Sareb Offers the Contracts of Altamira, Servihabitat & Solvia to its Rivals

17 June 2019 – El Confidencial

Sareb is on a mission to change its course. According to market sources, the bad bank chaired by Jaime Echegoyen (pictured below) has decided to put its contracts with Altamira (owned by doBank), Servihabitat (Lone Star) and Solvia (Intrum) out to tender two years before their scheduled renewal.

Even though the contracts are not due to expire until the end of 2021, Sareb is putting them out to tender alongside that of Haya Real Estate, which is due to expire at the end of 2019. This represents a boost for Cerberus’s servicer, given that its competitors will now also have to focus on retaining their own contracts rather than just bidding for Haya’s.

In the event that Sareb awards the contracts of Altamira, Servihabitat and Solvia to other entities, it will have to compensate the servicers since their contracts clearly establish early termination clauses.

Altogether, Sareb is looking at putting out to tender the management of €34 billion in loans and properties that it still has left in its portfolio. The four will have to submit their bids in the next few months, specifying which assets they want to manage and what commissions they will charge.

The largest mandate is that of Haya, which manages assets proceeding from Bankia, which accounted for 37% of the bad bank’s original assets. It is followed by Altamira, which manages the assets proceeding from Catalunya Banc, BMN and Caja 3 (29% of the total); Servihabitat, which manages the assets from NCG Banco, Liberbank and Banco de Valencia (19%); and Solvia,  which manages assets from Bankia (foreclosed), Banco Gallego and Ceiss (15%). Clearly, there is a lot at stake for these servicers.

Original story: El Confidencial (by J. Zuloaga & R. Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Combines Testa’s and Fidere’s HQs & Prepares to Sell a Mixed-Asset Portfolio

28 May 2019 – Valencia Plaza

Blackstone has combined the headquarters of its rental housing Socimis, Testa and Fidere, in Madrid. The companies, which manage 10,770 and 6,500 rental homes, respectively, will continue to operate as separate entities but will seek to obtain synergies through the management of their portfolios.

Testa and Fidere will both now operate out of offices on Paseo de la Castellana, 257, which are already occupied by Testa. Moreover, the two Socimis have convened their respective General Shareholders Meetings for the same day, Monday 24 June.

In the meantime, Blackstone is considering putting up for a sale a portfolio of several types of real estate assets that it considers mature and non-strategic. The portfolio of potential assets to divest is worth around €400 million and could include around 1,000 homes from Fidere, although none of them will be the flats that the firm acquired from the Municipal Housing Company of Madrid.

Blackstone is currently the largest owner of real estate assets in Spain, worth around €20 billion including logistics assets, offices and commercial properties, amongst others.

Original story: Valencia Plaza 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Bankinter’s Socimis Manage Assets in Spain Worth €850M

23 April 2019 – Idealista

Bankinter currently has two Socimis operating in the Spanish market, Ores Socimi and Atom Hoteles Socimi. Between them, they manage a real estate portfolio worth more than €850 million, according to the latest reports filed by the entities with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The hotel Socimi, controlled by Bankinter and GMA, has the largest portfolio, comprising 21 assets located all over Spain and worth €489.2 million at the end of 2018.

Almost 60% (12) of the hotels are vacation properties and the rest (9) are urban establishments. For the time being, the hotels are mainly concentrated in the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands and Andalucía, but the company is preparing to expand overseas, where it seeks to acquire establishments in the USA, France, Italy, Germany and Greece.

Meanwhile, Ores, which is jointly controlled by Bankinter and the Portuguese giant Sonae Sierra, owns a portfolio of 35 retail assets worth €362.5 million as at 31 March 2019.

Ores’s portfolio is well diversified by asset type, size and location, with occupancy rates of almost 100%. The properties include hypermarkets, supermarkets, retail parks and high street stores leased to chains such as Continente, Mercadona, Inditex, Media Markt and Mango.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

El Corte Inglés is Selling Major Offices on c/Hermosilla and c/Santiago de Compostela in Madrid

11 April 2019 – El Confidencial

The 95-strong asset portfolio that El Corte Inglés put up for sale a few weeks ago not only contains commercial assets. It also includes three important office buildings, all located in Madrid, which have sparked a great deal of interest amongst institutional investors.

They include one of the jewels in the crown of the retail giant, a 20,450 m2 office building located on Calle Hermosilla, opposite the group’s headquarters. It is currently occupied by the Purchasing Division and, according to sources familiar with the operation, may be converted into homes, which would make it a golden opportunity in one of the most sought-after areas of Madrid. Nevertheless, ECI would remain as the tenant of the property for at least three years under a sale and leaseback arrangement, with the option of extending that term for another three years.

The second office building is located on Calle Tomás López, which backs onto the Purchasing division’s offices. And the third office building, which is located on Calle Santiago de Compostela, 100, houses the headquarters of Provincial Court of Madrid. It is known as the Edificio Marbella and spans 6,200 m2. The regional Government has an agreement to lease the property and so the potential buyer would be guaranteed of a stable tenant, with a long-term contract and an annual rental income of almost €1 million.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

CNMV Approves Millenium Hotel’s Stock Market Debut

26 March 2019 – El Confidencial

A new hotel giant is getting ready to make its stock market debut. Millenium Hotels, the platform that Javier Illán has been growing for the last two years, has just received approval from Spain’s CNMV to make the leap onto the stock market before the summer. The company will begin a road show with investors in April, with the aim of making its debut between the end of June and the beginning of July.

Millenium Hotels will start by trading on the MAB, before moving onto the main stock market once it is sufficiently large enough. The firm owns eight assets, including the 4-star Hotel Vía Castellana in Madrid, and has already received funding amounting to €100 million from mutual, insurance companies and family offices. Moreover, it is negotiating the purchase of four more properties.

Original story: El Confidencial (by R. Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Realia Adopts RICS Standards for its Asset Valuations

21 March 2019 – Eje Prime

The Board of Directors of Realia has unanimously approved the decision to change the valuation method for its assets linked to property development to bring it in line with market practice.

The listed real estate company has notified the National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV) that it will adopt the July 2017 professional standards of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) from the end of H1 2019 onwards.

The company closed 2018 with a profit of €40.2 million, up by 31.8% and a portfolio valuation based on market value of €1.84 billion, up by 3.1% YoY.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mazabi to Grow its Socimi to Make Stock Market Debut with €1bn in Assets

18 March 2019 – Expansión

Mazabi, the firm that manages the wealth of 35 family offices and which owns €1.54 billion in assets, is getting its ducks in a row ahead of the planned debut of its Socimi Silicius. The intention is for that entity to take ownership of the majority of the firm’s rental properties and whereby grow its portfolio to at least €1 billion before its IPO.

Currently, Silicius owns 17 assets, spanning 71,244 m2, worth €156 million in the office, retail, hotel and logistics segments. During 2019, new properties will be transferred to it to increase its portfolio to €740 million by the end of the year, with an associated debt of €240 million.

Moreover, 80% of the operations that the manager executes over the coming months will also be transferred to the Socimi. Mazabi typically invests between €100 million and €150 million per year, according to its CEO, Juan Antonio Gutiérrez (pictured above).

New investors

At the same time, Mazabi is looking for investors who want to get involved in its project. To this end, it has engaged KPMG to find an investor to acquire a stake in the Socimi before it is listed. At this stage, the firm has not decided whether Silicius will make its debut on the MAB or the main stock market. The timings have not been confirmed either, but if Silicius is registered as a Socimi in July, then it would make its debut on the MAB no later than July 2021.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

The Villar Mir Family Commissions the Sale of Inmobiliaria Espacio & Fertiberia

12 March 2019 – El Confidencial

The Villar Mir group has decided to clean up its asset portfolio in order to pay off some of its debt and, to this end, has put two companies up for sale: ‘Promociones y Propiedades Inmobiliarias Espacio’ (Priesa), which owns a variety of land and homes, and Fertiberia, the multi-national fertiliser firm.

These two operations form part of the group’s wider reorganisation process, which is being led by the CEO, Javier López Madrid. They will join the partial divestment of Ferroglobe and the possible IPO of OHL, both of which have already sparked great interest in the sector.

The Villar Mir family has entrusted the sale of Inmobiliaria Espacio to Savills Aguirre Newman, which will begin by performing a valuation of the assets. Project Caleido, involving the construction of a 180-metre tall tower, on Paseo de la Castellana, will be excluded from the deal.

Priesa has returned to profits in the last two years, following several years of losses, which forced the majority shareholder to provide a €175 million participation loan as part of a rescue plan. The company’s main appeal lies in its sizeable, high-quality portfolio of land for development, in good locations, which was valued by RICS to be worth €257 million at the end of 2017.

Meanwhile, sources report that Villar Mir has also engaged Lazards to find a buyer for Fertiberia, for which it could receive around €250 million.

Sources close to the operations point out that it is unlikely that all of the deals in the pipeline will go ahead. What is clear is that Villar Mir will have to divest some assets to repay as soon as possible the €365 million that Tyrus lent the group in November last year.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus Starts to Value the 160,000 Assets it has Acquired in Spain Ahead of their Sale

19 February 2019 – Voz Pópuli

Last year, the giant Cerberus strengthened its team with the appointment of the former JLL director Maurice Kelly as its Vice-president of Real Estate in Spain. The professional has become a key person for the fund, given that he is now responsible for meeting with the real estate consultancies regarding the valuation of the 160,000 assets that the investment giant has acquired in recent years in Spain, according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli.

Its haul also includes assets acquired in the Apple Portfolio from Santander, a sale that was negotiated in 2018 and which is expected to close between February and March. Moreover, that figure could increase during the coming months due to the great activity that there is in the market at the moment.

The fund wants to generate value from everything that it has purchased from the banks through large portfolios and has now spotted a window to put its acquisitions on the market from April onwards and over the next two or three years. Similarly, the fund is constantly rotating the assets that it acquires and assessing everything that it purchases for its subsequent placement on the market.

New portfolios

The first sale strategy involves the placement of new portfolios, of medium sizes, ranging between €100 million and €200 million, and will be distributed amongst medium-sized funds, above all those from the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands (…).

Another way to sell is through operations involving “unique assets”. In other words, buildings that have added valued and that may be of interest to a private investor or family office. The price of those would be over €50 million.

Finally, the most typical approach will see it sell portfolios of homes, in groups of more or less 500 units, for between €10 million and €20 million apiece.

The valuation of those 160,000 assets is included within the Cerberus European Servicing division and the placement of them is not going to be easy, given that “the fund has purchased a lot” and has “things” that even it does not know about. “It has picked up a lot of parking spaces and assets of that kind that are going to be very difficult for it to place”, warned the sources.

A taste for Spain

Cerberus has invested more than €10 billion in Spain in total and now wants to operate new lines of business such as rental and logistics. It is also planning to multiply its property development activity three-fold by purchasing more land and following its acquisition of Inmoglaciar (…).

Cerberus entered the Spanish market at the height of the financial crisis (between 2010 and 2012) with the aim of taking over banks and real estate firms, like it did in other countries. The former did not work out well following several attempts with former savings banks. But its conquest of property has proved a lot more successful.

Its next acquisition could be the property developer Solvia Desarrollo Inmobiliario (SDIN) from Banco Sabadell, which has put land worth more than €1 billion up for sale. The bid for those assets has already started and financial sources say that the fund has expressed interest in them.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by David Cabrera)

Translation: Carmel Drake

El Corte Inglés Considers Creating a Socimi to List its Real Estate Assets on the Stock Market

15 February 2019 – Modaes.es

El Corte Inglés is looking for solutions for its portfolio of real estate assets. The Qatari sheikh Hamad Al Thani, the third largest shareholder in the Madrilenian department store group, has proposed the creation of a Socimi to manage the rental of its assets.

The plan proposed by Al Thani, who entered the company’s share capital last summer, involves creating a company in which El Corte Inglés would own a 51% stake. The remaining 49% of the shares would be listed on the stock market.

The Qatari investor already proposed this solution to the previous President of the group, Dimas Gimeno, but it was not successful then, according to El Economista. For the time being, the Board of Directors of El Corte Inglés has not received a formal petition regarding the plan.

The real estate portfolio of El Corte Inglés is worth €17.1 billion, according to a report from Tinsa. The department stores and hypermarkets are worth €15.0 billion, whilst the warehouses, offices and mixed-use buildings are worth €1.1 billion. Finally, the high street establishments are valued at €1 billion.

It is estimated that, in the event that the operation proposed by the sheikh goes ahead, the valuation of the assets could amount to half their current value, around €8.2 billion, according to Tinsa.

In parallel, the group is continuing to work on the sale of 130 real estate assets worth €2 billion in conjunction with the consultancy firm PwC. The property that El Corte Inglés wants to divest now comprises land, offices and buildings defined as non-strategic. Those assets also include some logistics centres.

The objective of these divestments is to reduce the group’s debt so that it can obtain a level of solvency that will allow it to raise financing in the capital markets at a lower price. In this sense, Núñez de la Rosa, the President of the group, has committed to reducing the group’s liabilities by €1 billion in twelve months.

Currently, the real estate portfolio of El Corte Inglés comprises 94 shopping centres, which account for 87% of the total value of the company’s assets. Two of those properties are valued at more than €500 million each, and another two are worth between €400 million and €500 million each.

The department store group recorded EBITDA of €335 million during the first half of 2018, up by 4.4% YoY. Between January and August, the company recorded turnover of €7.6 billion, up by 0.4% YoY.

Original story: Modaes.es

Translation: Carmel Drake