Sabadell’s Board Evaluates 3 Offers Amounting to c. €850M For its Property Developer

28 May 2019 – El Confidencial

On Monday, Banco Sabadell received three binding offers for its property developer, Sabadell Desarrollos Inmobiliarios, from the funds Cerberus, Oaktree and a third unknown candidate, amounting to between €800 million and €900 million.

The board of directors of the Catalan entity chaired by Josep Oliu now needs to decide whether to accept one of them and thereby pave the way for the creation of a new major player in the Spanish property developer sector to compete alongside the likes of Neinor, Metrovacesa, Vía Célere and Aedas.

Oaktree has been the favourite in the bidding for the last few months given its good relationship with Sabadell and with the property developer itself, with which it already operates at least one joint venture. It would represent the US investor’s first operation of its kind in Spain, where it currently has a small platform with just 20 employees.

Nevertheless, Cerberus has been gaining ground. Unlike Oaktree, the US giant already has a property development platform in Spain, Inmoglacier, to which it wants to supply new land (which SDin owns). Cerberus could also benefit from synergies between the two firms.

Meanwhile, the identity of the third candidate remains confidential, but possible contenders include Habitat (Bain Capital), Aedas and the Canadian fund CPPIB, which were all reported to be evaluating the purchase during the preliminary phase.

Initially, Sabadell was hoping to receive more than €1 billion for its property developer, but following uncertainty in the sector in recent months and the sale of several assets, it will have to accept a more modest price if a sale is to be agreed.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

PAI Partners Submits a €1.5bn Binding Offer for Catering Specialist ‘Áreas’

24 April 2019 – El País

The French group Elior has received a binding offer amounting to €1.542 billion from the investment group PAI Partners for Áreas, the company specialising in catering services located in travel areas and headquartered in Spain. The aim of the two parties is to close the operation this summer.

The Spanish group recorded revenues of €1.832 billion last year, making it the third largest concessions brand in its sector in the world. It will gain operational autonomy as a result of the sale.

Áreas operates in fourteen counties around the world – it is the market leader in Spain (27% market share), France and Portugal, and the third largest operator in the USA. Its 21,000 employees work in 90 airports, 84 train stations and 220 roadside service stations.

The objective of PAI Partners is to support and finance Áreas’s growth plans over the next few years.

Original story: El País (by Dani Cordero)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Sareb’s Sale of Témpore Enters Final Phase with TPG as the Favourite

28 March 2019 – Cinco Días

Sareb’s sale of its rental home Socimi Témpore Properties is entering the home stretch. The bad bank has selected three candidates to pass through to the final round, all of which are US funds, namely, TPG (Texas Pacific Group), Ares and Round Hill, with the former currently the favourite.

Témpore, which is listed on the MAB, has a market capitalisation of €305 million and, according to the most recent assessment performed by Savills Aguirre Newman, an asset portfolio worth €338 million.

In just over a month, Sareb will announce the name of the winning investor, which will take ownership of the Socimi and its 2,249 residential properties.

Original story: Cinco Días (by A. Simón & P.M. Simón)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Sareb Re-Opens the Bidding for its Renting Housing Socimi Témpore

7 March 2019 – El Confidencial

Sareb is putting up for sale the rental home Socimi that it constituted just over a year ago. Témpore, the third largest rental home firm in the country, after Blackstone (24,000 homes) and Azora (7,000 homes), owns 2,249 homes worth around €340 million. Candidates have two months to submit their binding offers.

The bad bank constituted Témpore in 2017 to provide an exit for a portfolio of homes proceeding from the bank restructuring process, and a few months later, it debuted the firm on the MAB.

The Socimi’s portfolio generated rental income of €7.3 million last year, up by 1.3% YoY, thanks to the renewal of contracts with the consequent increase in rents.

Témpore is sparking a great deal of interest amongst investors, providing further evidence of the appeal of the Spanish real estate market, especially the rental segment, for overseas investors.

Original story: El Confidencial 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Neinor Withdraws from the Purchase Process of ‘Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios’

28 February 2019 – El Español

Neinor Homes is not going to be one of the candidates that submits an offer to acquire Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios (SDI), the subsidiary of Banco Sabadell. The real estate company has been studying the operation for a while but has concluded, following its initial analysis, that the numbers do not fit with its investment philosophy.

That is according to explanations provided by Neinor’s CEO, Juan Velayos, who acknowledged that he has the sales prospectus on his desk but that at the moment, “it is not a priority” for him. We are talking about a company that has a portfolio of 300 buildable plots and which the bank led by Jaime Guardiola put up for sale in January.

Velayos himself acknowledges that he “loves the portfolio”, but he’s not so convinced by the numbers being seen in the market”. (…). “I’m afraid that it is not going to be for us from the perspective of a disciplined investor”, he said. The first valuations of SDI’s land are in the region of €1.3 billion, given that the portfolio also includes 130 real estate developments in different areas with 5,000 homes under construction.

Indeed, the price of land is one of Neinor’s obsessions. Over the last year, it has purchased 2,400 plots in which it has invested €95 million. Neinor’s CEO believes that his firm has adopted a prudent policy in this regard (…).

As a result, it looks like Neinor will not be one of the candidates to bid for Sabadell’s subsidiary in the end. The bank is awaiting possible expressions of interest for its land company. The intention is to receive binding offers before the end of this quarter and to settle the sale during the month of April.

Interested parties

In terms of the parties that are interested in SDI, they include some of the main international funds such as Cerberus, Värde, Oaktree and Blackstone (…).

The sale of SDI comes after Banco Sabadell sold Solvia, its real estate servicer for €300 million, for which it obtained capital gains of €185 million (…).

Original story: El Español (by Arturo Criado)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Delays Completion of ‘Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios’ Sale until May

28 February 2019 – El Confidencial

Banco Sabadell is finalising the sale of land from Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios (SDIn) to complete its real estate divestment process with prices of between €900 million and €1.1 billion. The process began with more than 20 funds and property developers expressing interest. Analysts forecast that the Catalan entity will record gains of more than €200 million.

To this end, the bank chaired by Josep Oliu (pictured above, left), has already prepared a timetable. The entity has delayed the deadlines because it has taken longer than expected to receive some of the signed confidentiality agreements (NDAs). Now, the interested parties will have until 30 March to analyse SDIn and submit non-binding offers. The deadline for the subsequent period for the submission of binding offers will be 17 May.

In this way, Sabadell will have the second half of May to accept the winning bid, and then receive the corresponding authorisations to complete the divestment before July (…).

Analysts expect that the operation will be executed in the region of €1 billion, with a discount of 30% on the net asset value. Even so, that would result in capital gains from profits of more than €200 million, according to a report by Alantra, to which this newspaper has had access. In this way, the maximum quality capital ratio (CET1 fully loaded) would move towards 12%, approaching the 12.5% that the bank has set itself as a target for 2020 in its strategic plan. In December, the ratio amounted to 11.1%, well below the 12.8% from the previous year following the sale of toxic property and the problems with the integration with TSB.

The land has been valued at €1.3 billion by Savills Aguirre Newman and by the property developer SDIn itself (…).

Candidates include funds and property developers. Market sources point to Cerberus, Oaktree and Neinor homes as some of the leading contenders. The operation will require the buyer to become one of the largest real estate players in Spain (…).

In December, Banco Sabadell agreed the sale of its property developer Solvia to the Nordic fund Intrum for €300 million. Intrum is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange and is the owner of Lindorff and Aktua in Spain (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Óscar Giménez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aedas, Neinor & Merlin Properties Put €1bn on the Table for Sabadell’s Land

29 January 2019 – OK Diario

Banco Sabadell has now opened the sales process for Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios, its real estate developer, for which the entity expects to obtain €1 billion. To date, the entity chaired by Josep Oliu has already sent the teaser to almost 30 interested parties. But there has been an important development, and that is that it is not only the typical funds that tend to participate in these types of auctions that are interested in the company, property developers are also keen, including Neinor, Aedas and Merlin Properties.

It is worth remembering that when Sabadell decided to sell Solvia, it separated the house-sale business and the real estate development business into two different companies with the aim of achieving a better offer. The land, which is owned by the second firm, forms part of the bank’s balance sheet and that is what is now up for sale.

According to sources speaking to OK Diario, the deadline for non-binding offers will finish in March; it will be after that when Banco Sabadell will start to receive binding offers. Sources in the know indicate that the operation will be closed in the second quarter. And, moreover, in addition to the aforementioned property developers, funds such as Cerberus, De Shaw, Blackstone, Värde, Apollo and Oaktree have also received the teaser (…).

The main plots of land owned by Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios are in Madrid, Barcelona and several places along the Mediterranean Coast. The portfolio includes plots that the buyer will have to reclassify in order to be able to sell, resell or transform them, as well as plots that are ready for development. It is precisely in those assets that so many property developers have expressed their interest.

Banco Sabadell obtained a profit of €138 million from the sale of 80% of Solvia, its real estate subsidiary, to Lindorff, a company that belongs to the Intrum AB group, for €300 million. With that operation, Sabadell, which has retained ownership of the remaining 20% stake in Solvia, achieved a positive impact on its Common Equity Tier 1 (“fully loaded”) capital ratio of 15 basis points.

The completion of that operation, which is subject to obtaining the corresponding authorisations, is also scheduled for the second quarter of 2019 (…).

Original story: OK Diario (by Borja Jiménez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Fund Centricus Enters the Bid to Buy Solvia

28 November 2018 – Expansión

A candidate with an exotic air about it has entered the auction for Solvia, the real estate subsidiary controlled in its entirety by Sabadell. The fund Centricus, which is headquartered in London but which has several Chinese and Japanese shareholders, has submitted a binding offer to acquire Sabadell’s asset management platform, according to sources familiar with the process.

Official sources at the bank preferred not to comment in this regard. Centricus wants to enter the Spanish market to compete with the large investment funds specialising in asset management, such as two of the other players interested in Solvia: Cerberus and Intrum, formerly Lindorff.

Centricus manages assets worth more than USD 20 billion and has worked together with the Japanese giant SoftBank to raise funds amounting to USD 100 billion at the international level.

Asian alliances

The British fund also recently joined forces with the Chinese companies China Merchants Group and SPF Group to launch a USD 15 billion fund to invest in technology companies.

Centricus, Cerberus and Intrum have all submitted binding offers for Solvia amounting to more than €300 million. According to sources close to the operation, one of the funds has even offered an amount close to the €400 million that Sabadell aspires to receive. The bank has awarded the mandate to divest Solvia to Alantra.

Sabadell activated the sale of its real estate platform after cleaning up €11.5 billion in toxic assets from its balance sheet. At that time, it preferred to not sell Solvia, like the majority of its competitors did, to try to maximise its revenues. The bank considers that the real estate platform has significant latent profits. Cerberus could be the favourite in the contest since it is now holding advanced conversations with the entity.

Natural buyer

The US fund is the “natural” buyer for Solvia, say financial sources. In fact, during the summer, Cerberus acquired two large portfolios of foreclosed properties from Sabadell (Challenger and Coliseum), with a combined gross value of €9.1 billion.

Sabadell wants to sign the sale of the real estate platform before the end of this year to have its balance sheet free of property remnants. Solvia manages 148,000 assets, with a value of more than €30 billion. In parallel, the bank has also placed up for sale its property developer subsidiary, Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios. The completion of that operation has been delayed until the beginning of 2019.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Sampedro)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Neinor & Ática Pull Out of the Bidding for the Mestalla Plots

14 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Neinor and Ática have pulled out of the bidding for the Mestalla plots. The two property developers have decided not to formalise their interest in the land that Valencia Football Club has put up for sale during the period for the presentation of non-binding offers, which terminated on Tuesday.

In the case of the property developer led by Juan Velayos, the listed company has decided not to formalise its interest due to the high percentage of land assigned for tertiary use that VFC has put on the market; it is not offering the option for interested parties to bid for each use separately. Of the 100,000 m2 in total, approximately 40% will have to be used for commercial purposes or as offices or hotel rooms.

The withdrawal of Grupo Ática, by contrast, is based on the complexity of the operation. In its case, the candidates, which were thought to include a fund as a financial partner for the Valencia-based property developer, have considered the transaction to be too high risk, according to sources speaking to València Plaza.

The candidates that are still aspiring to take over the land include the Valencian investor group Atitlán, the fund Cerberus, the property developer Aedas and the Valencian construction company Bertolín. Nevertheless, Deloitte is planning a new bidding period during which the candidates who want to continue in the process will have to convert their bids into binding offers, a commitment that they will have to make before the end of the year, on the basis of what has been seen to date.

Until now, the club has not set a price for its plots, but it estimates that the land is worth around €120 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus, Aedas & Neinor Compete to Acquire the Mestalla Plots in Valencia

5 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Three great players want to score a goal on the grounds of the Mestalla stadium. The US fund Cerberus and the Spanish property developers Neinor Homes and Aedas Homes are interested in acquiring the more than 100,000 m2 of residential and tertiary land that Valencia Football Club is going to release when it demolishes its stadium, according to València Plaza.

The process to sell the land, which is being led by the consultancy firm Deloitte, has already received interest from up to 25 companies, as the Director General of Valencia FC, Mateu Alemany, explained to the press last week. The value of the plots amounts to €120 million, although the club has not revealed the exact price for which it plans to sell them.

Located on Avenida Aragón, the Mestalla land will have a new owner before long. The funds and property developers that want to invest in this operation have until 8 November to place their non-binding offers on the table, with the obligation to convert them into binding offers by the end of the year.

The interest from Neinor and Aedas in these plots is in line with their investments in the Community of Valencia. In the case of the property developer led by Juan Velayos, the company already has €200 million committed in the region. Last week, Neinor announced the launch of its first 48 homes in the provincial capital, where it is now working to obtain the licence for a second development comprising one hundred homes in Quatre Carreres.

Meanwhile, Aedas is planning to build 500 homes in the Community of Valencia and has already started marketing 120 units, distributed over two blocks, which are going to be built very close to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. The US firm Cerberus would undertake this purchase through its property developer Inmoglacier, which opened its first office in the city opposite the Mestalla stadium at the end of October.

Several local players including Atitlán, the investment firm owned by Roberto Centeno and Aritza Rodero, Grupo Ática and the construction firm Bertolín are also on the list of candidates who want to buy Valencia FC’s former grounds.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake