Tag: Attestor

Vía Célere Completes its Merger with Aelca to Create a Giant Firm with Land for 25,000 Homes

16 January 2019 – El Confidencial

Vía Célere has completed the integration of the real estate assets (land and property developments) of Aelca, to become one of the largest property developers in Spain with a gross asset volume (GAV) of €2.2 billion and a land bank for the construction of 25,000 homes. From today, the company has the capacity to deliver an estimated 2,000 homes in 2019 and 5,000 homes in 2021.

To put that into context, Metrovacesa owns land for the construction of 38,000 homes, has a GAV of €2.6 billion, and so it is still the largest property developer in Spain. Meanwhile, Aedas has land for 14,521 homes and a GAV of €1.6 billion, whilst Neinor, with a GAV of €1.7 billion, has land for another 13,500 units.

Following the operation, Värde is now the owner of 75% of the shares in Vía Célere, whilst the other minority shareholders (Marathon, Attestor, BAML, Barclays, DB and JPM) own the remaining 25% stake. The company is also strengthening the diversification of its asset portfolio with 38% in Madrid, 20% in Málaga, 11% in Barcelona, 9% in Sevilla, 5% in Valencia and 17% in other provinces across the rest of Spain.

The purchase of Aelca by Vía Célere was made with one clear objective in mind: to grow the company so as to be able to list it on the stock market, given that the transaction has allowed the company chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above) to incorporate assets worth €1.3 billion (…).

Future stock market debut?

Since then, the rumours regarding the possible stock market debut of Vía Célere have been constant (…). In fact, it was initially scheduled for the spring of 2018, but it was always known that the property developer needed to be larger to be able to compete in the market with Neinor, Metrovacesa and Aedas (…).

Original story: El Confidencial 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aelca to Manage Sareb’s Land After Selling its own Assets to Vía Célere

2 October 2018 – El Economista

The property developer Aelca has sold its entire asset portfolio to Värde, including its land and developments in progress, which are going to be integrated into Vía Célere. Nevertheless, far from disappearing from our radars, the company founded by José Juan Martín and Javier Gómez is going to continue operating and, for the time being, is going to do so linked to Sareb, according to explanations provided by several sector sources speaking to this newspaper.

The company has been negotiating with the bad bank for months to sign an alliance that would turn it into the manager of a portfolio of land worth €800 million. At the outset, Sareb structured the operation in a different way, since its initial objective involved injecting those assets into a listed industrial company or one with concrete plans to debut on the stock market, to give liquidity to the land.

Nevertheless, Sareb’s plans for its property developer business took an about turn after both Aedas Homes and Vía Célere took the decision to exit the process in which they were finalists together with Aelca. In addition, the intentions of Värde, the main shareholder of both Vía Célere and Aelca, to integrate the assets of the latter into the former, were revealed, giving rise to the large property developer in Spain by asset volume, with a gross asset value (GAV) of €2.2 billion.

In this context, Sareb and Aelca sought a formula that would allow them to continue with their future partnership. And that involves creating a company with the bad bank’s property development business, in which it will hold a majority stake and Aelca will serve as the industrial partner and manager of the assets. Thus, according to the same sources, the most likely scenario is that a banking asset fund (‘fondo de activos bancarios’ or FAB) will be created, which will include land and residential projects from Sareb worth €800 million, in which the company chaired by Jaime Echegoyen will own around 90% and Aelca will acquire the remaining 10%.

On the other hand, the same sources state that Aelca will continue to buy land and build developments independently of Sareb. In this business, the founders of the real estate firm enter into play again, who despite having sold their stakes to Värde, will continue to be associated with the fund “to support the company as an independent manager and developer of residential properties in Spain”, explains the firm in a statement.

After the transaction, Javier de Oro will take on the role of Director General at Aelca, having served as Head of Real Estate at Aliseda, the exclusive administrator of Banco Popular’s real estate assets at risk.

Vía Célere, founded and chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado, will retain its identity and its 300 employees; depending on its on-going needs, it will resize its structure over the next few months. The new company will have the capacity to deliver around 2,000 homes in 2019 and 5,000 homes in 2021, with a more diversified portfolio, although ,most of its land is located in Madrid (38%), Málaga (20%) and Barcelona (11%), three of the markets with the highest demand.

Following the integration of Aelca’s assets, Värde will control 75% of Vía Célere, and the remaining 25% will be distributed between minority shareholders (Marathon, Attestor, BAML, Barclays, DB and JPM).

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Via Célere Hires Credit Suisse to Lead Its IPO

 

24 August 2017

The investment bank will lead the initial round of contacts with investors, along with Jefferies-Arcano.

The US fund Värde Partners, one of the most active investors in the Spanish real estate market, is finalizing plans to list the real estate developer Via Célere on the Spanish stock market. The Madrid-based company was acquired last February by Värde to merge it with its property development company DosPuntos. After wrapping up the merger, the fund is preparing to take the merged company public in the coming months. To do this, the US firm has hired the companies Credit Suisse and Jefferies-Arcano to lead the initial rounds of contacts with investors, according to Bloomberg. CaixaBank will act as a placement bank, sources close to the process confirmed to Expansión. Sources at Värde declined to comment on the matter.

Värde’s objective is to list around 60% of the company on the stock market, following in the steps of its counterpart Lone Star, which last March listed its Spanish real estate development company Neinor Homes on the Spanish stock market. Initially, Värde had intended to take the company public at the beginning of 2018, but other sources now believe that the listing may be brought up to the end of 2017. This is due to favourable investor sentiment regarding Spanish real estate companies, with large socimis, such as Neinor Homes, trading above the value of their assets. In the case of Neinor, the company’s IPO was oversubscribed by 4.3 times and shares have since appreciated by 13%.

Investments

In addition to hiring the investment banks, Via Célere has accelerated its investment plan to grow the company before the public listing. In recent months, the real estate company founded and chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado has spent close to 100 million euros expanding its portfolio of land to 1.2 million square meters.

In February, Värde Partners, along with five other funds, bought Via Célere from its founder for 90 million euros. Värde is the largest shareholder, holding 51% of the capital, followed by Attestor and Marathon, the second and third largest shareholders respectively.  JP Morgan, Barclays and Bank of America also have smaller stakes.

At the time, the estimated value the combined operations of Via Célere and DosPuntos was put at roughly 700 million euros.

Värde and its partners’ plan is that the company’s listing should be at a valuation superior to 1 billion euros. After the purchase, the new shareholders targeted investments between 200 and 250 million euros per year until 2023, to achieve a rate of construction of 3,000 homes a year (this year, the figure amounts to about 1,800 units).

At present, its portfolio is valued at more than €800 million, with 1.2 million square meters of land available for building.

Another listing

Another company in the real estate sector, Aedas Homes, is expected to go public even before Via Célere’s IPO. The developer, also controlled by a U.S. investment fund, Castlelake, hired Goldman Sachs and Linklaters for its IPO. At present, Aedas has assets valued at 1.1 billion euros, highlighted by a 1.35 million-square meter portfolio of land.

In addition to being the largest shareholder in Vía Célere, Värde controls another real estate developer, Aelca, and 40% of La Finca Global Assets, which owns several business parks in Madrid.

Original Story: ProOrbyt Expansion – R. Ruiz

Translation: Richard Turner

 

Vía Célere Boosts Its Land Portfolio Ahead Of Stock Market Debut

18 July 2017 – Expansión

The property developer Vía Célere is advancing with its growth plans ahead of its stock market debut. The Madrilenian real estate company was acquired in February by six funds led by Värde Partners, which owns 51% of its share capital. Following the operation, for which they disbursed €90 million, the company has been working on increasing its size and will debut on the stock market at the beginning of 2018, with a market capitalisation of more than €1,000 million.

The first step in this process was the integration of DosPuntos, the real estate company that Värde and its partners (the funds Attestor and Marathon, as the second and third largest shareholders, respectively, as well as Barclays and Bank of America) had created from the former subsidiary of San José (Parquesol). The operation saw the incorporation of 800,000 m2 of land into Vía Célere’s portfolio (meaning that the firm will be able to build around 7,000 extra homes).

Having closed that merger in record time (less than a month) Vía Célere, led by its former owner and CEO, Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado, has since launched several land purchase operations with the aim of increasing its real estate portfolio.

New portfolio

In total, Vía Célere has invested almost €100 million in nine plots of land through three operations. The land, located in several different provinces, will allow the property developer to increase its buildability by 212,016 m2 and construct 1,907 new homes (…).

Following the contribution of funds from the new shareholders, Vía Célere set itself the goal of investing between €200 million and €250 million per year between now and 2023 in order to maintain a construction rate of around 3,000 homes per year. This year, it plans to start building around 1,800 units: “Our intention is to continue identifying new opportunities and to expand our portfolio of land and projects over the next few months”.

Before these purchases, the property developer’s real estate portfolio contained land covering 1 million m2, making it one of the largest land owners in the country, exceeded only by Metrovacesa, which, following the contribution of €1,108 million from its shareholder banks, now owns land spanning 6 million m2; Neinor Homes, which, following investment of €147 million this year now owns 1.2 million m2 of land on which to build homes; Aedas, the property developer backed by Castlelake, which owns 1.35 million m2 of land.

In total, Vía Célere’s assets are worth €704 million and it currently has 10,054 homes in progress or under construction. Before the integration with DosPuntos, the property developer recorded revenues of €75.4 million in its most recent full year.

Stock market

The property developer led by Värde Partners plans to debut on the stock market next year. In this way, Vía Célere will follow in the footsteps of Neinor Homes, the first real estate developer to debut on the stock market in almost a decade, with a value of €1,340 million. The market capitalisation of that firm currently amounts to around €1,498 million.

Aedas, the company backed by the fund Castlelake, is another of the property developers that has set its sights on the stock market; it plans to make its debut before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the new Metrovacesa, led by Santander and BBVA, has already met with several investment banks to manage its return to the stock market, which it exited in 2013 after 72 years of trading (….).

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Vía Célere Engages Lazard To Prepare Its IPO

29 June 2017 – Expansión

Vía Célere is accelerating its process of debuting on the stock market. The real estate developer, controlled by the US private equity fund Värde, has engaged the bank Lazard as an advisor for its debut on the Madrid stock exchange.

Moreover, the firm chaired by the businessman Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above) is making contact with some of the placement entities of the operation, which is forecast to take place in the spring of next year, although a firm date has not yet been set.

The real estate developer, which owns a portfolio of more than 10,000 homes, plans to debut on the market with a capitalisation of more than €1,000 million, in an operation that will allow the US fund to undo positions at the same time, which will serve to raise financing to allow it to continue to grow.

Värde acquired a controlling stake in Vía Célere from Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado – who has continued as the President of the company – in February for €90 million. The US fund carried out that operation a year after launching the real estate firm Dospuntos, which it constituted using assets from Parquesol – a subsidiary that the SanJosé group ceded to its creditors under its own refinancing framework at the end of 2014. The merger between the two groups was approved by the General Shareholders’ Meeting of Dospuntos in April.

Shareholders

Besides Värde, the following players also hold stakes in Vía Célere’s share capital: the funds Attestor and Marathon, which are the second- and third-largest shareholders, respectively, as well as Barclays and Bank of America.

The integration of Vía Célere and Dospuntos resulted in the creation of one of the major property developers in the sector, with a land portfolio spanning more than 1 million m2.

The company owns assets worth more than €700 million and has own funds worth €400 million. Its plans for the next three years include starting to build 4,491 homes and completing 2,494 units, according to data provided by the company in April.

Värde – one of the most active players in the Spanish real estate market in recent years – is also the majority shareholder of another property developer – Aelca, which purchased the Avintia group for €50 million in June 2016, and which controls 40% of La Finca Global Assets, which, in turn, owns the business park of the same name, together with the García Cereceda family.

With this operation, Vía Célere will follow in Neinor’s footsteps, after it debuted on the stock market in March, to become the first property developer to debut on the stock exchange in ten years, following Realia’s IPO in 2007. The property developer backed by Lone Star debuted on the stock market at a price of €16.46 per share and currently has a market capitalisation of €1,440 million.

Vía Célere’s debut on the stock market is likely to be followed by that of Aedas. That real estate firm, which is controlled by the fund Castlelake and led by David Martínez, engaged Goldman Sachs and the law firm Linklaters in April, to prepare its debut on the stock market, which is scheduled for October.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Vía Célere Steps On Accelerator Before Stock Market Debut

30 April 2017 – Expansión

A decade after it was created, the Madrilenian property developer Vía Célere is writing a new chapter in its history, following the recent entry of Värde into its share capital. The US fund paid €90 million to acquire the company and merge it with Dos Puntos – heir of the real estate subsidiary of SanJose (formerly Parquesol) – which Värde also controls. (…).

The property developer will invest €640 million over the coming months with the objective of debuting on the stock market within two years.

Following the sale of Vía Célere, Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above), former President of the firm, is working on the integration of his company with DosPuntos. “We are conducting a fiscal study to work out how to execute the operation and we are organising our new land portfolio, which covers a surface area of more than 1 million m2 (…)”.

One of the challenges facing the new property developer is its debut on the stock market. “We were never going to retain the two companies, but rather merge them with a view to the stock market debut. We have around €700 million of assets and that figure is insufficient. We have to resort to other types of land to grow in size. We need to have assets worth between €1,000 million and €1,200 million in order to debut on the stock market”, explained Gómez-Pintado.

The director said that “the company will do everything within its power to debut on the stock market as soon as possible”. In this sense, Gómez-Pintado believes that Vía Célere will reach its cruising speed, with the completion of 1,500 homes, within one year. (…).

To finance its €640 million investment, the company plans to conduct a capital increase with the current shareholders, who include, in addition to Värde, Attestor and Marathon, as the second and third largest shareholders, respectively, as well as Barclays and Bank of America. (…).

For Gómez-Pintado, these funds contribute greater financial knowledge to a profession that needs to have access to other sources of financing. “Having the involvement of a kind of company that is capable of accessing alternative sources of finance and of not being limited to traditional property developer loans gives the stability that the sector needs”.

One of the points of the agreement (between Värde and Vía Célere) was the continuation of Gómez-Pintado in a management capacity – he will be the President and CEO of the merged group. “They don’t only buy a company for its assets, they also have an express interest in the team”. (…).

Competition

The birth of the new Vía Célere is happening in parallel to the process to launch other new property developers, a profile of companies that Gómez-Pintado differentiates from the players seen in the previous boom. “In the property development sector, there has always been knowledge of the sector, but not of the financial tools. In 2015, we saw a turning point and in 2016, the sector gained a lot of speed; this year it will consolidate its position”.

Despite his ambitious growth plans, the President of Vía Célere was cautious when asked about a new real estate boom. “I don’t think there is going to be another bubble, because we are starting from such a low point that there is still a very long way to go”, he said. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz and R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde Will Start Building c.900 New Homes In Q1

11 January 2017 – Cinco Días

The new real estate company Dospuntos, which wants to become one of Spain’s major property developers, will start the year by marketing a significant number of new build properties in a sector that has started to wake up slowly, without any star players. “We are going to start 18 developments containing around 900 homes during the first quarter of the year”, confirmed Javier Eguidazu (pictured above), CEO at Dospuntos, a company controlled by Värde Partners.

These homes will be located in Madrid, Galicia, Andalucía, Castilla y León and Cataluña, primarily in large cities and metropolitan areas. In La Coruña, the real estate company already announced last month that it was beginning its first project there, known as Casa Vega, in the centre of the city. The company will also debut soon in Sevilla, Málaga, Valladolid, Barcelona, Leganés (Madrid) and Oleiros (La Coruña).

“The market has finally woken up. There is pent-up demand because hardly any new homes have been constructed over the last decade. Every property that comes onto the market is sold”, said Eguidazu regarding the recovery in the property development sector.

His company is looking to become one of the largest property developers in the country. After the real estate crisis, almost all of the major players disappeared – went bankrupt – or took time out whilst they waited for better times. Just a handful of companies such as Pryconsa, Vía Célere, local developers, cooperative managers such as Domo and new platforms linked to the banks (Aliseda, Altamira, Solvia…) continued to build at a slow pace. Other listed companies, such as Realia – controlled by the magnate Carlos Slim – and Quabit, are only resuming their business now. Anida, owned by BBVA, also strengthened its business at the hand of Manuel Jove, founder of the now bankrupt company Fadesa.

Dospuntos emerged in June 2016, after Värde purchased the damaged real estate business from the San José Group. It was created to construct around 7,000 homes on land coming from several sources: purchases by the US fund, inherited from San José and even some new acquisitions. “The company has financial muscle. In 2016, we spent €150 million on land”, said Eguidazu.

Along with Neinor Homes, owned by the Texan fund Lone Star, Dospuntos leads this new type of property developer, owned by overseas funds and interested in investing in the real estate recovery in Spain, now that the traditional players have disappeared (…).

The real estate company’s main shareholder is Värde, which holds more than 50% of its share capital. The fund from Minneapolis manages assets amounting to more than €10,000 million all over the world. It has been particularly active in Spain, with the acquisition of Popular’s credit card business, as well as half of that bank’s real estate arm, Aliseda, in an operation for which it teamed up with the fund Kennedy Wilson. Moreover, it has entered the office business of Procisa, the owner of the La Finca business park in Pozuelo de Alcorcón (Madrid).

As a shareholder of Dospuntos, Värde (which means “value” in Swedish) is accompanied by the funds Marathon and Attestor, as well as by banks such as Bank of America and Barclays.

From 2019, the company wants to reach a cruising speed of 2,000 new homes per year on average, according to comments made by Eguidazu at a presentation last June. By then, the company forecasts that it will be generating revenues of between €500 million and €600 million per year.

The shareholders plan to invest €2,000 million between 2016 and 2021, at an average rate of €400 million per year, of which €800 million will be allocated to buying more land on which to build homes. Over the long term, between 30% and 40% of the company’s resources will come from bank financing. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Operación Chamartín’s # 2 Jumps Ship To Castlelake

21 September 2016 – El Confidencial

Just three years ago, BBVA and San José hired David Martínez as the CEO of Duch, the property developer of Operación Chamartín, which was subsequently renamed Distrito Castellana Norte. It was a high profile move, given that Martínez was CEO of Valdebebas at the time, the only large real estate development in the capital that had managed to resist the crisis.

With those credentials, Martínez became the number two in command at Operación Chamartín, behind only the Chairman, Antonio Béjar. He was also the key figure that allowed the project to be relaunched, a year later, with the consent of the three administrations involved: the Ministry of Development, the Community of Madrid and the Town Hall of Madrid.

But that consensus broke down with the arrival of Ahora Madrid in Palacio de Cibeles. They reversed the plan and submitted their own proposal, Madrid Puerta Norte, which cut the scope of the original plans in half.

In the middle of this blockade, whose most recent chapter has just been written by the High Court of Justice in Madrid, with the admission of the appeal submitted by DCN against the Town Hall, Martínez has abandoned ship to join one of the major international funds in the Spanish real estate sector: Castlelake.

As El Confidencial revealed, the US firm has reached an agreement with Merlin to launch its own property developer from what was leftover of the former firm Vallehermoso, and the 1 million sqm of land that the fund has been acquiring over the last two years.

New property developer

Martínez said goodbye to DCN on 1 September to join this new company, which is expected to start work in October under the brand, Aedas Home. The firm has offices on Paseo de la Castellana and an 11-man team that used to form part of Vallehermoso, Sacyr’s former property developer subsidiary, which was liquidated two years ago.

Martínez’s recruitment is a statement of intent regarding the plans that Castlelake has for Spain, given that he is one of the most recognised professionals in his sector in Spain – he was at the helm for eight years at Valdebebas and then has spent another three years at Operación Chamartín. In fact, many consider him to be the real brains behind these two developments, on whose future the final configuration of the north of Madrid depends.

With Aedas Home, Castlelake has finished shaping the new map of the largest property developers in Spain, a market whose present and future is marked by the clear commitment that three large international funds, in particular, have made to the Spanish real estate sector: Lone Star, which acquired the developer Neinor from Kutxabank for €930 million two years ago; Värde, which together with Marathon and Attestor has launched Dos Puntos from the ashes of the former San José Desarrollos; and now, Castlelake.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde Creates A New RE Company: Dospuntos

21 June 2016 – Cinco Días

One of the real estate firms that suffered during the real estate crisis has been reborn under a new name and with new owners. Värde Partners has created a new property developer, Dospuntos, out of the San José Desarrollo Imobiliarios structure, which it acquired from the San José Group last year. The US fund has an ambitious plan to turn the company into one of the major players in the sector as the incipient recovery starts to heat up.

“Värde and the rest of our shareholders believe in the recovery of Spain and in the growth of the real estate sector”, said Javier Eguidazu (pictured above), CEO of Dospuntos, who joined the firm in September from the Valdebebas urban development in Madrid. According to the Director, Värde and its partners paid more than €1,000 million to purchase the real estate company from San José, basically the amount equivalent to the value of its debt, and the debt clock was reset when the agreement was signed.

The company now owns land from the former subsidiary of San José, as well as from Várde, which was a dynamic and discrete purchaser of land during the recession in Spain. “We now have 800,000 sqm of land, on which we will build 7,000 homes”, said Eguidazu. “Värde is a very active operator in the market and is always studying deals. It is our majority shareholder, but that does not mean that it constructs all of its developments through our entity, nevertheless, it is likely that it will”, said the Director.

The major shareholder of this new real estate company is the US fund, with a stake of more than 50%; it manages assets worth more than €10,000 million all over the world. Värde has been particularly active in Spain in recent years, with the acquisition of Popular’s credit card bsiness, as well as half of the real estate firm Aliseda, from the same bank, in an operation that it entered into together with the fund Kennedy Wilson. Moreover, it is currently holding negotiations to acquire a stake in Procisa’s office business.

Värde (which means “value” in Swedish) is accompanied in its shareholder capacity in Dospuntos by the funds Marathon and Attestor, as well as banks such as Bank of America and Barclays.

The shareholders plan to invest €2,000 million between 2016 and 2012, at an average rate of €400 million per annum, of which €800 million will be allocated to continuing to acquire land on which to build homes. Over the long term, 30% or 40% of the company’s resources will come from bank financing. “Our aim is to create the best land bank in the country and to be the most profitable property developer in Spain”, said Eguidazu. The firm has already invested €100 million in land and another €55 million launching developments. (…).

The new property developer plans to put its first 1,300 homes up for sale in 2018, given that it is already starting to construct its first properties in Madrid, Málaga, Sevilla and A Coruña. Its other target locations include Pamplona, Valladolid, Zaragoza, Sevilla, Barcelona and Tenerife. From 2019, it plans to reach a cruising speed of 2,000 homes per year on average. By then, the company also expects to be generating revenues of between €500 million and €600 million.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake