Tag: BlackRock

Christie & Co’s Consultancy Team Supports Blackrock’s Acquisition of Amistat Hostel Portfolio

16 July 2019 – Press Release

Specialist business property adviser, Christie & Co was appointed by the BlackRock Real Assets (“BlackRock”) to provide strategic advice regarding its acquisition of pan-European hostel operator, Amistat International
The Amistat portfolio comprises three seed assets in Barcelona and Ibiza, in addition to an active pipeline of another six assets in key European cities.
Frank Orenstein, CIO and Partner at Amistat, comments, “We see Amistat as a pioneering lifestyle brand that offers stylishly-designed, safe and tech-
infused social hubs aimed at experience-hungry youth travellers of the 21st
century. In our hostels, we are offering shared and private rooms, both with en suite bathrooms, bars, dining/cooking areas, work spaces, chill-out zones, high-tech connectivity and engaging activity programmes. For
the young travellers, the ‘living like a local’ experience is gaining more and more importance.”
Thomas Mueller, European Head of Value-Added Real Estate at BlackRock, comments, “This transaction presents an opportunity to gain early-mover access into an increasingly institutional but undersupplied asset class. The demand profile for hostels is particularly appealing given the lack of quality, modern stock in the market, which is characterized by fragmented ownership and very low brand penetration.”
Christie & Co provided support to Blackrock on the deal in a number of ways, including:
•A comprehensive market research report covering investment trends in the hostel sector at a pan-European level and recent appetite from capital markets
•A detailed study of the demand for hostels in European cities, and a review of the Amistat brand positioning, guest profile, operating structure and development potential in the context of the current competitive environment
•Due diligence on the existing assets and review of the business plans for the pipeline assets, as well as pricing advice to support the deal underwriting process
Inmaculada Ranera, Managing Director at Christie & Co Spain & Portugal comments, “Our presence in multiple cities across Europe, extensive expertise in the alternatives sector and our one-team approach mean that we can be at the same time close to our clients wherever they choose to go and close to the investment and operating environment in the local markets. In this case, the success was based on a close collaboration between our offices in Barcelona and London.
“On a wider note, we expect to see more investment in this space via acquisitions, JVs and partnerships with existing concepts. Whilst many entrepreneurs have developed successful concepts across Europe with solid
fundamentals in terms of growing guest appetite for this kind of product and experience and good roll-out potential, at some stage additional capital becomes fundamental to rapid international expansion. The time is now
right to find those sources of capital given the appetite from many investors in the alternative accommodation space”.
For further information on this press release, contact , Meritxell Álvaro,
Marketing Manager & Team Assistant, Christie & Co on
+34 93 343 61 61
or meritxell.alvaro@christie.com

BlackRock Enters Hostel Sector Through the Creation of a JV with Amistat

7 June 2019 – Hosteltur

BlackRock Real Assets has acquired an initial portfolio of three hostels and six establishments in the pipeline from the Barcelona-based hostel chain Amistat Hostels through the creation of a joint venture worth €100 million.

Specifically, Amistat currently operates two establishments in Spain: the Amistat Beach Hostel in Barcelona and the Amistat Island Hostel in Ibiza, and is also building another hostel in Barcelona. In addition, it has signed agreements to open another six hostels in Rome, Porto, Lisbon, Dublin and London.

According to Thomas Mueller, European Head of Value-Added Real Estate at BlackRock, this transaction represents a great business opportunity as although the hostel market has attracted a growing number of institutional investors in recent years, it is still an undervalued sector, due to its fragmented nature and “very low brand penetration”.

Original story: Hosteltur

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

WeWork to Launch its ‘Custom Buildout’ Business in Spain

28 March 2019 – Idealista

The US co-working company WeWork is studying the rental of entire buildings in Spain to dedicate to its custom buildout business. The service offers large corporations assets fitted out and managed by the brand. The company is already looking at potential properties in Barcelona.

WeWork now has ten co-working office spaces in Madrid and Barcelona (5 in each city), but its plan is to offer large corporations a new service that would house their headquarters and manage all of their needs, leveraging the firm’s know-how in the office management segment.

According to its business model, WeWork speaks to its clients first to understand their needs and desires. It then searches for the best offers, assumes the risks of a long-term contract and the capital investment, and manages the property for the company on an on-going basis, offering services such as fresh fruit, water and security, as well as events for employees.

In this way, the firm would start to compete directly with stalwarts of the sector such as CBRE, JLL, Savills Aguirre Newman and Cushman&Wakefield.

WeWork already offers this service to several corporates around the world, including Starbucks, Facebook, Adidas, Salesforce, Blackrock and Citi, amongst others.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

VIA Outlets will Start Renovating its Shopping Centre in Sevilla in Q4

11 October 2018 – Eje Prime

VIA Outlets has a start date for the remodelling and expansion of its shopping centre in Sevilla. The European group is going to start the building work on its Sevilla Fashion Outlet before the end of the year, according to explanations provided by the company to Eje Prime. The start of the complex’s reconstruction coincides with the opening of Torre Sevilla, owned by CaixaBank, and the relaunch in 2019 of Palmas Altas, owed by Lar España.

The company is going to invest more than €13 million in this comprehensive renovation project of the Sevillan outlet centre, the group’s second largest in Spain, after its complex in Mallorca. Amongst other aspects, “the building work will include the reconfiguration of the restaurant and food area”, says the company, which is also going to increase the number of parking spaces by approximately 40%.

In terms of aesthetic considerations, the renovation will involve a general remodelling of the centre, which will include a new façade, a renovated entrance and new common areas. “This, as a whole, will contribute to repositioning Sevilla Fashion Outlet as the only premium outlet in Andalucía”, says the group.

The retail complex has been owned by VIA Outlets since January 2017, when it purchased it from the fund Irus European Retail Property. With a surface area spanning 16,400 m2, Sevilla Fashion Outlet has already started the work to recondition and expand the complex’s parking area.

Founded in 2014 as a joint venture between  APG, Hammerson, Value Retail and Meyer Bergman, VIA Outlets has seen rapid growth in the real estate retail market. In just four years, the group has acquired eleven centres around Europe and, recently, it recruited two new senior managers. They were Otto Ambagtsheer (formerly of Unibail-Rodamco), who has been appointed as the Operations Director, and Peter Stals (formerly Blackrock),  who is the company’s new Finance Director (…).

The portfolio of VIA Outlets spans a gross leasable area (GLA) of more than 259,000 m2 and is home to more than 850 brands across the nine European countries in which it has a presence. In 2017, the group’s eleven centres recorded sales of more than €1 billion and were visited by more than 30 million people.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Several Funds Acquire/Increase their Stakes in Hispania in the Midst of Blackstone’s Takeover Bid

11 June 2018 – Expansión

Blackstone’s takeover bid for Hispania has placed the Socimi firmly on the radar of investment funds. Since April when Blackstone announced its intention to launch a public share acquisition offer (OPA) for the Spanish Socimi, there have been continuous changes in the shareholding structure.

In terms of the funds who have been active, Fidelity has continued to back the company and has strengthened its stake to 9.64%. Prior to the takeover bid, the company’s stake remained at just over 7%.

Fidelity is the second largest shareholder of Hispania, behind Blackstone, which, after purchasing the stake owned by the Hungarian-born magnate George Soros, leads Hispania’s shareholder ranking, with a 16.56% stake.

Another one of the Socimi’s shareholders that has strengthened its weight since the takeover is Axa Investment Group, which now controls 4.14% compared to 3% before the takeover bid, and Bank of Montreal and BlackRock, which currently hold stakes of around 4.1% each, compared with 3.01% and 3.3%, respectively, that they used to control.

These shareholders constitute the hardcore nucleus of the company’s owners, together with the Mexican firm Canepa, which holds almost 6% through Tamerlane, and the Brazilian family office BW Gestao de Investimentos (BWG) with 3.7%.

New shareholders

In addition to the reference shareholders who have taken positions, Blackstone’s interest in Hispania has led to new interest from other shareholders.

The Norwegian fund, through its manager Norges Bank, has appeared to acquire 1.09% of the Socimi; Man Group, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, has bought 1.27%; and Kite Lake Capital Management has purchased 1.56%.

Blackstone’s takeover bid for 100% of Hispania at a price of €17.54 per share means that it is valuing the Socimi at €1,905 million. Hispania used to have a market capitalisation of €1,903 million and its shares closed trading on Friday at a price of €17.68 per share, slightly above the takeover price.

After Blackstone launched its takeover, Hispania’s Board of Directors engaged Goldman Sachs, UBS and JPMorgan as financial advisors and Freshfields and Uría Menéndez, as legal advisors, to analyse the terms of the offer and look for alternatives.

Expressions of interest

In a conversation with analysts in May, during the presentation of the group’s results, Cristina García-Peri, Director-General of Hispania, classified Blackstone as a “plausible” buyer, but she emphasised that other investors have been “very interested” in the Socimi and its hotel portfolio.

The American investment fund’s offer, whose brochure is pending approval by Spain’s National Securities and Markets Commission (CNMV) is conditional upon obtaining at least 50% plus one of the shares in Hispania. Moreover, the takeover is subject to a clause that prevents the sale of assets for an aggregated transaction value of more than 5% of the NAV (net asset value) (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania’s Shareholders Approve Block Sale of its Office Portfolio for €600M+

4 April 2018 – Eje Prime

Hispania is putting the sale of its office portfolio back on the table. Today,  at its General Shareholders’ Meeting, the Socimi will submit to approval the block sale of its rental office portfolio, a set of 25 buildings worth €603 million. It is a divestment that the Socimi, in which George Soros holds a stake, launched a year ago, suspended in October 2017, and which it has now resumed.

Hispania’s assembly is also going to approve the distribution to shareholders of an extraordinary dividend of €1.97 gross per share linked to the completion of that divestment. The payment will be charged against the issue premium and will involve distributing €215 million in total. This dividend will be added to the ordinary remuneration to shareholders, which will amount to €0.87 per share this year, the first payment of which, amounting to €0.41295 gross per share, was already made in March.

Besides Soros, who holds a 16.6% stake in the firm, the other main shareholders are other overseas institutional investors, such as Fidelity, with a 7% stake, Conepa, with another 6% stake, and Bank of Montreal and BlackRock, with 3% each. The Socimi chaired by Rafael Miranda is framing the sale of its office portfolio within its strategy to focus on the hotel business.

Other items on the agenda at Hispania’s General Shareholders’ Meeting include the re-election of the directors to their roles as the Chairman of the firm and another five members, including Concepción Osácar, José Pedro Pérez-Llorca and Joaquín Ayuso. Hispania will also approve its accounts for 2017, which reported a net profit of €222.82 million, down by 27.7% compared to the previous year.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania Sells Its Portfolio of Offices to Swiss Life

9 August 2017

 

The Ázcarraga 3 building in the Chamartín district (Madrid)

The Spanish REIT, which counts George Soros as an investor, is close to finalizing the sale of about twenty office buildings to focus on its hotel business.

Everything is ready for the sale of Hispania’s portfolio of offices, one of the most anticipated deals in the real estate market. Absent any last-minute hiccups, the Spanish REIT, which counts George Soros as an investor, will sign an agreement with Swiss Life for the sale of some twenty office buildings for about 510 million euros, according to EXPANSIÓN’s sources.

Hispania’s office portfolio is distributed between Madrid, where 16 buildings are located, as well as two offices in two buildings and one asset under development, Barcelona and Málaga, with five and one building each.

The real estate consultants CBRE, JLL and the law firm Freshfields have advised Hispania, while Swiss Life has been advised by Aguirre Newman and Garrigues.  The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, or even days.

According to the latest information provided by Hispania, the Spanish REIT’s portfolio of offices had a value of 584 million euros at the end of the first semester of 2017. This assessment included the Aurelio Menéndez building, sold in June to a family office for 37.5 million euros. Hispania plans on keeping its commitment to execute pending works on the asset, which it expects to complete in November, at which time the sale of the building will be finalized.

Not including Aurelio Menéndez, Hispania has offices with almost 182,000 square meters of gross leasable area, of which almost 21,300 meters are in Madrid’s financial district. It also has another 116,852 square meters in office buildings in the prime secondary zone. Hispania has 39,506 square meters in Barcelona and 4,288 square meters in Malaga.

According to the latest information published by Hispania, the occupancy level in these buildings is 84%, with an average monthly income of 13.8 euros per square meter.

Hispania acknowledged this morning in a relevant fact to the market that is negotiating the sale of office assets and added that it maintains contacts with, among others, Swiss Life, although it added that it has not yet reached any agreement on the matter.

Divestment

With this operation, the company managed by the Azora Group goes one step further in its strategy to divest itself of residential and office assets to focus on the hotel business, in which it will continue to invest before putting those assets up for sale as well.

In this regard, in February Hispania announced its intention to continue with its initial objective of selling all its assets, individually, in portfolios or through a sale or change of control in the company, before March 2020, six years after the company was floated. Under this strategy, shareholders decided to extend the investment period until 31 December.

In addition to George Soros, who controls 16.7% of the REIT through Soros Fund Management, Fidelity Management and Research (7%), Tamerlane (6%), BW Gestão de Investimentos (3,6%), BlackRock (3.3%) and AXA Investments (3%) are also investors.

Original Story: Expansion – R. Arroyo / S. Saiz

Translation: Richard Turner

Lar España Raises €104M To Finance New Purchases

16 March 2017 – Expansión

Lar España has signed two financing agreements with ING and BBVA amounting to €103.9 million. The Socimi intends to use the funds raised to acquire new assets over the next few months.

Following the signing of these agreements, the Socimi now has debt amounting to €558 million, of which €418 million corresponds to bank loans, with the remaining €140 million relating to a bond issue carried out at the beginning of 2015.

In this way, Lar España’s net gearing ratio currently equals 33% of the gross value of its assets and will rise to 38% once the latest funds have been invested. The Socimi has highlighted that “it still has a long way to go” before its financing increases to 50% of fixed leverage.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse’s funds have acquired a 4.31% stake in the Socimi Lar to become one of its significant shareholders alongside the US manager Pimco, which owns a 20% stake, Franklin Templeton (15%), Brandes Investments (5%), Bestinver (4.1%), Blackrock (3.6%) and Threadneedle Asset Management (5%).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania Gets Ready To Debut On The Bond Market

17 January 2017 – Cinco Días

The Socimi Hispania is planning to join the bond issues undertaken in recent months by other major players in the sector, including Merlin and Colonial, with the aim of diversifying its financing. To this end, it has already started to sound out the ratings agencies. Its objective is to obtain an investment grade rating for its securities.

Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios is studying the option of debuting on the capital markets with a bond issue to refinance some of its gross debt, which currently amounts to €631 million, according to sources familiar with the operation.

The Socimi has already started the process to request a rating from the ratings agencies, with the aim of launching the operation during the first few months of the year.

The firm has made contact with the three large players –Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch–, although it will not need a rating from all of them, rather from just one of them or two at most. The aim is to achieve an investment grade rating – BBB – or Baa3 – , which would allow it to debut on the capital markets at a reasonable cost.

Hispania, in which the magnate George Soros owns a 16% stake, will thereby join the other bond issues undertaken recently by other companies in the sector.

The Socimi Merlin Properties – which forms part of the Ibex 35 – went to the market in October with a 10-year bond placement amounting to €800 million. The current yield on that debt is 2.3%. It has a Baa2 rating, which is one notch above the limit that separates junk bonds from investment grade securities, according to Moody’s nomenclature. Moreover, Merlin has assumed another €1,550 million in bonds from two bond issues made by Metrovacesa, with which it completed its merger at the end of October. (…).

Hispania’s current debt has an average maturity period of 7.2 years and €497 million of the balance is due to be repaid from 2022 onwards. The current average debt cost is 2.7%. Hispania also has hedges in place to avoid any surprises if interest rates rise. 96% of its debt is guaranteed. (…).

In general terms, the optimal balance sheet structure of these types of companies rests on three pillars: bank debt with an additional guarantee – in the majority of cases, properties from the company’s portfolio – , unsecured financial loans and listed debt.

With the proceeds that it raises from the bond issue, Hispania plans to repay some of its current debt balance. It would thereby take advantage of the good conditions in the market with liquidity and the environment of low interest rates. This company, created in 2014 under the special tax regime for Socimis, is led by Concha Osácar and Fernando Gumuzio, and is managed by Azora. In addition to Soros, its shareholders include the funds Fidelity, FMR, Tamerlane and BlackRock.

Hotel specialist

Hispania’s portfolio of real estate assets closed the third quarter of 2016 with an appraisal value of €1,680 million. The Socimi owns 36 hotels in Spain with 10,407 rooms. 68% of the value of those assets is located in the Canary Islands and 64% is managed by Barceló, with which it has signed a strategic alliance. The Socimi recently purchased three properties in the Cala San Miguel in Ibiza (pictured above) for €32 million.

Original story: Cinco Días (by A. Simón and R.M. Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pimco Increases Its Stake In Lar España To 19.87%

24 November 2016 – Expansión

Pimco, the largest fixed income manager in the world, has increased its stake in the Socimi Lar España to 19.87%, after passing the 17% threshold last week. The company is standing by its intention to not exceed 30% of the Socimi’s share capital, which would force it to launch a takeover bid for 100% of the company.

This operation strengthens Pimco’s position as the largest shareholder of Lar España, a position that it achieved on 17 November, after acquiring a 4.6% stake in the Socimi for €29.7 million. In that move, Pimco bought 4.16 million shares from Lar España at a price of €7.15 per share, 11% more than the closing price of the shares on the day before the operation. Until then, its stake amounted to 12.4%.

After Pimco, the next largest shareholder is Franklin Templeton, with a 15% stake. Threadneedle Asset Management and BlackRock also hold stakes in Lar España: 5% and 3.06%, respectively, according to the records of the CNMV.

More profits

Between January and September, the Socimi earned €46.6 million, up by 77% compared to 2015, driven by an increase in revenues from rental income and the expansion of its real estate portfolio. Its EBITDA improved by the same proportion, to €30.3 million. Meanwhile, revenues grew by 80% to €42.2 million.

Lar España’s shares closed trading yesterday at €6.97/share, down by 0.43%. So far this year, the Socimi’s share price has fallen by 15.83%.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake