Tag: CAM

AC Hotels to Invest €5M in its First ‘Autograph’ in Valencia

1 October 2018 – El Mundo

AC Hotels, owned by the Navarran businessman Antonio Catalán, has acquired the rights to operate the former CAM building in Valencia, on the central street, Calle Pascual y Genís. Until now, the tenant was the Valencian firm Join Contract, which was granted use of the property by Solvia Group (Banco Sabadell) for 30 years in July, and which is now placing that use into the hands of this prestigious chain.

According to sources speaking to El Mundo, the firm AC Hotels competed against other major chains in the sector including NH and Barceló, as well as the local chain Grupo Intur, owned by the Gimeno family, which controls a large proportion of the major hotels in Benicàssim. Nevertheless, AC Hotels, which already has a hotel very close to what will become its newest location, decided to push hard for this site to whereby expand its business with the construction of what will be its first luxury hotel in Valencia.

That is why it will be called ‘Autograph’, the high-end brand that this operator uses to distinguish its top hotels. It will be the first of its kind in Valencia, although the firm has other luxury hotels with these characteristics operating under the same brand in Madrid and Barcelona.

Sources familiar with the operation have said that AC Hotels is going to invest almost €5 million in the renovation of the iconic building. If there are no delays, the building work will begin before the end of the year. The execution of the work will be carried out by the Valencian firm Join Contract, the same entity that has transferred the use of the asset to AC Hotels for 30 years (…).

More than 60 rooms

Although the project is still in its preliminary phase, some details have been published about the future AC Hotels Autograph. With a surface area of 4,500 m2 (580 m2 per floor), the hotel will have around 60 rooms, including suites and standard rooms. There will be a restaurant and hall on the ground floor, and there will be a small swimming pool for guests on the roof (…). The building will have nine floors in total, two of which will be used for parking (…).

Antonio Catalán, leader in the sector

AC Hoteles, from Antonio Catalán, is one of the leading chains in the hotel sector in Spain. It was founded in 1997 by this established Navarran businessman, who previously sold the NH chain to an investment fund for €70 million. After founding AC Hoteles, Catalán sold half of his shares to the chain Marriott for €80 million. Today they have more than 140 hotels open or under development around the world (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Sergio Aspas)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Owners of Mywigo Buy 2 Buildings in Ciudad Gran Turia Complex in Valencia

26 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Cirkuit Planet is turning off the phone for a second to invest in real estate. The Valencian group, owner of the smartphone brand Mywigo, has reached an agreement with the Deposit Guarantee Fund to purchase two buildings in Valencia. The assets used to be owned by Banco Sabadell until 2016, which inherited the properties from CAM.

The operation has been led by Strongterra, the real estate arm of Cirkuit Planet, which is acquiring the last two buildings in the sale of the Ciudad Gran Turia complex, previously known as Ciudad Ros Casares, according to reports from València Plaza.

The sale is one step away from being signed and two Valencian partners have participated in it. Sabadell’s servicer, Solvia, has been the entity in charge of leading the sale of the properties, which have been in high demand in a booming real estate market such as Valencia’s.

The buildings, located close to the Vara de Quart Industrial Estate and the Gran Turia shopping centre, span 3,100 m2 each and comprise homes. In addition to that surface area, the transaction includes another 900 m2 in parking spaces. Nevertheless, the ground floor commercial premises in the two properties do not form part of the operation.

With 58 lofts, including twelve penthouses, the two residential blocks, are two of the brand new buildings that remain in Valencia. Although the exact price has not been revealed, the sale could be closed for around €4 million.

Strongterra plans to generate a return from this investment by placing the homes on the medium- and long-term rental market, to which end it is already holding negotiations with several hotel and apartment operators to obtain annual returns of between 8% and 10%, according to estimates from the company itself.

The company’s investment in Ciudad Gran Turia is its third in Valencia. Led by Jonatan Fatelevich and Maximiliano Gavilán, shareholders of Cirkuit Planet, Strongterra plans to group together all of the real estate properties owned by the two businessmen into the company and then convert it into a Socimi over the medium term.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus Fights Off Blackstone to Acquire €9.1bn in Toxic Assets from Sabadell

19 July 2018 – El Confidencial

Banco Sabadell has chosen who is going to take over its toxic assets. In the end, after an express process that has seen the bank receive several binding offers, Cerberus has fought off competition from the other interested parties, including Blackstone, Lone Star and Oaktree. According to a relevant fact filed by the entity with Spain’s National Securities and Market Commission (CNMV), “the real estate assets involved in the operation have a combined gross book value of approximately €9.1 billion and a net book value of approximately €3.9 billion”.

They correspond to two of the four foreclosed property portfolios that Sabadell had put up for sale, “Challenger” and “Coliseum”, which will be transferred to one or more newly constituted companies in which Cerberus will own a direct or indirect stake with 80% of the capital and Banco Sabadell will retain the remaining 20% share.

As for Solvia Servicios Inmobiliarios, it will continue to be wholly owned by the Catalan entity and will also continue to provide integral management services for the real estate assets of both portfolios included in the operation “on an exclusive basis”, according to the statement.

Once the operation, which is subject to the corresponding authorisations, has been closed, control over the real estate assets will be transferred and, therefore, those assets will be deconsolidated from the bank’s balance sheet. In this way, according to explanations from Sabadell, the sale “contributes positively to improving the group’s profitability, although it will require the recognition of additional provisions with a net impact of approximately €92 million”, which will improve the Catalan entity’s Tier 1 capital ratio by around 13 basis points.

The operation forms part of a restructuring plan designed by the entity at the end of 2017, through which it is seeking to remove €12 billion in toxic assets from its balance sheet. Sabadell closed last year with gross foreclosed assets amounting to €8.023 billion and non-performing loans amounting to €5.695 billion, according to real estate exposure data filed with the CNMV.

The other two portfolios that the entity wanted to divest are known as Project Galerna, containing €900 million in non-performing loans, which was acquired by the Norwegian firm Axactor, and Project Makalu, with €2.5 billion from the former CAM. With their sale, the entity will complete its real estate clean-up, just like Santander and BBVA have already done.

Original story: El Confidencial (by María Igartua)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Solvia Leases CAM’s Former HQ in Valencia to an Architecture Firm

5 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Solvia has found a tenant for CAM’s former headquarters. The real estate arm of Banco Sabadell has just completed the rental of this asset, located at number 22 Calle Pascual and Genís in Valencia, to the architecture firm Join Contract. The new tenant of the property is going to remodel it to convert it into a luxury hotel, according to Valencia Plaza.

The duration of the rental contract may extend to thirty years. CAM’s former headquarters has been empty for the last four and a half years, after Solvia, which used to occupy the property, decided to move to the Ciudad Gran Turia at the end of 2013.

The building, constructed in 1916 by the architect Francisco Javier Goerlich Lleó for the Niederleitner family, spans more than 4,500 m2 spread over nine floors: two underground parking floors, one ground floor, a mezzanine level, four regular floors and the attic.

Join Contract, administrated by Óscar Nácher, is still deciding what to do with the premises on the ground floor. The new tenant is debating between opening a restaurant there or leasing it for commercial use, given that the site is very close to busy Calle Colón.

Administrated by Valencian businessmen from the hotel sector and with 25% of its share capital owned by foreigners, Join Contract already signed a similar operation last year to convert the former headquarters of the Regional Ministry of Industry on Calle Colón in Valencia into a luxury hotel.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Project Galerna: Sabadell Sells €900M in NPLs to Axactor

29 June 2018 – Voz Pópuli

Sabadell has already completed the first phase of its investment plan. The bank chaired by Josep Oliú has agreed to sell a portfolio of non-performing loans amounting to €900 million to the Norwegian fund Axactor, according to sources at the funds involved in the process consulted by Vozpópuli.

The portfolio known as Project Galerna comprises mainly mortgage tails proceeding from CAM, which form part of the entity’s Asset Protection Scheme (EPA), and so the completion of the operation is conditional upon approval from the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD).

Loans that remain after the foreclosure of real estate credits are known as the mortgage tails. According to the sources consulted, the purchase of these types of assets – which tend to be fully provisioned (100%) by the entities, and so typically generate gains – tend to have discounts of between 95% and 97%, and so the offer from the Norwegian fund to acquire this portfolio could amount to between €25 million and €47 million.

In the bid to be awarded this unsecured portfolio, Axactor has fought off competition from other interested parties such as Lindorff and Kurk. The Norwegian fund arrived in Spain in 2015 and, at the end of 2017, purchased a portfolio of non-performing loans amounting to €436 million from Bankinter.

Sabadell’s macro-sale

The award of Project Galerna to Axactor, a process that KPMG is advising, represents the first step in Sabadell’s divestment plan, through which it is seeking to get rid of around €10.9 billion in non-performing assets before the summer.

As this newspaper already revealed, in addition to Galerna, the bank also has projects Challenger and Coliseum up for sale, operations that Alantra is advising, and which together contain €7.5 billion in foreclosed assets. Similarly, Project Makalu, which KPMG is advising, contains €2.5 billion in loans to property developers and SMEs.

Challenger is the only one of the four portfolios that is not subject to approval from the FGD. The other three are linked to CAM’s EPA and so their block sale would generate million-euro losses for the FGD, which will end up increasing its deficit.

Negotiations with the FGD

To avoid that, Sabadell – as well as BBVA – is negotiating with the FGD to transfer the portfolios to new companies created by the entity and the funds that they are awarded to. In this way, the losses would not be assumed until the new companies sell the assets in the market.

In order to offset these losses, Sabadell, as well as BBVA with respect to Unnim’s EPA, has offered the Deposit Guarantee Fund the option of assuming more than 20% of the losses of the EPAs.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Pepe Bravo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Funds Bidding for Sabadell’s RE Have Until 27 June to Submit Their Offers

24 June 2018 – La Vanguardia

The deadline for the finalist funds to submit their bids to be awarded Banco Sabadell’s four portfolios comprising problem assets, whose combined value amounts to almost €11 billion, will close definitively on Wednesday, 27 June, the date on which the entity will have to choose the winners, according to sources close to funds consulted by Europa Press.

The entity chaired by Josep Oliu is looking to divest its Challenger and Coliseum portfolios, which amount to around €7.5 billion and comprise foreclosed assets (REO) and Makalu and Galerna, worth €2.5 billion and €900 million, respectively, comprising non-performing loans (NPLs).

Nevertheless, according to explanations provided by market sources, Sabadell is only going to be able to deconsolidate the largest portfolio from its balance sheet this year, the so-called Challenger portfolio (worth around €5 billion). The others will have to wait as they need to receive the green light from the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD) since the properties that constitute them proceed from the former CAM – Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo – a process that could take months (…).

The main international funds specialising in distressed debt and assets in risk of default are bidding for these portfolios. They are proposing significant discounts to their nominal values and their recoveries depends on the guarantee or collateral.

The strong investor appetite for Sabadell’s toxic property comes in a context in which political uncertainty is continuing to rage on the Old Continent. Cerberus, Blackstone, Lone Star and Oaktree are some of the finalist funds to be awarded the first two portfolios, whilst Deutsche Bank, Bain Capital, Oaktree and CPPIB are going to compete for the assets in the other two, according to sources at the funds and banks, speaking to ‘El Confidencial’ and ‘Vozpópuli’.

Significant reduction in real estate exposure

With the deconsolidation of its largest portfolio alone, Sabadell’s real estate exposure would fall below the €10 billion threshold, whilst the sale of all four portfolios would reduce its balance to around €4 billion, according to the accounts published by the bank for the first quarter of 2018. Thus, once the transactions have been completed, Sabadell’s accounts will have a much healthier balance sheet.

As at 31 March 2018, the entity had €14.9 billion in problem assets, which represented a decrease of 17.6% compared to the end of the same period a year earlier, when the figure amounted to €18.1 billion. The coverage ratio of the problem assets amounted to 55.2%, after applying IFRS 9, with a doubtful coverage ratio of 56.6% and a foreclosed asset coverage ratio of 53.7%. Similarly, the ratio of net problem assets over total assets stood at 3.1% (…).

A source of liquidity for the banks

In this way, Banco Sabadell is following in the footsteps of other entities such as Santander, BBVA and CaixaBank in the reduction of its heavy backpack of toxic assets, which the financial crisis left on their balance sheets (…).

Original story: La Vanguardia 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pressure from the ECB Forces Spain’s Banks to Market €40bn in Problem Real Estate

19 June 2018 – El Mundo

The extension of zero interest rates until “at least” next summer, as announced by the European Central Bank, has led Spain’s financial institutions to conclude that they can wait no longer for an improvement in economic conditions to divest their delinquent loans. At the moment, the main Spanish banks have problem assets worth more than €40 billion up for sale in the wholesale market.

The buyers in this market are large investment funds, which value the assets at prices below their nominal values. For the banks, this difference means, on the one hand, that they definitively loose 100% of the investment that they made and, on the other hand, that they can release the provisions for at least half of those losses. The ECB does not want the entities to speculate with these assets on their balance sheets and for that reason, it is forcing their sale.

In this way, last week, Cajamar liquidated its Galeon Project comprising €308 million in debt and yesterday, it was BBVA who divested another portfolio, called Sintra, comprising €1 billion in property developer loans for finished homes in Andalucía, Madrid, Valencia and Cataluña.

The CEO of BBVA, Carlos Torres, said that with this operation, he considers the chapter of accumulated delinquent debt on its balance sheet as a result of the real estate bubble to be “closed”. Since December 2016, the entity has cut its gross exposure to the real estate sector by approximately €20 billion.

Another entity that has placed portfolios of loans and foreclosed properties on the market is Liberbank, with a €250 million portfolio of foreclosed properties, which it has eloquently baptised Bolt. Other entities that are close to signing agreements include Banco Santander, with €500 million in debt on the verge of being placed and another €400 million on the market, and Banco Sabadell, one of the most active entities in the sale of doubtful assets this year, which is finalising the sale of €900 million in defaulted loans.

The bank headquartered in Alicante has two other large portfolios up for sale, although in that case they are foreclosed properties with a combined value of €8 billion, which proceed from both its own activity, as well as from the activity it took over following the purchase of Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo (CAM). If the group chaired by Josep Oliú closes the sale of all of these portfolios, it will have reduced its exposure amounting to more than €14 billion to less than €5 billion.

In the market for the large funds that purchase these assets, there are also offers from CaixaBank (€800 million in defaulted loans in a portfolio called Agora) and Bankia, which is selling €650 million in doubtful loans and preparing another one worth €1 billion.

The largest operation of all is by far the one involving Sareb, called Alfa, which involves placing on the market assets with a nominal value of €30 billion. The public-private company is sounding out the definitive price that the funds would be willing to pay before it decides whether to keep it up for sale.

Original story: El Mundo (by César Urrutia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone to List New Socimi with 4,000 Rental Homes Purchased from Sabadell

29 May 2018 – El Confidencial

One of the first funds to bet on the boom in rental housing in Spain, Blackstone, is on the verge of listing its fourth Socimi to specialise in this market, an area that is really blossoming.

The Socimi in question is Torbel Investments, a vehicle that primarily comprises the so-called Project Empire, a portfolio containing almost 4,000 homes, parking spaces, premises and storerooms that Banco Sabadell sold to the US fund two years ago.

At the time, the operation was worth around €600 million, although in net book value terms, Blackstone has recorded the assets at €113 million, according to Torbel’s most recent official accounts, corresponding to the year ending 2016.

Currently, the fund is on the home stretch of the procedures necessary with the CNMV – Spain’s National Securities and Markets Commission – to list the vehicle, whose natural destination is the MAB – Alternative Investment Market – given that Blackstone’s objective is, simply, to fulfil the demands of the Socimi regime to list the company so that it can benefit from the tax advantages.

That point means that this placement is completely different from the one being finalised by Testa, another giant in the rental housing sector in Spain, which is expected to make its debut on the main stock market in June, with €1.834 billion in assets.

Plethora of Socimis

Since it acquired these homes from Sabadell, Blackstone has managed all of the flats through its own servicer company, Anticipa, the firm that is behind the day to day operations of all of the large residential acquisitions carried out by the fund.

By geographical distribution, both in terms of property value and rental income, the main markets in which the Socimi has a presence are Madrid, Alicante, Murcia and Valencia, in other words, regions where the former entity CAM – Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo – had its greatest presence before it was acquired by Sabadell and whose foreclosed assets comprise this portfolio.

Blackstone is competing head to head with Testa to be the largest landlord in Spain, but it is adopting a very different strategy given that whilst the firm in which Santander, BBVA, Acciona and Merlin all hold stakes is opting to concentrate the greatest number of homes possible in a single company, the US fund is playing its hand by backing several smaller vehicles.

For the time being, Blackstone has already listed Fidere, which owns more than 5,700 homes, many of which have some kind of public protection;  it also has Albirana Properties, owner of another 5,000 rental assets; and Corona Patrimonial. But, in addition, the fund has been creating other Socimis such as Tourmalet and Pegarena.

All of these companies are expected to continue expanding their portfolios with assets from Project Quasar, the portfolio that Blackstone acquired from Santander, and which contains a sizeable portfolio of homes from the former Banco Popular.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Set to Sell €10bn of Toxic RE in June After Receiving Deluge of Binding Offers

25 May 2018 – El Confidencial

Banco Sabadell has entered the home stretch of its mission to sell all of its toxic property, a rapid process that is expected to be completed in June. The entity has received a deluge of binding offers for the four portfolios that it currently has up for sale – Coliseum, Challenger, Makalu and Galerna – which have a combined gross value of more than €10 billion.

The first two portfolios contain foreclosed assets (REOs) and include Cerberus, Blackstone, Lone Star and Oaktree as potential buyers (in the final round); meanwhile, the other two portfolios comprise secured loans with real estate collateral (NPLs) and their potential buyers include Deutsche Bank, Lone Star, Bain Capital and Oaktree, according to confirmation from several market sources.

These proposals are now with the Steering Committee, which means that, once that body has given its verdict, the process will be passed to the Board of Directors, chaired by Josep Oliu (pictured above, right), which is the body that has to ratify the name of the winner.

In theory, this ruling is going to be issued within a matter of weeks, in June and, in any case, before August. Sources at the entity have declined to comment on either the finalists or the calendar.

Portfolios and the FGD

Having chosen the names of the winners, Sabadell will be able to close the sale of Challenger, the largest of all of these portfolios, with a gross volume of almost €5 billion; it is the only one that does not need approval from the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD), given that all of the assets contained therein come from the Catalan entity itself.

By contrast, the €2.5 billion in properties that comprise Coliseum come from the former entity CAM – Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo – and, therefore, need to be approved by the FGD, since it would have to cover 80% of the losses. The same applies to Makalu (€2.5 billion in loans) and Galerna (€900 million).

The need to receive this approval means that it is likely that the entity will have to wait until next year to deconsolidate all of these toxic assets, although it will be able to sign a sales agreement conditional upon that authorisation, like BBVA did in the case of the sale agreed with Cerberus last year to transfer all of its property, some of which is also subject to the FGD’s approval.

By contrast, this year, Sabadell could remove almost €5 billion in the form of Challenger from its perimeter, a step forward in terms of fulfilling the requirements of the European Central Bank (ECB), which is putting pressure on Spanish entities to remove the impact of a decade of real estate crisis from their balances sheets.

Solvia is being left out of the sale

At the end of the first quarter, the entity held €14.9 billion in problem assets, down by 17.6% compared to a year earlier, with an average coverage ratio of 55.2% (56.6% for doubtful debt and 53.7% for foreclosed assets), a percentage that serves as a reference for the funds when calculating their offer prices.

With the sale of all of these portfolios, the entity would reduce its real estate exposure to less than €5 billion.  Since the beginning of the crisis, that exposure has been managed by Sabadell’s own servicer: Solvia.

Some of the finalist funds had asked the entity to include Solvia in the transaction, according to Voz Pópuli, but in the end, that possibility has been ruled out by the bank, as it considers that the valuation of its asset manager is higher than the price that would be offered by funds.

In addition, as El Confidencial revealed, the servicer has created its own property developer, Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios, which has €1,252 million in managed assets and which is also finalising an agreement with Oaktree to create a joint venture promoter.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Engages Alantra to Sell 2 Portfolios Containing €8bn in Foreclosed Assets

11 April 2018 – El Confidencial

Banco Sabadell is in the running to try to complete its real estate clean-up this year, and to this end, has engaged Alantra to sound out the market to sell two portfolios known as Project Coliseum and Project Challenger, comprising €8 billion in foreclosed assets, which the entity has already started to show to potentially interested parties (…)

This move forms part of the plan designed by the financial institution at the end of last year to remove almost €12 billion in toxic assets from its balance sheet through the sale of a number of portfolios. The first two are already on the market and amount to €3.4 billion, but the main courses are about to be served.

In order to speed up the process, the entity chaired by Josep Oliu has opted to create a portfolio containing mainly Sabadell risk and another, subject to examination by the Deposit Guarantee Fund (FGD), containing properties proceeding from the former CAM, which are protected by the Asset Protection Scheme (EPA).

The first, according to financial sources, is going to comprise a gross volume of more than €5 billion, whilst the second will amount to around half that figure, at just over €2.5 billion, and it will need the approval of the FGD, given that it will have to cover 80% of the losses.

Sabadell closed last year with €8.0 billion in foreclosed assets and €5.7 billion in non-performing loans, according to the real estate exposure data submitted to the CNMV – Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission – and its average coverage ratio currently amounts to 55%.

The large buyers that Alantra is currently sounding out include the major funds that typically participate in these types of operations, such as Apollo, Lone Star, Blackstone and Cerberus, according to the same sources.

This potential divestment joins the two portfolios that Sabadell already has on the market: Project Galerna, which comprises €900 million in non-performing loans; and Project Makalu, comprising €2.5 billion in assets from the former CAM, according to Voz Pópuli. In both cases, KPMG is advising the sales process.

Moreover, as El Confidencial revealed, Solvia, the servicer arm of Sabadell, has decided to join the housing boom and create its own property developer, Solvia Desarrollos Inmobilarios, containing €600 million in land and unfinished developments.

The entity wants to grow this new property developer by signing agreements with different companies, funds and family offices interested in delegating the management and development of its land and developments.

If it manages to bring all of these plans to fruition, Sabadell will follow in the footsteps of Santander and BBVA, which last year completed their real estate clean-ups with the sale to Blackstone and Cerberus, respectively, of the bulk of their toxic properties. That would leave CaixaBank as the last major bank that still needs to make a significant move to comply with the guidelines set by Europe: to remove a decade of crisis from its balance sheet.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake