Tag: Catalunya Caixa

Blackstone has Created a RE Giant in Spain Worth €20bn

4 September 2018 – Expansión

In just five years, the US fund has become the largest owner of hotels and one of the biggest landlords in the country. Moreover, it manages several major mortgage portfolios.

Blackstone made its first foray into the Spanish real estate market in July 2013, with the purchase from the Municipal Housing and Land Company of Madrid (EMVS) of 18 residential developments, containing 1,860 homes in total, in the Madrilenian neighbourhoods of Carabanchel, Centro, Villa de Vallecas and Villaverde for almost €126 million.

Since then, the US fund, one of the largest investment firms in the world, has turned the Spanish real estate sector into one of its favourite destinations for investment, encouraged by the boom that the market in Spain has experienced over the last five years.

Blackstone’s dominance in the Spanish market is now unquestionable. Since 2012, the US fund has acquired property in the country worth almost €20 billion and it is now the owner of several listed vehicles, as well as of some of the main asset managers in the country.

With that figure, which accounts for 20% of the €100 billion that Blackstone Real Estate has invested around the world, the firm is the country’s largest private manager of real estate assets, including properties and portfolios of mortgages.

In Spain, the fund was one of the first to back the residential segment when the real estate market was still struggling and it has been one of the most active players in the purchase of asset portfolios containing NPLs and REOs from financial institutions.

The fund’s purchase of homes in Madrid from EMVS in 2013 was soon followed by the acquisition of another 1,000 social housing properties from Sareb and FCC. Those homes are owned by Fidere, the fund’s first Socimi, which made its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) in 2015.

In the same year, Blackstone completed its first major operation with the purchase from Catalunya Caixa of a portfolio comprising 40,000 loans in total, worth €6.4 billion. Blackstone paid €3.5 billion for that portfolio, known as Hercules.

A year later, the US fund purchased the Catalan entity’s real estate manager (without any assets), which was later renamed Anticipa.

Nowadays, that company manages the more than 12,000 rental homes which Blackstone has been purchasing from the banks in different portfolios and which it controls through the Socimi Albirana, which made its stock market debut in 2016, and Torbel Investments.

Popular’s property

Two years after purchasing the Hercules portfolio, Blackstone hit the headlines again with the purchase from Santander of 51% of Banco Popular’s real estate business, with a book value of around €10.3 billion. With that acquisition, Blackstone increased its commitment to Spain and become the most active overseas investment fund in the country. To group together those assets, months later, Blackstone and Santander created Project Quasar Investment, a company that also includes the marketing platform Aliseda (…).

In addition, (…) the US fund has launched itself into the hotel segment, to take advantage of the good times being enjoyed in the tourist sector at the moment. Blackstone’s first incursion into that market in Spain was the acquisition of HI Partners from Sabadell last summer for €630 million. Through that platform, Blackstone owns 17 hotels in Spain comprising more than 4,500 rooms.

Takeover of Hispania

A few months after that acquisition, the US investment firm made a bid for Hispania, the Spanish Socimi specialising in hotels managed by Azora, which owns 46 assets and almost 13,150 rooms in Spain (…). Following that operation, which valued the Socimi at €1.99 billion, the US fund controls almost 91% of Hispania.

As well as hotels, Hispania owns 25 office buildings, with a market value of more than €600 million and residential assets worth €230 million, which now also form part of the fund’s assets (…).

Blackstone is also a star player in the logistics sector. The fund currently controls 10% of the Pan-European platform Logicor, which manages approximately 1.2 million m2 of logistics space in Spain (…).

Also, in July, it purchased five logistics warehouses from the Socimi Lar (…) for almost €120 million.

The fund’s most recent purchase was the headquarters of Planeta, located on Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona, which it acquired from the Lara family for €210 million (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Acquires Planeta’s HQ from the Lara Family for €210M

12 July 2018 – Expansión

Inversiones Hemisferio, a company owned by different branches of the Lara family, has reached an agreement with the US fund Blackstone to sell the headquarters of the editorial and media group Planeta before Banco Sabadell can repossess the building in exchange for the debt taken out at the time by the family holding company.

According to sources close to the operation, Blackstone is going to pay €210 million for the property located on Avenida Diagonal in Barcelona, where Planeta will continue as the tenant. The rental income will generate a yield of less than 4% for the investor.

In May, the Lara family, owner of Planeta, agreed to transfer the building, worth €170 million, to Banco Sabadell, but was given until September to try to find another buyer on its own and attempt to agree a higher price.

The complex has a total surface area of 27,000 m2, of which 25,000 m2 correspond to office space, leased to Planeta and other tenants, therefore Blackstone will be paying €8,000/m2. The same sources assure that that buyer and seller have already reached an agreement on the price and conditions and that the operation is just pending the signatures.

In 2001, the Lara family purchased the building – the former headquarters of Banca Catalana – for around €100 million. In 2006, Inversiones Hemisferio, together with other real estate companies, such as the firm owned by Mango’s boss, Isak Andic, Joaquín Folch Rosiñol (Industrias Titán) and Héctor Colonques (Porcelanosa), purchased 12% of Banco Sabadell for €1.295 billion. The Lara family controlled 3% of the bank, but during the crisis, Sabadell’s share price plummeted and Hemisferio was obliged to offer up the building on Avenida Diagonal by way of guarantee.

Hemisferio’s debt with the bank matures in September. Sabadell and the Lara family agreed to transfer the asset two months ago if Hemisferio did not manage to sell the building sooner on its own for a higher price. This situation forced the real estate company owned by the family behind Planeta to organise the sale of the building in record time and to find a buyer with sufficient financial standing to fork out the more than €200 million that it was asking for with the utmost speed. The process was entrusted to the consultancy firm CBRE.

With this operation, Blackstone is further strengthening its commitment to Spain, where it has invested in the real estate sector through the purchase of Anticipa, the former real estate division of Catalunya Caixa, and of HI Partners, created from the hotel assets of Banco Sabadell.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Prepares Sale of €1.5bn Property Developer Loan Portfolio

30 November 2017 – Expansión

The property sector / The second largest Spanish bank detects a large appetite from opportunistic funds for the real estate risk it has left over: €4.8 billion, after deconsolidating €13 billion of foreclosed assets.

BBVA is making steady progress to clean up its balance sheet. The entity is preparing the sale of a portfolio of property developer loans with a gross value of between €1.5 billion and €1.6 billion (31% of the total) after deconsolidating the risk associated with its foreclosed assets.

The group’s gross real estate exposure has been reduced to €4.8 billion in the form of property developer loans following the agreement with Cerberus to transfer €13 billion in foreclosed assets to a newly created company. BBVA’s plan is to sell one-third of its property developer loan portfolio to an opportunistic fund.

“It is going to be a very competitive portfolio”, said Javier Rodríguez Soler, Head of Strategy and M&A at BBVA, speaking to Expansión. In parallel to the operation with Cerberus, the bank has identified a large appetite from the big funds, such as Lone Star, Blackstone and Apollo, for loans linked to the property sector. The portfolio comprises finishing buildings, properties under construction and land.

Transfers to its subsidiary

The intention of BBVA is to reduce its risk estate risk to almost zero. The Head of Strategy said that the bank is looking to transfer another €1.5 billion of performing property developer loans to its Spanish subsidiary.

Many banks separated out their real estate businesses to curb the impact of the fallout from the burst of the bubble on their annual accounts. BBVA’s property unit lost €281 million during the 9 months to September this year, down by 10.9% compared to a year ago. Sources at the entity expect the real estate business to stop generating losses in 2018.

Yesterday, BBVA took a giant step to clean up its real estate-related risk. The bank has created a company together with Cerberus to transfer 78,000 properties with a gross value of €13 billion. 47% of the foreclosed assets are located in Cataluña, the historical heartland of Catalunya Caixa (CX) and Unnim, which were both absorbed by BBVA during the crisis. Some of those properties are social housing units, whilst some of those proceeding from Unnim are covered by an Asset Protection Scheme (EPA).

The US fund will own 80% of the new vehicle after paying BBVA €4 billion; the banking entity will own the remaining 20%. Haya Real Estate, Cerberus’s platform in Spain, will manage the portfolio of properties that the bank holds onto. The agreement also involves the transfer of 400 employees from Anida, the real estate arm of BBVA, to the joint company with Cerberus.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Sampedro and R. Lander)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Finalises Sale Of Torre Puig To Grupo Puig

22 May 2017 – BBVA

BBVA has finalised the sale of Torre Puig to Grupo Puig, one of the largest real estate operations in Barcelona. The sales prices is reportedly in line with pre-crisis levels.

The property is a tower located in Hospitalet de Llobregat, one of the largest real estate expansion areas. The building has 21 floors and covers a surface area of 14,300 m2. The Grupo Puig has occupied the property to date.

The building was constructed by the former Catalunya Caixa (CX) for the perfume group Puig. The building was designed by architect Rafael Monea and GCA Arquitectos. The headquarters was completed three years ago, coinciding with BBVA’s purchase of CX.

BBVA’s real estate strategy

The sale of these types of portfolios is one of the channels established by the bank to reduce its real estate exposure, a strategic objective for BBVA’s Strategy and M&A area. In line with this strategy, in March, BBVA completed its second sale of a wholesale portfolio in 2017 (Project Boston), following the divestment of 3,400 properties (Project Buffalo) in February.

Original story: BBVA

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb Finalises Sale Of Parque Corredor To Redevco & Ares

6 April 2017 – El Confidencial

One of the most entangled real estate operations in recent times is about to see the light. Namely, the sale of the Parque Corredor shopping centre, a giant in the retail sector, with a surface area of 123,000 m2 and 180 stores, located in the Madrilenian town of Torrejón de Ardoz, which Sareb has been trying to sell for four years.

It is the commercial jewel in the crown of the entity chaired by Jaime Echegoyen. The bad bank is the main shareholder, with 40% of the share capital, which it inherited from Catalunya Caixa. But, until now, that stake had been insufficient to convince any buyer, given that it does not guarantee control over the centre. Nevertheless, Sareb has teamed up with Perella to sell their shares to Redevco and Area Group en bloc, a move that will allow the new owners to acquire almost 60% of the share capital. All of the parties have declined to make comments.

The operation has been on the cards for months and although it has not been completed yet, according to the sources consulted by El Confidencial, conversations are in an advanced stage and are likely to come to fruition. El Corte Inglés may play an important role in the outcome given that together with Alcampo, it owns another 25% of the centre’s share capital, and their stake could also end up forming part of the transaction.

Sareb is being advised in the operation by Knight Frank, Perella is being advised by Cushman & Wakefield, whilst Redevco and Ares are working with Deloitte.

Depending on the total percentage that ends up being acquired, the final amount of the operation could reach €120 million, whereby valuing the entire centre at around €200 million, an amount that would allow Parque Corredor to join the growing number of shopping centres whose sales have exceeded €100 million, such as Xanadú (€530 million), Diagonal Mar (€495 million), Puerto Venecia (€451 million), Plenilunio (€375 million), Gran Vía Vigo (€145 million), Nassica (€140 million) and L’Aljub and Alcalá Magna (both €100 million).

Shopping centre alliance

Redevco and Area Management decided to join forces a year and a half ago, when they created a joint venture, Redevco Iberian Ventures, endowed with €500 million of capital and with the aim of acquiring shopping centres in Spain and Portugal. The new company was constituted with six assets, contributed by the two shareholders, and the objective of closing several acquisitions. The first was completed last spring, when it purchased six shopping centres in Extremadura and Andalucia, with a combined surface area of 84,250 m2, from Bogaris for €95 million. (…).

With Parque Corredor, the joint venture is acquiring a great asset near to the Spanish capital, but it needs significant renovation work, and the associated investment is estimated to amount to around €15 million, according to real estate sources. (…).

The shopping centre receives 10 million visitors per year and its tenants include Primark, H&M, Kiabi, Alcampo, Toys “R” Us and Cinesa cinemas. (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by R. Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Anticipa Wants To Become Spain’s Largest Rental Home Manager

3 April 2017 – El Economista

Anticipa, the real estate subsidiary of the US fund Blackstone, wants to become one of the largest rental home managers in Spain. To achieve its objective, the company plans to consolidate its assets in different Socimis, which will be listed on the MAB, according to comments made to elEconomista by sources close to the fund.

Anticipa is the former real estate platform of Catalunya Caixa, which was acquired by Blackstone in 2014. That same year, the fund signed the purchase of its first major mortgage portfolio from the same entity. Known at the time as Project Hércules, the operation involved the transfer of 40,000 problem loans, for which Blackstone paid €3,615 million.

Since the acquisition was closed definitively, in April 2015, Anticipa has been in charge of managing these assets along with those from another six portfolios, which have a combined value of €7,000 million.

According to the same sources, Blackstone’s objective is to continue acquiring portfolios to reach 17,000 rental homes by the end of this year, which would make its subsidiary one of the largest residential managers in the country.

Anticipa already has 12,000 homes up for rent or in the process of being put up for rent in the short term and has placed a package of 5,000 units on the market through the Socimi Albirana, which debuted on the stock market last week. Those assets, located mainly Barcelona and Madrid, were inherited from Project Hércules.

In order to continue implementing its strategy, the fund is already working on the launch of a new Socimi, given that it considers that to be the most efficient way of structuring its portfolio. Socimis have a special tax regime in Spain and pay Corporation Tax at zero percent. In addition to Albirana, Blackstone registered two other Socimis last year, under the names Pegarena and Tourmalet.

Led by Eduardo Mendiluce Fradera, Anticipa has been in charge of managing the enormous portfolio of loans to individual borrowers, on a case by case basis, which it inherited from Catalunya Caixa.

To handle this task, the firm, which already had extensive experience in the real estate sector, expanded its workforce to incorporate more financial profiles, growing the team to include 330 professionals.

The 40,000 mortgages that Blackstone purchased in 2014 include loans with varying degrees of delinquency, from up to date to NPLs. Of the total, 3% have involved social housing cases, but none have ended in eviction.

Since Anticipa began managing this portfolio two years ago, it has managed to reach 10,000 agreements, of which the majority are “daciones en pago” and the remainder are debt restructurings.

Having freed up the asset, the firm’s objective is to allocate around 70-75% of its homes to rent, and to sell the rest – generally, it will sell those homes that are located in places where there is no demand for rental properties. (…).

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Anticipa Strengthens Its Commitment To The Rental Business

30 November 2016 – Economía Digital

Anticipa is continuing to grow its rental home business. At the end of 2015, the real estate manager bought a batch of empty homes from Banc Sabadell, specifically, 3,700 properties that it has been incorporating into its portfolio over the last few months. In addition it owns 5,500 homes from the real estate stock of the former Catalunya Caxia, the seed for the current firm Anticipa.

“We are clearly in a buying position” said Eduard Mendiluce, CEO of the company, in comments to La Vanguardia. The group has already formalised its offer to buy the Eloise portfolio that Sareb or the bad bank has put up for sale. This package of unpaid loans to property developer includes 150 buildings, containing around 4,000 homes”.

“We are already one of the largest rental home real estate companies in Spain, and we have an orderly portfolio, with market profitability and the capacity to continue growing, by incorporating more homes”, said Mendiluce.

Renegotiation of mortgages

According to explanations given by the director in a recent interview with Economía Digital, Anticipa is renegotiating 3,000 of the mortgages that it inherited from the Catalunya Caixa portfolio in their first year of life. 2,400 will result in “daciones en pago” (the cancelation of the debt in exchange for handing over the keys) and another 600 cases will see their terms and conditions renegotiated, in such a way that homeowners will be able to afford their debt repayments.

Original story: Economía Digital

Translation: Carmel Drake

Santander Considers Repurchasing 85% Of Altamira From Apollo

27 July 2016 – Expansión

The financial institution is considering taking back control of its real estate platform to improve its margins and create a large global firm to provide services in other countries.

The sale of Altamira could turn full circle. Santander and the US fund Apollo have held meetings in recent weeks to discuss the possibility of the Spanish bank repurchasing 85% of the real estate platform, according to financial sources consulted by Expansión.

These negotiations come just two and a half years after the financial institution decided to get rid of its controlling stake in the real estate platform. Then, Apollo fought off other funds in a competitive process in which it paid €664 million for 85% of the company, generating a gross profit of €550 million for the bank.

According to financial sources consulted, Santander’s new approach has arisen for three main reasons: the aim of creating a new area for the management of doubtful assets at the global level, ahead of the forecast increase in default rates in countries such as Brazil; to improve its margins, given that the current agreement forces the bank to pay commission to Altamira; and to take advantage of the financial improvement that Altamira is enjoying.

For the time being, the plans are in a very preliminary phase and both Santander and Apollo have explored other options for Altamira. One of the options would involve a movement in the opposite direction from the 85% repurchase: namely, to extend Apolllo’s agreement to other countries.

New management

Since Apollo took control of Altamira, changes have been introduced in the management of the platform with the aim of maximising sales. One of the new administrators’ great successes came when the company was awarded one of the four management contracts that Sareb put up for tender at the end of 2013.

Specifically, Altamira Asset Management took over the second largest contract on offer, comprising 44,000 properties and loans to doubtful property developers that had been originated by Catalunya Ciaxa, BMN and Caja 3, worth €14,000 million initially. To win this tender, the platform controlled by Apollo paid out €174 million as a deposit for this contract, which it will recover as it achieves its objectives.

In addition to these assets, Altamira administers foreclosed properties and loans linked to properties from Santander and from its main shareholder Apollo. Nevertheless, the Spanish bank will reduce the perimeter of the assets that it holds on its balance sheet as a result of the merger between Metrovacesa and Merlin Properties.

According to its accounts for 2015, Altamira Asset Management Holdings, the company in which Altamira holds a 85% stake, recorded profits of €25.2 million last year, down by 11% compared to the previous year. Part of that decrease was due to the costs of migrating Sareb’s portfolio of assets. Its turnover amounted to €267 million and the operating profit stood at €81 million. The company forecasts that its profits will increase this year thanks to the sales it will generate from Sareb: “In 2016, we will manage Sareb’s portfolio for the whole year, which is expected to increase the group’s turnover”, according to last year’s annual accounts.

Original story: Expansión (J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Altamira Completes Migration Of 28,000 Properties From Sareb

18 August 2015 – Expansión

Altamira has successfully completed the migration of 28,000 properties, which were originally transferred to the bad bank from Catalunya Caixa, Caja 3 and BMN.

In a statement, the company said that this operation has been carried out in three phases and has now been completed successfully, in accordance with the timetable agreed with Sareb.

The new properties incorporated into the platform carry ‘Sareb’s Seal of Assurance’ and expand Altamira’s offering, especially along the Mediterranean Coast.

The company has started to market the properties through its website. 30% of the homes are located in the province of Barcelona and the city of Barcelona itself accounts for 4% of all the residential properties for sale. With this operation, cities such as Zaragoza, Valencia, Sevilla, Málaga, Alicante, Murcia and Madrid “significantly” increase their respective supplies.

Following this migration, Altamira will have assets under management amounting to €55,000 million, making it “one of the leading companies in the sector in terms of size, with clear strengths in terms of its independence and its multi-client platform”, according to the company.

This operation strengthens Altamira’s strategy, which is based on diversification and growth. Until the end of 2014, the bulk of the company’s assets under management had originally come from Banco Santander, although it was also managing products from three other clients in the SME and financial asset segments, in which Altamira specialises.

In order to provide a better service, Altamira has developed a new technologically-operational multi-client platform, focused on the integrated real estate market and built around the company’s website, which has the capacity to manage a variety of assets, ranging from land, to new developments and second-hand properties.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone To Offer Debt Forgiveness On Spanish Mortgages

1 July 2015 – Bloomberg

Blackstone Group LP is seeking to restructure some of the €6.4 billion Spanish home loans it bought at a discount to help borrowers meet repayments, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

The world’s largest private equity firm is offering to cut outstanding debt or allow homeowners to hand back the keys and walk away from loans, said two of the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Blackstone holds the mortgages of 40,000 homeowners in Spain after buying the debt for €3.6 billion from struggling savings bank CatalunyaCaixa.

Blackstone can avoid the time and expense of repossessing homes by helping borrowers find ways to continue paying their mortgages, something that is more difficult for Spanish banks because of provisioning requirements and central bank regulations. Avoiding evictions may also mute political claims that private investors are coming to Spain to take people’s homes away.

“If you are struggling to pay your mortgage, you are undoubtedly better off having Blackstone as your creditor than a traditional Spanish bank,” said Juan Villen, Head of Mortgage Services at property website Idealista.com. “Blackstone can be much more flexible.”

Andrew Dowler, a London-based spokesman for Blackstone, declined to comment when called by Bloomberg News.

Loan Portfolio

The subject of Spaniards losing their homes is a hot-button political issue, with power in the Madrid and Barcelona town halls swinging to parties that pledged to ban evictions during municipal elections in May. The Platform Against Evictions activist group organized demonstrations outside Blackstone’s offices in New York, London, Madrid and Barcelona in March, and posted a video on its website accusing the firm of intending to evict “en masse.”

Anticipa, Blackstone’s mortgage servicing unit, took over the management of the loan portfolio two months ago, with about 75 percent of the debt classified as under-performing or non-performing, according to the people. It will take about seven years to restructure the debt, they said.

Spanish home prices have fallen by more than 42% since the peak in 2007, according to Tinsa, Spain’s largest homes appraiser. That has left about a fifth of borrowers in negative equity, according to Villen. Lenders in the country foreclosed on more than 70,000 properties in 2014, with Andalusia, Catalunya and Valencia hit the hardest, according to the National Statistics Institute, which began compiling data at that start of that year.

Post Keys

Blackstone’s plan to allow homeowners to post the keys and walk away from their debts, a legal process known as “dation in payment”, is seen as a significant step by analysts.

“Unlike in the U.S. and other European countries, Spanish law stipulates a bank can foreclose on a home and still pursue the borrower for the rest of his life if the value of the loan is higher than the price that the bank forecloses at,” Villen said. “The offer of “dation in payment” is a refreshing way of approaching borrowers that are in negative equity.”

The private equity company will only foreclose on “strategic defaulters” who can pay but refuse to, while homeowners at risk of social exclusion, which represent about 3% of Blackstone’s portfolio, will be allowed to remain in their property paying subsidized rents, the people said.

Original story: Bloomberg (by Sharon R. Smyth)

Edited by: Carmel Drake