Tag: co-investment

Realia Sells ‘Los Cubos’ Office Building To Therus For €52M

23 October 2017 – Expansión

The real estate company Realia, owned by Inmobiliaria Carso and FCC, which are both controlled by the Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, has sold the office building known as Los Cubos, located in Madrid, for €52 million.

The buyer is the French real estate company Therus, which is co-investing with the British investment group Henderson Park, according to several sources.

The property, which owes its name to its unique architecture, has a leasable area of 18,324 m2 and 334 parking spaces.

The real estate company put this building, located in the vicinity of the M-30 ring road, up for sale at the end of last year, as reported by Expansión at the time. The building has been vacant since the end of 2015. Before its sale, the company considered renovating it on several occasions to improve its appeal in the market.

In the end, Realia has sold the building for €52 million, compared to the initial asking price of €57 million. The sale of Los Cubos is the latest in a long line of high profile real estate investment operations closed in Spain in recent months. The investment volume in the real estate sector during the 9 months to September amounted to €10,300 million.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Charme & Miura Finalise Purchase Of Valtecnic & Ibertasa

25 May 2017 – El Confidencial

A major new operation is brewing in the property appraisal sector in Spain. The private equity firms Charme Capital Partners and Miura Private Equity are about to close the purchase (to acquire a majority stake) of the appraisal companies Valtecnic and Ibertasa, according to sources close to the operation. Some finishing touches still need to be completed, such as obtaining approval from the Bank of Spain.

Charme and Miura are joining forces to acquire these two real estate services firms, which will continue to operate independently in the domestic market. In other words, the investment funds will co-invest in and take control of both companies, but will not merge them. In addition, the management teams of the two appraisal companies will continue at the helm as well as in their roles as minority shareholders.

Last year, Charme came very close to acquiring Tinsa, the largest company in the property appraisal sector in Spain, but that firm ended up being purchased by another private equity firm, Cinven, which paid Advent €300 million. Meanwhile, Miura invested in Group BC through its first fund until the end of 2015 – that company is dedicated to the outsourcing of services from financial institutions (mortgage advisory, recoveries…).

These operations represent the indirect entry of private equity firms into the real estate sector and their clear commitment to an upwards cycle. According to data from the Spanish Association of Value Analysis (AEV), the number of property appraisals grew by 13% during the first quarter of 2017, to 228,879 in total, worth €75,620 million, up by 3.1% with respect to the same period a year earlier. (…).

The number of appraisal companies has been cut in half

The appraisal sector was hit hard by the burst of the real estate bubble although, like in the property development sector, to the extent that the mortgage activity is resuming, so the volume of appraisals is also showing signs of recovery. Nevertheless, the crisis took a serious toll and led to the disappearance of lots of companies. Whilst in 2011, there were 58 appraisal companies, by the end of 2016, that figure had fallen to 37.

Nevertheless, in recent years, several companies, above all in the real estate consultancy sector, have broken into this market with their own appraisal businesses. Such was the case of CBRE Valuation Advisory, Aguirre Newman Valoraciones and UVE Valoraciones in 2011. More recently, another consultancy firm, JLL, obtained approval from the Bank of Spain for its appraisal business, which operates under the JLL brand.

Valuations

On the other hand, like in the property development sector, the activity of the appraisal companies has not been without controversy, especially for the role that they played in the real estate bubble. The appraisal companies have been repeatedly accused of producing inflated appraisal values at the height of the boom and of continuing to do so even in the face of a depressed market.

In addition, concerns regarding the transparency and independence of these entities caused the Bank of Spain to force the banks and savings banks to disassociate themselves from the appraisal companies in terms of ownership. That decision resulted in the disappearance of several players, such as Tabimed (Banco Sabadell) and TVG (Abanca). Others changed activity, such as Sivasa (Banco Santander), whilst others still, such as Tasamadrid (Bankia), were sold.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Banco Sabadell Launches Fund To Invest In Parking Lots

29 April 2016 – Expansión

Banco Sabadell is exploring new ways of diversifying the investments of its private banking clients in the current low interest environment. The financial entity has just created a private equity fund called Parking Rotation Capital FCR, a vehicle through which it will invest in the purchase of short-stay car parks in Spain and Portugal.

The fund, which has already been registered in the CNMV, will be managed by Sabadell Inversión and is starting life with a committed capital of more than €31 million. This figure has been contributed by the clients of Sabadell Urquijo Banca Privada and by pension funds, says Cirus Andreu, Director of Investments, Products and Analysis at Banco Sabadell.

“We are launching this fund in order to offer better returns to our private banking and institutional clients”, says Andreu. The objective is to reach yields equivalent to those generated by other private equity investments, rather than those currently being generated by fixed income.”We expect to see very low interest rates until 2018, which means that we need to diversify portfolios and invest in liquid positions, with maturity horizons of seven to nine years”, explained the Executive of Sabadell, who hopes to achieve yields of more than 8% through this new vehicle.

The idea is that Parking Rotation Capital FCR will co-invest in the car park sector with two other Spanish funds so as to be in a position to invest in larger operations. Thus, Sabadell has joined forces with the financial services firm Altamar Capital Partners, founded by Claudio Aguirre, and with Firmium Capital, a new investment company, which has created a division specialising in car parks with funds raised from high net worth individuals and institutional investors.

Sabadell, Altamar and Firmium expect to spend €150 million on the acquisition of short-term car parks that are already operating and that have extensive future operational time horizons. They are looking for urban car parks that generate cash flows and recurrent yields.

According to Cirus Andreu, the car park ownership market in Spain is very fragmented, which means there is a great opportunity for a specialist fund to lead the concentration of the sector. During the first phase, it will optimise the commercial and operational management of the parking lots and, over the medium term, it will group together assets into different portfolios for their subsequent sale to wealthy investors.

Experience

Firmum’s partners include the son of Juan Abelló, Cristian Abelló Gamazo – who was a Director at Saba, the leading company in the sector -, Bernardino Díaz-Andreu, who has spent his professional career at Torreal – owner of 20% of Saba -; Estanis Jasinski, who comes from UBS; and Fernando Pire Abarca, who led the car park division at the Isolux Corsan group. The partners of Firmum have been involved in the purchase of 34,000 parking spaces in total.

Meanwhile, in September 2015, Altamar Capital Partners launched Altamar Infraestructure Income FCR, a fund that expects to raise €400 million to invest in infrastructures and “real assets” to combat the volatility of other financial assets and circumvent the low interest rates.

Original story: Expansión (by Sergi Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake