9%, the same drop as the previous year, and amounted to €2.194 billion.

Divestment

The sale of the logistics centre was the first divestment that Andic made after investing a large proportion of his profits in the real estate sector in previous years. But it was not the last, given that a year later, in December 2017, he sold the chain’s headquarters, located in Palau-solità i Plegamans (Barcelona) to the British group Invesco for €100 million.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Anglés, S. Saiz & R. Casado)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Property Developer Impulsa Buys Land in Madrid for €130M

18 May 2018 – Expansión

The property developer group Impulsa Proyectos Inmobiliarios has purchased the last portfolio of buildable land available in Las Colinas de Rivas Vaciamadrid for €130 million. Specifically, the group has completed the purchase of four residential use plots with a buildable surface area of 55,000 m2 where it plans to build 375 detached family homes distributed over four developments.

The first development, which will contain 137 three- and four-bedroom units, is already on the market. Construction on the project, which is being financed by Banco Santander, is expected to begin imminently. The sales process has been managed by Colliers International, as the financial advisor, and Ashurst, as the legal advisor.

“Whilst Madrid is experiencing a period of paralysis due to the scarcity of residential land, the south-east of the capital is establishing itself”, he explained.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Sells €150M NPL Portfolio to Oaktree

30 December 2017 – Expansión

The bad bank has closed the sale of several non-performing loan portfolios during the last few days of the year. A week ago, it announced the sale of a package of loans secured by properties to Deutsche Bank, whose nominal value amounted to €375 million. That was its largest sale of the year.

And yesterday, Sareb reported that it has reached an agreement to sell the so-called Project Tambo to the US fund Oaktree for a nominal value of €150 million. The debt is secured by residential assets and land located in the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cataluña, the Community of Madrid, País Vasco and the Community of Valencia.

Sareb has been advised by CBRE and Ashurst in this process, whilst Oaktree has awarded its mandate to JLL and Herbert Smith Freehills.

The bad bank, where the toxic assets of the rescued savings banks were parked, closed 2017 with a lower volume of transactions of this kind compared to 2016. Nevertheless, it has launched a trial to test an online sales channel, which may allow it to intensify its activity over the next few months.

Having said that, 80% of the revenues that Sareb obtains do not proceed from the institutional market, but rather from the direct sale of properties in the retail market.

In five years, Sareb has divested 27% of the 200,000 assets that it received initially and has repaid debt amounting to almost €13 billion. It has ten years left to liquidate the rest of its balance sheet. The entity’s cumulative losses amount to €781 million.

Original story: Expansión (by R. L.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Sells Majority Stake in its Real Estate Portfolio to Cerberus for More Than €5bn

28 November 2018 – Voz Pópuli

BBVA has closed a real estate mega operation. The entity chaired by Francisco González has agreed to sell the majority of its problem assets to Cerberus, in a deal worth between €5 billion and €6 billion, according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli. The Spanish group will receive a cheque for between €3.5 billion and €4 billion for the majority stake in a new company that will be controlled by the US fund. After months of intense negotiations, the bank and the fund decided to seal the deal at the beginning of this week. Whilst we wait for the official figures to be made public, financial sources indicate that the real estate package for sale amounts to between €13 billion and €14 billion (as this newspaper revealed) and comprise around 70,000 properties. The assets sold are valued with a discount of around 60%. The parties involved all declined to comment.

The discount is lower than that agreed for the sale of Popular’s property, which amounted to 67%. Santander sold €30 billion with a valuation of €10 billion. Blackstone paid €5.1 billion for 51% of that company.

After signing the agreement, the two parties will request time to review the small print of the contract and to obtain the necessary authorisations. In this case, approval must be given by the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD).

According to the latest figures, BBVA has real estate exposure amounting to €17.8 billion on its balance sheet. Of that amount, foreclosed assets (€11.9 billion) and doubtful loans (€3.4 billion) account for €15.3 billion. Those loans and properties have a coverage ratio of more than 61%.

A sale like the one that Cerberus has agreed will leave BBVA as one of the largest groups with the smallest real estate exposure in Spain, something that investors and regulators have been demanding for years.

This agreement arose as a result of a meeting between González and the President of Cerberus worldwide, John W. Snow, at the beginning of July. The US banker – and former US Treasury Secretary, under the presidency of George Bush junior – proposed this operation to the President of BBVA after his firm was left out of the sale of Popular’s property.

The operation has been managed by the operations team at PwC, led by Jaime Bergaz. The law firms Linklaters and Ashurst have worked alongside him, and on the buy side, the consultancy firm Deloitte. All of the parties involved have been working on this operation non-stop for several months. The deal only came close to dying during the worst moments of the Catalan crisis, given that a lot of BBVA’s real estate assets are located in that region.

Following this acquisition, Cerberus consolidates its position as one of the largest real estate investors in Spain, alongside Blackstone. The fund controls Haya Real Estate, which manages assets on behalf of Sareb, Bankia, Cajamar and Liberbank. With BBVA’s assets, it takes on one of the most sought-after portfolios in the sector.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga and Miguel Alba)

Translation: Carmel Drake

MAB Introduces Tougher Entry Rules For New Socimis

31 July 2017 – Expansión

In August, an amendment to the regulations governing the Alternative Investment Market will enter into force, which has led to a wave of Socimi debuts on the stock market in July to circumvent the new requirements.

Six new Socimis debuted on the stock market in July, an unusually high level of activity compared to previous months. The reason is that on 1 August the new circular published by the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) will enter into force. It introduces changes for debuting on the stock market and will affect all companies wanting to list from next month (August) onwards, in particular, Socimis. The amendment sees a toughening up of the conditions to debut on the stock market, given that it imposes some very demanding requirements for minority shareholders.

The change is very specific: “At the time of listing, companies must have minority investors owning shares that are worth less than €2 million or 25% of the company’s share capital”, explained José Luis Palao, Partner of the Mercantile Department at Garrigues. Minority shareholders are considered to be those that hold less than 5% of the share capital. Until now, the regulations allowed companies a grace period of one year to fulfil this requirement.

Manuel López, Partner of Financial Regulatory Law at Ashurst, considers that some Socimis have formed closed-end funds of sorts that have no interest in allowing access to minority shareholders. The exception to the regulations that existed benefitted this type of company in particular, as they enjoyed additional time to adapt themselves.

In this sense, López understands that the regulations are reasonable and reflect what the Socimis are designed to be – entities with the vocation to expand and attract new investors, aimed at boosting the real estate sector. His colleague, Ismael Fernández Antón, Partner of Real Estate Law at the same firm, considers that “the legislation has not become less flexible, but rather more coherent”.

Although Circular 1/2017 does not explain the reasons for the change, the experts agree that the market for Socimis has reached maturity and does not require any further encouragement. The MAB was prudent at the beginning, offering these companies a certain amount of freedom to promote their growth. Fernández Antón says that “this measure was always going to have a sell-by date”, given that the Socimis already represent an attractive vehicle for real estate investment in Spain. Moreover, the modification represents a guarantee to “limit the desire to use them as a platform for pure fiscal optimisation”, says López.

The change only affects companies that start trading from August, in such a way that those that have debuted recently still benefit from the exception. This has meant that, in the last month, the rate of Socimi debuts on the stock market has multiplied. Those who have acted quickly can enjoy a period of one year to fulfil this requirement regarding the diffusion of shareholders.

Although almost 40 Socimis trade on the stock market, only five are listed on the Main Exchange and only two of those form part of the Ibex 35: Merlin Properties and Colonial. Within the last few days, the entities Numulae, Bay Hotels & Leisure and AM Locales have all debuted on the MAB.

Original story: Expansión (by Jesús de las Casas)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Iberdrola Sells 55% Of Hotel Hilton Barcelona For €80M

22 June 2017 – Expansión

Iberdrola Inmobiliaria has completed the sale of 55% of Hotel Hilton Diagonal Mar in Barcelona to the real estate division of the insurance company Axa (Axa Investment Managers- Real Assets). The operation has been closed by Axa on behalf of one of its clients, said the vendor in a statement issued on Tuesday.

The energy group’s real estate arm will retain ownership of 45% of the property. Iberdrola Inmobiliaria will receive €80 million for the percentage stake sold.

The Hotel Hilton Diagonal Mar, inaugurated in 2005, is operated by the chain Hilton Worldwide under a long-term lease contract. The four-star establishment contains 430 rooms, of which 20 are suites.

In the operation, the vendor has been advised by the consultancy firm Irea and the law firm Ashurst. Currently, Iberdrola Inmobiliaria owns a portfolio of rental assets spanning a gross leasable area (GLA) of more than 217,000 m2. Its most iconic property is the company’s headquarters in Bilbao.

Moreover, the company is developing around 300 homes, located mainly in the Community of Madrid, although it also has two projects on the coast. In addition, Iberdrola Inmobiliaria is working on a project comprising 42 villas located in the Islas del Mar area (Puerto Peñasco) of Mexico.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus Purchases Gescobro From Spanish Fund Miura

18 February 2015 – Expansión

Transaction / The US firm acquires the company that specialises in debt recovery, which has been controlled by the private equity firm Miura for five years.

Following its acquisition of Sotogrande, the US fund Cerberus is continuing to dominant transactions in Spain. Its latest target has been Gescobro, the debt recovery company, owned by the private equity firm Miura since 2010, which held more than 90% of its share capital, according to market sources.

The management team, which held a minority stake in the company, continue at the helm. Through this transaction (for which the consideration paid has not been disclosed), Cerberus strengthens its debt management capability, in particular after investing in bank debt in the Spanish market in recent months.

The US fund already owned Haya Real Estate (formerly Bankia Habitat), which, in addition to its real estate management services, also operates in the field of mortgages.

With the acquisition of Gescobro, Cerberus enhances its position in the debt recovery market, specifically in the consumer credit segment. Last year, Gescobro managed files with a value of €4,000 million. Miura first acquired shares in the company in 2010; until then it was owned by the founding family, the García-Godalls.

Gescobro employs nearly 300 professionals between its headquarters in Barcelona and its offices in Madrid. Heading up the company is Iheb Nafaa, the CEO, who is supported by Gemma García Godall, Head of Business Development and the daughter of the firm’s founders. The two executives were also shareholders of the group when Miura controlled the company and, according to market sources, both continue to hold a minority share.

The transaction, which was closed on Monday, is the second divestment made by the Spanish fund since it was established in 2008. The advisors to the transaction included PwC, on the side of Miura, and the law firm Ashurst, who worked with Cerberus.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergio Saiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake