20/10/2014 – Expasion
Grupo Villar Mir sold shares of Colonial representing 0.18% of the stake for €3.1 million, the National Stock Exchange Market Commission of Spain reports.
Juan Miguel Villar Mir (pictured) still keeps the majority shareholder seat at the real estate company.
Original article: Expansión
Translation: AURA REE
10/09/2014 – El Economista
There have been six years already since the real estate bubble burst and the first traces of recovery begin to appear in the balance sheets of the main property managers of the sector. Namely, they achieved trimming the total amount due to banks by 23.4%.
Six largest realtors: Colonial, Quabit, Testa, Martinsa, Reyal Urbis, Renta Corporacion, Realia and Montebalito, closed the first half of the year with €12.57 billion in the red. To compare, in H1 2013, the figure was reaching €16.42 billion.
To achieve that, the companies had to go through debt restructuring and shed their best assets via sales or in lieu payments. Although their joint indebtness still hits high, there is a hope for their balances as economic indicators show promising numbers and foreign investors eye the market in search of opportunities.
Quabit has made a U-turn in its revenues in the last year. Specifically, the company chaired by Felix Abanades has managed to trim its indebtness by €242.19 million, 41.23%, in just 12 months.
‘After four financial restructurings, Quabit may surely state it is a balanced firm without any economic stress in the short term‘, the group reports.
With clean books, net value of €65.6 million and €44.88 million in assets, the company plans to launch a Socimi on the stock market which is expected to debut still before the end of the year. Mr Abadanes hopes to raise between €300 and 500 million in shape of real estate assets, mainly residential, commercial, offices and, to less extent, logistics.
In turn, Renta Corporacion that in 2013 was pulled down to insolvency process by a €161 million financial and €27.5 million property indebtness, today celebrates crawling out of the jeopardy. To be precise, the firm beated the red down by 62% in one year. At the moment, it owes €60.32 million.
‘The assets repossessed from us have a book value of €93.7 million, while the repaid debt represents €98.6 million and therefore we registered a €4.9 million revenue‘, the group explains.
Colonial has been the first to show that it was possible to overcome the crisis. The company cut in its debt by 35.68% to €1.66 billion.
Now the firm is controlled by such big-name investors as the Villar Mir group and the Qatar Sovereign Wealth Fund. Together with them, Colonial submitted a €650 million bid for a part of Realia‘s property division Patrimonio.
On the other hand, Realia, Reyal Urbis and Martinsa are still up to their ears in debt.
Moreover, Realia‘s main shareholders (Bankia and FCC) have been seeking to sell their stakes since long. Before summer, the real estate company received several offers for a part of its indebtness from Fortress acting on behalf of funds King Street, Orion Capital and AEW.
In the middle of that process, Realia transferred its stake in French branch SIIC de Paris for €560 million. The operation helped it to beat the red down by 40.36% to €995.32 million.
When it comes to Reyal Urbis, this firm has been struggling in the voluntary bankruptcy declaration for over a year. In spite of that, the company managed to trim the debt by 23.62% to €3.55 billion.
Both Reyal and Martinsa, which reduced its debt by 14% to €4.18 billion, will be able to benefit from the new bankruptcy law.
Original article: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)
Translation: AURA REE
22/08/2014 – El Pais
The majority of large developers that escaped the unforgiving financial crisis are trapped in vagueness which prevents them from confirming the recovery peeping into the real estate market. They no longer owe the terrific €35 billion of 2008, but they still have a €20 billion debt, crippling them from resuming their activities.
After the first five years of the recession, marked by many refinancing agreements, all the measures turned out to be insufficient as the firms still had no capacity of paying the debts. In 2013, the dinamics changed.
Only Catalonian Fergo Aisa has not survived the tough process, liquidated fast and quietly.
The undisputable master in staying afloat is Colonial. In May this year, the company enlarged its capital with a €1.263 million amount and gained such promintent investors as Juan Miguel Villar Mir (the president of OHL) and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Qatar. Furthermore, the realtor shed the troublesome assets and earned €559 million in the first half of the ongoing year.
The business was faring so well, that Colonial decided to take part in the bidding for a 62% stake of Realia put up for sale by FCC and Bankia. Colonial has taken everyone aback by outbidding sure-bet Fortress and King Street with its €650 million offer submitted exclusively for a real estate affiliate of Realia.
However, before the best bidder acquires the branch, it must meet several requirements, like selling 9 shopping malls of Realia. Then, the real negotiations on buying 20 offices in Madrid, the Fira tower in Barcelona and the Kansas City business center in Seville will commence.
At present, after selling the stake at SIIC de Paris for €1.51 million, the real estate assets of Realia represent a value of €830 million, whereas the developer activity and the land together barely cross €520 million.
Sacyr also successfully overcame the black days of the recession, although finally it sold its arm Vallehermoso, allowing the firm to redeem a €1.2 billion indebtness.
Principally, the company had to deal with too many plots, a very common problem among property managers, such as Reyal Urbis, Martinsa-Fadesa or Metrovacesa.
When the crisis came around, banks realized they had lent nearly €15o billion to developers for purchase of 200 million square meters of land in total. As the borrowers progressively failed to pay-off their debt, six years later, the entites owned over 100 million square meters of land.
Apart from banks, the magnitude landed in balance sheets of Spain‘s ‘bad bank’ (Sareb) or was sold to investment funds with up to 60% discount. The remaining 95 square meters stay in hands of the property managers who hurry to sell them out to pay the debts.
Other companies like Martinsa-Fadesa, Reyal Urbis and Renta Corporación found themselves at the risk of being auctioned. The two first still struggle to crawl out of the insolvency process, whereas the last had managed to do so but was then hit by an unexpected €10 million debt owed to the Tax Office.
Original article: El País (by Juan Carlos Martínez)
Translation: AURA REE
31/07/2014 – ExpansionPro
Realia is willing to separate its offices grouped in Realia Patrimonio and sell them to Colonial. Due to lack of other bids, the real estate firm controlled by FCC and Bankia finds itself wondering how to meet the conditions set by Colonial together with the €650 million offer. Realia would have to conduct several divestments and restructure its debt. The decision must be made today.
According to sources familiar with the operation, the “process is incipent and the negotiations will be long and complex”.
Realia´s property manager owns 30 office buildings, among which one may find the Torre Realia in Madrid and its sister the Torre Realia in Barcelona. Most of the properties are located in the capital. At present, Realia also possesses eight shopping parks, such as the Ferial Plaza in Guadalajara or the La Noria Outlet Shopping in Murcia.
As Colonial´s activity focuses on office building rentals, one of the conditions suggests divestment in the shopping centers.
Although the firm´s offer was non-binding, both parties may be at the brink of sealing an exclusive transfer negotiation deal.
Original article: ExpansiónPro (by M. A., 31 de Julio 2014, pp 4)
Translation: AURA REE
30/07/2014 – Expansion
In the first half of the year, the real estate firm earned €559 million. To contrast, in the first half of 2013, Colonial saw only debt. The 180-degree turn took place thanks to separation and deconsolidation of its non-core business, namely the house and land development.
In the first half of 2014, the property manager registered a turnover by 2% smaller reaching to €105 million.
At the end of June, real estate portfolio of Colonial represented a €5.58 billion worth, by 4.4% larger than in January.
Its office buildings located in Spain appreciated in value by 3.6%, a phenomenon observed for the first time since the recession hit.
Colonial submitted an offer for Realia´s property branch, claiming it disposes of €790 million. The amount rises to €1 billion if the proceeds from its French arm SFL and the sale of a stake in SIIC de Paris taken into account.
Original article: Expansión
Translation: AURA REE
25/07/2014 – Expansion
The real estate sector positions among the markets that have suffered the most during the recession, deepened by the property bullbe burst and tapering-out debt rates. However, over the last months we have been observing an improvement in perspectives for this segment. One of the prooves is an increased number of Socimis (REITs) that went public this year.
Experts prefer to distingiush the development and the real estate business fields. The first, encompassing both land and houses, still undergoes the adjustment process, whereas the other focuses intensively on returns from office and CRE rentals, to name few. The latter market bottomed-out and reached its turning point in 2013, so right now it heads towards a full recovery.
Aside from the Socimis, also other listed firms become more and more popular. To illustrate, Colonial appreciated by 122% this year, currently selling shares at 0.58 Euros each. Morgan Stanley specialists say that Colonial offers a high-quality scheme on the office market, owning a €1.1 billion worth of offices situated in Madrid and Barcelona”.
This real estate firm enlarged its social capital with €1.26 billion in May, allowing it to fight large part of the indebtness. Presently, the debt equals to 40% of the value of its assets which is an “acceptable” level.
What is more, some experts point out at “uncertainty” evoked due to its elevated exposition to the French market.
If it comes to Realia, the company shot up by 56% on the stock and reached the price of 1.29 Euros a share. However, just like in case of Colonial, specialists call for cautiousness as the firm still has to face debt restructuring and is pretty exposed to housing development and land deterioration.
Also, investors yet shall not snap up smaller property managers like Quabit, Urbas or Montebalito until the companies crawl out of their financial troubles. Moreover, experts remind about the record high default rate in banks.
Original article: Expansion (by C. Sekulits & D. Esperanza)
Translation: AURA REE
23/06/2014 – Expansion
Colony Funds and Orion Capital have terminated the alliance they had through their joint venture tool Coral Partners created in order to invest in Colonial. They have halved the shares of the real estate and now each of them holds 3.67% of the stake.
Original article: Expansión
Translation: AURA REE
28/04/2014 – Expansion
Colonial has managed to place the entirety of €1.266 million capital enlargement during the pre-emptive subscription period expiring on April 25th.
The real estate firm held in majority by Grupo Villar Mir thus begins its threefold plan assuming balance reinforcement, debt reduction and entrance of new stakeholders.
The €1.266 million raised for the amplification will together with €1 billion syndicated loan be intended for paying-off Colonial´s total debt of €2.1 billion.
The company will be also able to run new strategy focused on office buildings in Madrid, Barcelona and, via its French branch SFL, in Paris.
In total, Colonial´s shareholders pledged €572 million capital enlargement, out of which €308 million was paid by Villar Mir. Right now, the group holds 24.4% of the stake, followed by Coral Partners with 9.9%, Qatar´s sovereign fund (8.7%), MoraBanc (7.5%), Credit Agricole (4.9%), Santo Domingo (3%) and Fidelity (3.3%).
All the new shares issued by the firm will appear on the stock market on May 8th.
Original article: Expansión
Translation: AURA REE
11/04/2014 – Expansion
Colonial´s headquarters are filled with enthusiastic mood as Pere Viñolas, the CEO and Juan José Brugera, the president, not only have managed to raise private and banking capital and therefore save the real estate company but also attracted attention of investors.
“One year ago our situation was tragic”, says Viñolas. (…) In short, Colonial will enlarge its capital by €1.266 million and save SFL. Also, it raised the new syndicated loan from €600 million to €1 billion that will allow it to pay-off the debt expiring this year. (…).
“For many years, Colonial has been working on its repute hanging out in global property village and (…) the recent purchase of 3.8% stake by Qatar wealth fund has been one of the fuits”.
Moreover, the CEO stresses that “thanks to Villar Mir other investors started to trust in the project again”. (…)
Since Villar Mir, Mora Banc and Santo Domingo group announced the capital injection, shares of the real estate firm tripled their price. However, Viñolas vows for “analysis of Colonial´s shares instead of its Stock value”. (…).
Original article: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)
Translation: AURA REE
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