Platinum Buys the Park Hyatt Site Near Sotogrande to Open its Own Hotel

25 April 2019 – El Confidencial

Platinum Estates has just completed the purchase of Finca Doña Julia, a plot spanning 40,000 m2 located in Casares, between Marbella and Sotogrande, where the Hong-Kong based fund is planning to open a 4-star hotel.

The future establishment is going to be built on the structure that the property developer Evemarina designed for Park Hyatt. Work was suspended on that project after the company filed for bankruptcy when the economic crisis hit.

The debt ended up in the hands of seven banks, which have now sold their stakes to Platinum for an undisclosed amount. The fund led in Spain by Juan Luis Segalerva has been advised by Garrigues.

The same financial institutions have also transferred another plot to Platinum next to Finca Doña Julia, measuring 11,000 m2.

All of these assets are located next to Finca Cosentín, where KKR, together with Altamar and Single Hom are going to invest €450 million in the development of exclusive villas and apartments.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Cerbium Files for Bankruptcy after Negotiations Fail with Creditors

24 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Cerbium Holding has succumbed to bankruptcy. The entity, the parent company of the holiday rental platform Only Apartments, has filed for voluntary creditor bankruptcy, according to explanations provided by the group in a relevant event submitted to the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The company filed for pre-bankruptcy last November, alleging “a difficult financial situation and cash troubles”. The company needed between €600,000 and €700,000 to reduce its cash tensions.

Now, the Board of Directors has proceeded to file a request for voluntary creditor bankruptcy “since it has not been able to reach an agreement with the company’s creditors to eliminate the insolvency situation”.

Cerbium also highlighted that it will continue with the company’s activity. The group started life in February 2018, after Only Apartments completed the purchase of Texting Big Data.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Reuben Brothers Win the Bid for Santander’s Ciudad Financiera

12 November 2018 – El Confidencial

Banco Santander’s Ciudad Financiera has a new owner. The Reuben brothers have won the bid to acquire the headquarters of the Spanish bank, whose former owner, Marme Inversiones, filed for creditors’ bankruptcy. The Asian investors, who are residents in London and lovers of Ibiza, submitted the highest bid for the land in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), fighting off competition from the bank itself chaired by Ana Botín and from the Arab fund AGC Equity Partners.

That is the result of the bid after the envelopes containing the final offers from the three candidates were opened by the bankruptcy administrator. Although the final price is not known, the offers amounted to around €3 billion, according to sources close to the operation, one of the largest operations ever in the real estate market in Spain involving a single asset.

From now on, to validate the purchase by the Reuben brothers, the judge from the mercantile court who is conducting the sale will have to certify that the offer from the London-based millionaires is correct, fulfils all of the requirements and complies with all of the analysis regarding transparency and money laundering. Nevertheless, and even if the judge gives his blessing, Banco Santander may exercise its right of first refusal, which gives it the last word for recovering the headquarters, which it sold in 2008 to a group of investors, who were also British, and with whom it agreed to remain as the tenant for forty years.

For that, the €500 million that Santander has paid Marme by way of rental over the last ten years has to be deducted from the final price, as does the €300 million of intra-group debt that is no longer taken into consideration following the entry into bankruptcy of the company.

Movements in the courts

Because what the Reuben brothers are now buying is the asset of a company that, after borrowing funds to pay even the tax on the original acquisition in 2008, can no longer keep up repayments on the loan it requested to acquire Ciudad Financiera and so filed for bankruptcy. After a long bankruptcy administration process, numerous claims by the creditors in the courts and offers from several international sovereign funds, the Spanish entity wanted to acquire the land of its headquarters in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), where almost 7,000 people work.

The creditors of Marme Inversiones 2007 include ING, HSH Nordbank, CaixaBank and Bayeriche Landesbank, which granted a loan amounting to €1.575 billion to Propinvest ten years ago in the form of a leaseback arrangement with Santander’s largest real estate asset. Other entities also participated in that loan, including Deutsche Postbank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Raffeisen Zentralbank, which started to sell their stakes in the loan to vulture funds in 2011, with significant discounts on the nominal values, when the owner started to acknowledge that it was unable to make the debt repayments.

One of those who purchased that debt was Blackstone, together with other similar funds, such as Centerbridge and Avenue Capital. The first two submitted an offer to acquire Ciudad Financiera on 17 September, but their proposal was lower than those offers by Santander (…).

The Reuben brothers, which have purchased almost 168 hectares of land in Ibiza over the last two years, have submitted their bid for the Ciudad Financiera through Ibiza Properties LTD. That company was constituted on 1 August, with a nominal value of just GBP 100, money that it will now have to increase to cover the payment to the bankruptcy administrator.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marcos)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Marina d’Or’s Real Estate Company Capitalises Debt Amounting to €11.1M

7 October 2018 – Valencia Plaza

On Friday, the Official Gazette of the Mercantile Registry reflected a capital increase amounting to €11.1 million undertaken by the company Comercializadora Mediterránea de Viviendas SL. In other words, Comervi, the real estate company behind Marina d’Or, which said no more by way of explanation to this newspaper than: the manoeuvre came as a response to a “conversion of debt into capital” – without offering any more details -.

This possibility had been contemplated in the agreement signed by the company and its creditors to emerge from the bankruptcy proceedings, as explained by this newspaper. Specifically, the agreement gave the creditors a choice between collecting the debt with a discount of 65% over a period of 10 years and the option of capitalising their loans and going on to become shareholders of the company.

Depending on who has signed this capital increase for the real estate firm behind Marina d’Or – controlled in its entirety by Jesús Ger to date – a new shareholder may have joined the fold. Nevertheless, the possibility that the capitalisation has been subscribed by a company owned by the Catalan businessman himself has not been ruled out.

In fact, as stated in Comervi’s most recent financial statements – corresponding to 2017 – the company has debt amounting to €55.8 million with “related companies”, as detailed in note 13 of the annual accounts.

When asked about this, sources at Sareb – which according to Marina d’Or is Comervi’s main private creditor – explained to Valencia Plaza on Friday that the entity agreed to apply the aforementioned discount of 65% to the amount owed by the company and that, as a result, the bad bank is not the entity that has capitalised the €11.1 million.

In the same vein, Banco Sabadell explained to this newspaper that its agreement with Comervi was written off following the handover to the financial institution of 40 apartments and one warehouse, as this newspaper revealed.

It has also been ruled out that the capitalisation has been carried out by the Tax Authorities or Social Security – the other two major creditors of Comervi – given that the State does not make a habit of becoming a shareholder in private companies that have filed for creditor bankruptcy.

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Dani Valero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Santander Offers €3bn for its own Ciudad Financiera

19 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Banco Santander could end up buying back its Ciudad Financiera. The Spanish bank has submitted an offer for around €3 billion for the complex in the framework of the auction organised by Commercial Court number 9 in Madrid to liquidate the assets of Marme Inversiones, the owner of the asset, according to Expansión.

Besides Santander, two other entities have submitted bids. They are the Kuwaiti fund headquartered in the British capital, AGC Capital Markets, and the British-Irani investor Robert Tchenguiz.

According to the most recent information, Blackstone was going to participate in the bid. Specifically, the US fund was going to offer more than €3 billion for the Spanish bank’s central offices.

In the end, both Blackstone and Centerbridge have ruled out participating in the auction, the resolution of which will be revealed within the next few days: the bankruptcy administrator could award the asset, or open another phase for the receipt of better offers.

Banco Santander’s Ciudad Financiera has been owned by Marme Inversiones (controlled by the investors Glenn Maud and Derek Quinlan) since 2008. The company filed for bankruptcy after it was unable to keep up the repayments on the loans it took out to sign the operation.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

A Swap from ING & CaixaBank: the Last Stumbling Block in the Sale of Santander’s HQ to AGC

27 July 2018 – Voz Pópuli

The sale of the company that owns Santander’s Ciudad Financiera is closer than ever to becoming a reality. The approval of the liquidation plan by a Madrilenian court set September as the deadline for offers. Nevertheless, there are still disputes to be resolved.

The main stumbling block now is a lawsuit in London against a swap (financial derivative) granted by five entities: Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), CaixaBank, ING, HSH Nordbank and AG Bayerische Landesbank. The lawsuit, filed years ago, is based on a claim that RBS manipulated the interbank – LIBOR and Euribor – market. The lawsuit amounts to €800 million, given that the swap has cost around €90 million per year since 2008, according to financial sources consulted by this newspaper.

The discussion in Spain focuses on the fact that some of the creditors of Santander’s headquarters fear that the new owner of the company (Marme Inversiones 2007) will decide to shelve that lawsuit. It would require an agreement between the new Marme and the five banks party to the swap in exchange for renegotiating the derivative, which expires in 2023.

AGC’s offer

Those €800 million, if the process in London proves successful, could mean that all of the creditors recover their money. In particular, the original shareholder, the Brit Glen Maud, and the company Edgeworth Capital, owned by the Iranian investor Robert Tchenguiz, who took positions during the bankruptcy.

Other sources consulted indicate that there is a commitment from the main interested party in the Ciudad Financiera, the Arab fund AGC Equity Partners, to keep the Marme litigation case open.

Currently, the only offer on the table is the one presented by AGC in 2016 for between €2.5 billion and €2.8 billion, depending on the variables that are included. A year earlier, Aabar Investments, the owner of Cepsa, and Edgeworth, also submitted bids. But they were not accepted.

As we wait to see what will happen over the next two months, AGC leads the rest of the candidates to acquire Santander’s headquarters.

One of the possible counter-offers could come from Edgeworth, which negotiated a €2 billion loan with JPMorgan to participate in the liquidation plan. It also proposed that the company exit from bankruptcy without the need to be liquidated.

This operation would generate a sale with significant gains for the funds that entered the process by buying Marme’s debt from financial institutions. They include Blackstone, Canyon and Monarch.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

RIU Submits Bid to Acquire Buena Vista Hotel in Tenerife for €71M

26 July 2018 – Preferente

The hotel chain RIU has submitted an offer to purchase a hotel in Tenerife that has been put up for auction following the bankruptcy of its owner and which the hotel chain has been managing for the last 10 years on a rental basis, according to El Confidencial.

The hotel company headquartered in Mallorca has offered €71 million for the Hotel Riu Buena Vista, located on Playa Paraíso in Adeja, which has just been put up for auction as part of the bankruptcy process that its owner has been immersed in for the last five years.

RIU has been renting the hotel for ten years and is now trying to take ownership of it, pending the outcome of the auction, which is expected to happen within a period of fifteen days. The chain claims that, given its status as the tenant, it has the right of first refusal over the property.

The chain led by Carmen and Luis Riu has four hotels in Tenerife and 7,000 rooms in total across the Canary Islands as a whole.

Original story: Preferente (by R.P.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Valencia CF Expects to Receive c. €100M from Sale of Mestalla Plot

4 June 2018 – Expansión

Valencia Football Club (Valencia CF) is making progress with the financing for its new football stadium. Market sources estimate that the club could receive proceeds of more than €100 million from the sale of the land on which its current Mestalla stadium is located, a site between the sought-after avenues of Aragón and Suecia.

The sale of that plot, known as the old Mestalla and with buildability for residential and tertiary use, could materialise before the end of 2018, taking advantage of the good times in the real estate market. The plot measures 12,000 m2 and has a buildable surface area of 70,000 m2.

That amount would allow Valencia CF to partially finance the completion of the construction of its new site, where it has fixed assets in progress worth €115 million, and to reduce the debt that it currently holds with financial institutions and which amounts to around €185 million. It also holds liabilities with the public administrations.

The work on this construction site began in August 2007 but was suspended in February 2009, which means that the project has been paralysed now for almost a decade. Since then, several attempts have been made to restart it, but those efforts have always been postponed due to the need for financing.

The club has decided to accelerate its plans to move to the future Mestalla and push ahead with the reduction in its debt and the clean up of its balance sheet to focus on its sporting efforts. Only the arrival in December 2014 of the Singaporean magnate Peter Lim saved the team from bankruptcy, which has recorded losses of €60.2 million in total over the last three years, in large part due to this real estate expenditure. Losses are also forecast for this year.

In this context, the President of Valencia CF, Anil Murthy, now considers that “the real estate market has evolved enough to meet our objectives”. Thus, the club is going to continue working with the Town Hall to process the amended licences to start the building work.

Inauguration: in 2021

Murthy said that for this process, Valencia CF has engaged Deloitte, which will be its comprehensive advisor in all aspects financial, real estate, technical and economic relating to the entire process necessary to move to the future stadium within the timeframes set out in the Valencia Strategic Territorial Action Plan.

In addition, Deloitte will be responsible for the business plan and sale of the tertiary space in the new stadium, which will have more than 40,000 m2 of buildable space available for commercial use (…).

Original story: Expansión (by E. S. Mazo & R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

A Turning Point for the In Tempo Building in Benidorm

1 June 2018 – Diario Información

The In Tempo building in Benidorm is starting a new phase and putting an end to the previous phase that was fraught with economic and legal problems. The new company that acquired the property from the bad bank  Sareb has now received the green light to finish the construction work and start marketing the homes in the tallest residential building in Europe given that it has been officially granted all of the construction permits. In addition, the property developer behind the tower block, the company Olga Urbana, has also ceased to exist.

Just three days ago, the Town Hall of Benidorm, through a decree from the Councillor for Urban Planning, Lourdes Caselles, to which this newspaper has had access, approved the issue of the transfer of the urban planning licence that was previously held by Olga Urbana SL, the property developer behind the project, to the new company that owns the building, Teach Spire SLU.

That licence was granted to the former company in 2006 for the construction of a building comprising 269 homes, 398 parking spaces and 133 storerooms (…). The same decree also covers the transfer of the construction project from the former company in favour of the new owner. With this step, the new company now has all the rights and obligations in place resulting from the transfer of the licences.

Now, the new company has the green light to finish the construction work. The new owner of the In Tempo building in Benidorm, the firm SVP Global, forecasts that the property will become a reality within 12 months and that it will be able to start marketing the 269 homes before the summer, according to a statement issued in April.

In the autumn, the Company for the Management of Assets proceeding from the Restructuring of the Banking System (Sareb) sold the property’s debt to SVP Global for more than €60 million. The bad bank had been left with a loan amounting to €108 million five years ago albeit secured by the tallest building in the Community of Valencia.

The project, which was first approved almost a decade ago, has a 93% completion rate and what has been built is in a good condition despite the fact that the construction work was suspended four years ago after the Alicante-based property developer Olga Urbana filed for bankruptcy (…).

Not only has a chapter been closed for In Tempo in terms of the building permits, but also, the property developer Olga Urbana has also ceased to exist following its bankruptcy. The Official Gazette of the Mercantile Registry (Borme) of Alicante published the inscription of the dissolution of the company yesterday, issued by Mercantile Court number 1 in Alicante, a process that was started in 2014, according to the publication (…).

Original story: Diario Información (by A. Vicente)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lugo’s Only 5-Star Hotel Goes up for Auction for c. €5M

16 May 2018 – El Confidencial

It has been closed for four years and weeds are spreading uncontrollably across the estate. The only luxury five-star hotel in Lugo has gone up for auction for just over €5 million – the auction price includes the hotel’s furniture and a chapel in two separate lots – as part of the liquidation plan that is being followed since Mercantile Court number 12 of Madrid ruled against its owner, Alvaher 98. That company purchased the property in 2007 and built on the ruins of what used to be the Palacio del Conde de Lemos. Alberto Vázquez wanted to turn around his business activity, which focused on meat products and recover this historical and artistic gem, which originally belonged to the López de Lemos family and which had been abandoned since the beginning of the 20th century.

The bidding has now concluded with a single bidder offering €2.4 million for the hotel, below the €4.7 million auction price. As such, we will have to wait and see whether the court authorises the sale or not, given that it would not cover the debt. Meanwhile, in the other lots, €60,000 has been offered for the furniture, compared with an auction value of €450,000, and €6,000 has been offered for the chapel, above the auction value of almost €1,800.

The Hotel Palacio de Sober, whose refurbishment cost several million euros – most of which came from public funds – is also the oldest civil architecture building in Galicia, the largest estate in the autonomous region, and its chapel dates back to the 7th century. A year ago, the same court opened a sales process for possible interested parties to bid, and although several companies expressed their interest, no firm offer was submitted. Now, as part of the liquidation process of the owner company, its fate is being put to the test through a public auction (…).

The property has several financial charges, including a mortgage in favour of the Galician Institute for Economic Development (‘Instituto Galego de Promoción Económica’ or Igape), the public entity that backed the project to open the hotel at the time through loans and subsidies, as well as embargoes for non-payments to the Social Security department.

Located in the south of the province of Lugo in a natural setting, 10km from Monforte de Lemos and 38 km from Ourense, it opened its newly renovated doors in 2010 (…). It had 43 super-luxury rooms, all of which measure more than 25 m2 (…).

The price per room used to cost no less than €300 per night for the cheapest rooms, whilst sleeping in one of the suites cost upwards of €750 (…).

At the beginning of 2012, just two years after its inauguration (…), the Palacio de Sober stopped receiving guests and it definitively closed its doors in March 2014 (…). In February 2015, the owner company was declared bankrupt (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake