Meridia Capital Will Debut its Socimi on the MAB in 2018

13 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The Socimi fever is never ending in the real estate sector. In fact, it is growing. The latest company to bet on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) is Meridia Capital Partners, a Barcelona-based fund led by the veteran businessman Javier Faus, which has announced it is going to debut its Socimi on the stock market, most likely at the beginning of 2018. This incorporation will come after today’s debut on the stock market of the logistics firm P3 Logistics Parks, and after Student Properties, which will soon become the first listed real estate investment company specialising in student halls.

Meridia III, which is what the Socimi is called, owns assets worth more than €100 million, according to Cinco Días. The future listed company owns a diversified portfolio with investments in every sector, from offices and logistics to residential, retail and hotels, but focused, for the time being, in Spain’s two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona.

Constituted last year, Meridia III was created as the third investment vehicle of the fund, created by Faus in 2001. Its most recent acquisitions include the Barnasud shopping centre, for which it paid €35 million to Unibail-Rodamco.

Moreover, the company has carried out seven capital increases in the last year and a half, amounting to €50 million in total, with the aim of financing its future plans.

In total, Meridia III has an investment capacity of €500 million, of which it has already spent more than 50%.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meridia Buys Barnasud Shopping Centre For €35M

9 November 2017 – Expansión 

Meridia Capital has purchased the Barnasud shopping centre, located in Gavà, 20km from Barcelona. The operation, which was signed yesterday, was completed for a consideration of €35 million.

The complex was previously owned by Unibail Rodamco, which is continuing with its strategy to divest its least strategic assets, by location and volume, to focus on its largest properties, which represent the main business of the European shopping centre giant.

The French-Dutch group continues to own three other first-rate shopping centres in Barcelona – La Maquinista, Splau and Glòries– and fifteen shopping centres across the whole of Spain. Unibail has been advised by Cushman & Wakefield. Meanwhile, Meridia manages assets with a combined value of almost €1,000 million and has consolidated its presence in the country over the last three years.

Barnasud was inaugurated in 1995 and houses 43 stores, 13 restaurants and a seven-screen cinema. Its fashion establishments include Mango, Macson and Springfield. None of the brands from the Inditex group has a presence in the centre. The restaurant area includes operators such as McDonald’s, Burger King and Hollywood, and the multi-screen cinema is operated by Cinesa.

The President of Meridia Capital, Javier Faus, revealed that the company was on the verge of closing a purchase in the retail sector on Tuesday at the Economy Circle, as proof that the fund still has faith in the Catalan market. Faus, which will have to start to divest the assets held by one of Meridia’s funds in 2018, said that “the task of educating institutional investors is very important”. In his opinion, “the current situation in Cataluña is reversible and everything will improve if the right decisions are made”.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Anglés and R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake