Tag: Catalunya Caixa

Altamira Obtains More Than €500M Of Financing

16 June 2015 – Expansión

Altamira Asset Management has just signed an agreement with a syndicate of 12 domestic and international banks to renew its financial structure and obtain financing of more than €500 million.

This operation forms part of the company’s strategy for growth and diversification, as it aims to position itself as one of the major independent and multi-client operators in the sector for the management of financial and real estate assets.

In fact, Altamira has just begun the process to migrate assets with a total value of €29,000 million from Sareb into its portfolio.

The portfolio awarded to Altamira for seven years comprises 44,000 properties and loans (to property developers) originated by Catalunya Caixa, BMN and Caja 3, for which Sareb disbursed around €14,000 million. By taking on these assets, Altamira doubled the value of its portfolio of assets under management and became the industry leader with a portfolio of total assets that exceeds €55,000 million.

Compared with a year ago, the company has increased its volume of assets under management by 113% and has started to manage portfolios from six different clients. In summary, it has significantly grown and diversified its client portfolio.

Santander closed the sale of 85% of Altamira to the US fund Apollo in January 2014, for €664 million. The bank retained the remaining 15% stake in the asset manager.

The operation involved the transfer of 500 employees from Santander to the new Altamira platform, although the annual accounts for 2013 only reflected the movement of 272 people: 183 from Santander, 60 from Altamira Santander Real Estate, 7 from Reintegra and 22 from Elerco.

Apollo hired the former Director General of Citi, Julián Navarro to lead this project; he joined Altamira as the CEO. The presidency is reserved for Andrés Rubio, the partner assigned by the US firm to design the strategy in Spain. This banker has led transactions such as the purchase of Evo Banco and Altamira.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Rules Out Property Bubble From Mass Influx Of Funds

11 March 2015 – El Economista

Claudio Boada, senior advisor to the fund Blackstone, has said that a property bubble does not exist in Spain today. But he warned that “we must be careful” in the market and “not confuse apples with oranges”.

In a discussion held during one of the “Money in 2033” conferences, organised by PwC, Boada said that he is not concerned that the mass influx of American and Asian funds into Spain will generate a bubble, but he recommended that the market be cautious in this respect. Moreover, he indicated that the returns on these funds will be “lower” in the future than they are currently.

Boada recalled that in recent months Blackstone has closed a transaction with Sareb, whereby it acquired a portfolio of 39 ‘non-performing’ loans with a nominal value of €237 million. In addition, at the end of this month, it is hoping to close the purchase of a portfolio from Catalunya Caixa, an entity that is now owned by BBVA.

During the discussion, the Chairman of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research, Guillermo de la Dehesa, noted that in Spain, 70% of financing comes from banks and the remaining 30% comes from the market; the opposite occurs in the United States.

De la Dehesa recalled that with interest rates close to zero, funds have to look for returns for their stakeholders and said that, for the moment, they are specialising in buying ‘real estate’ and damaged assets, through which the stakeholders will make money in the end.

Finally, he said that in the United States, there is a large concentration of funds, which have accounted for 27% of the new loans offered; this, he says is something that concerns the cental banks.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

Irea: Real Estate Transactions Tripled In 2014

5 February 2015 – Cinco Días

A study conducted by Irea validates renewed interest in the sector

More than €23,000 million was invested in the real estate sector in Spain in 2014, of which 84% was dedicated to direct investment in assets and the acquisition of real estate-backed debt portfolios. The remaining 16% related to transactions involving shares in real estate companies and servicers.

At a press conference on Wednesday, the CEO of Irea, Mikel Echavarren, explained that the increase in activity in 2014 “has helped to unclog the pipes of the financial sector and bring the sector out of its coma”. It is interesting to note that most of the investors that have shown interest in the Spanish real estate sector, are foreign: on the one hand, the main players included large funds, such as Blackstone and Lone Star, and on the other hand, listed real estate investment companies (Socimis) also played an active role, in particular Merlin Properties, which have a significant percentage of foreign capital.

In the specific case of investment in assets, Irea said that shopping centres accounted for 26% of all of the capital invested in assets in 2014 (€2,501 million), followed by offices (24%) and hotels (11%), with these last two segments in full ascent. Residential assets accounted for barely 8% of total investment, including both land and finished homes. Furthermore, 85% of those transactions related to finished assets, with land representing only 4%.

With all of this, Echavarren highlighted the “merit” of this low percentage of land sold, since it is an asset that will have to be sold at a later date. In the current context, 4% seems like an achievement, since although many developers “want to purchase land, they do not have sufficient capital to do so and it is very difficult for them to obtain financing”.

Irea’s CEO repeated that international investors accounted for 53% of all investment activity in assets, followed by Socimis, which were responsible for 24%. Developers accounted for only 3%. On the vendor side, investors sold 24% of all assets, whilst financial institutions disposed of a further 22%.

The appeal of debt portfolios

Although residential assets were not sufficiently attractive for investors in 2014, that was not the case for debt portfolios linked to residential assets. Overall, the volume of debt portfolio transactions amounted to €9,683 million, of which 48% related to the residential segment. Nevertheless, the majority of this amount related to the portfolio sold by CatalunyaCaixa to Blackstone. In this segment, international investors acquired 100% of the debt portfolios sold, and 91% were purchased by investment funds. On the opposite side, 90.6% of the vendors in this case were financial institutions and 9.3% were other entities. In addition, shares in Metrovacesa and Colonial (both listed) amounting to €820 million (22%) changed hands during 2014, whilst the remaining €2,866 million of shares in real estate companies that changed hands were not listed.

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake