Värde Has Invested €800M In Spain’s RE Sector Since 2013

1 March 2017 – Eje Prime

Värde’s latest acquisition, Vía Célere, is going to be incorporated into the plans that the group has for Dospuntos, through which it intends to invest €2,000 million over the next six years, buying up land and building homes.

The US firm Värde Partners has set itself the goal of revolutionising the real estate business in Spain. Following its purchase of the real estate property developer Vía Célere earlier this week, the company has now invested more than €800 million in the real estate business in Spain. Since its arrival in the country in 2013, the fund has closed multiple operations, such as the purchase of Banco Popular’s real estate fund and the acquisition of assets in Madrid and Barcelona. Now, Värde Partners is taking another step forward in its objective to redraw the property developer map in Spain.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Minneapolis (USA), Värde Partners invests its capital all over the world, through multiple strategies. (…). The group works with a wide range of assets and regional headquarters in Minneapolis, London and Singapore. It also has secondary offices in other cities around the world, including Barcelona.

Värde Partners is an alternative investment fund manager, with more than $10,000 million in assets under management and more than $50,000 million invested around the world. (…).

In December 2012, the investment fund fired the starting gun on its investments in Spain by joining forces with Anchorage to formalise the purchase of five buildings in Madrid and Barcelona for €100 million. Under the name Operation Copernicus, this package of assets used to belong to the former German bank Eurohypo, but was put up for sale in conjunction with the real estate company Monteverde. (…).

Then, during 2013, on its path to seek out good opportunities in the real estate business in Spain, Värde Partners seduced Banco Popular into the purchase of Aliseda for €815 million, together with Kennedy Wilson. The alliance formed by the two groups competed with lower offers from other groups such as Fortress, Willbur Ross and Lone Star.

After two years organising its business portfolio in Spain, Värde Partners finally took control of San José Desarrollos Inmobiliarios, where it already owned almost 25%. The US fund purchased Banco Popular’s 25% stake for €90 million, which allowed it to take ownership of 51% of that firm’s share capital.

From its newfound position of power, Värde Partners immediately carried out a €60 million capital increase, a move aimed at propping up the company and laying the foundations necessary to start building homes. In this way, Värde Partners prepared the basis of what would later become Dospuntos.

More recently, Värde has closed its last two purchases in Spain just a few months apart. In 2016, the group acquired the property developer Aelca from the Avintia group for €50 million. Meanwhile, it announced on Monday, that it is going to take control of Vía Célere for €90 million.

In this way, Vía Célere will form part of the plans that the group has for Dospuntos, through which it intends to invest €2,000 million over the next six years (…). The company already owns a vast land bank on which it plans to build more than 7,000 homes. In addition, the company wants to continue expanding its stock of land. In this way, its business plan for 2016-2021 includes new acquisitions with the aim of creating “the best land portfolio in Spain”.

Following its purchase of Vía Célere, Värde will integrate this real estate company into Dospuntos, which will operate under the Vía Célere trading name and which will have a land portfolio measuring more than 1 million m2. (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake