Tag: Avintia Group

Värde Will Integrate Aelca into Vía Célere to Strengthen the Latter’s IPO

21 July 2018 – El Economista

A new merger operation is on the horizon in the real estate sector, and it is going to star Vía Célere and Aelca. According to confirmation from several sources in the sector speaking to this newspaper, the two entities’ common shareholder, the fund Värde, is working in an active way to integrate the two companies with the aim of strengthening the structure of Vía Célere ahead of its upcoming stock market debut.

The fund and its partners in the real estate company (Marathon, Attestor, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and Barclays) are currently holding conversations with the founders of Aelca to carry out an operation in which the assets of the property developer would be integrated into Vía Célere’s portfolio. According to the same sources, Värde, which owns around 80% of each real estate company, wants to close a preliminary agreement within the next two weeks, although the operation may not actually be executed until October and November.

The objective of the fund is to close the integration before the end of the year, in such a way that the company will be ready to carry out its debut on the stock market when the next sales opportunity presents itself. Following the debuts of Neinor, Aedas and Metrovacesa, the market has almost exhausted its appetite for the real estate sector, plus there has been some high volatility on the stock market due to political instability.

These circumstances have meant that the fund has not been able to liquidate its investment in Vía Célere so far this year, as it had planned, although, sources at the company say that no specific date had ever been set for the IPO. In the case of Aelca, its founders and shareholders, Javier Gómez and José Juan Martín, have been aiming (to list their firm) in 2019, a step that may now be taken under the umbrella of the Vía Célere brand.

With this move, once listed on the stock market, the firm launched and presided by Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado will be positioned as the property developer with the largest market capitalisation, amounting to €2.3 billion. Similarly, according to the same sources, the target for the delivery of homes by the new company would increase to around 5,000 units per year, thus reaching the figures planned by its competitor Metrovacesa, which also forecasts such volumes for 2021.

Before designing the integration process for the two property developers, Värde has also studied the possible merger of Vía Célere with one of the other large listed companies, although, that formula was giving rise to a giant with a volume of business that was not seen in the property development sector even in the boom years.

With the merger of the two property companies now on the cards, the new Vía Célere will have a land bank with capacity for the development of around 23,000 homes. To this figure, the plots that Sareb will inject into Aelca will have to be added, with an approximate value of €800 million, in the event that the property developer ends up reaching an agreement with the bad bank.

The American fund reached an agreement with the Avintia group in the summer of 2016 to acquire Aelca for around €50 million. Almost simultaneously, Värde launched Dospuntos from the leftovers of the former Parquesol, the real estate subsidiary of the Sanjose Group.

Six months later, it closed the purchase of the property developer led by Gómez Pintado for around €90 million to integrate it with Dospuntos and create a new giant in the sector, retaining the Vía Célere brand, which has become the fund’s new darling.

Created shortly before the real estate bubble burst, the real estate company is one of the few that managed to survive the crisis and if Värde’s plans do crystallise, it could position itself as the largest listed property developer in the country.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

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

Värde Finalises Its Purchase Of Residential Property Developer Aelca

9 May 2016 – El Confidencial

Värde Partners is getting ready to become the largest player in the property development business in Spain. After acquiring 51% of Aliseda, the real estate arm of Banco Popular; having purchased San José Desarrollas, the residential branch of the Galician construction company…and in the middle of negotiations to buy a share of La Finca, the US fund is now one step away from another big trophy.

According to three sources, Värde has made the best offer to acquire Aelca, the property developer that the Avintia Group has put on the market and in which a large group of foreign funds have expressed interest. Amongst them, Castlelake and Värde stand out, although the latter is the only one that has reached an agreement in principle.

With the caution that must be maintained until the operation is definitively closed, which could happen before the end of the month, Värde is taking another step forwards in its strategy to become one of the largest real estate groups in Spain. It has been committed to the market since the darkest days of the crisis, as it demonstrated four years ago, when it joined forces with Anchorage to purchase five premium buildings in Madrid and Barcelona, which previously belonged to Monteverde.

A year later, came the acquisition of Aliseda for €815 million, a deal that allowed it to take over the management of mortgage loans with a net value of €9,350 million and foreclosed assets worth another €6,500 million. In addition, that purchase, which it undertook together with Kennedy Wilson, helped to heal the wound opened with CX Inmobiliaria, the platform owned by Catalunya Caixa, with which it had reached an agreement for almost €30 million, but which broke down at the last minute.

The story goes on, because thanks to the acquisition of San José Desarrollos alone, Värde Partners expects to construct 1,500 homes across Spain in the short term, numbers that will increased even further if it manages to acquire Aelca, a young property developer, which has great appeal thanks to its strong presence in areas where the residential sector is recovering the most in Madrid, such as Aravaca, Boadilla del Monte and the Madrilenian neighbourhood of Las Tablas.

Värde’s commitment to the real estate business has led it to invest more than €1,000 million in the acquisition of Aliseda and San José Desarrollos alone, two sides of the same coin, given that as well as managing and selling the assets of the company that it shares with Popular, the fund is particularly interested in fully benefitting from the expected recovery in the residential market through its own property developer, as it is showing with its frenetic activity in these businesses.

By contrast, Värde is exiting its positions in the shopping centre segment, as it demonstrated in February with the sale of the Mallorcan Festival Park outlet, and in July 2015, with the sale to Lar of three large retail outlets in the Parque Comercial Galeria de Pamplona.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake