Neinor Evaluates Rental Market but Insists on Maintaining its Margins

31 October 2018 – El Economista

Neinor Homes sees a clear business opportunity in the rental market in Spain. Nevertheless, it is not going to enter the segment if doing so would reduce its profit margin.

That is according to Juan Velayos (pictured above), the CEO of the firm, who indicates that Neinor “must be clear about what it is and what it wants to be, and we want to be a property developer, and as such, our profitability is sacred”. On that basis, Velayos recognises that “there is a clear business opportunity in that sector and very few companies have the capacity that we have to produce rental homes”.

In fact, he says that “many players who want to take positions in the rental market are approaching us, and although I am not going to close an operation tomorrow, we are evaluating lots of options, whenever they are coherent with our business model. Common sense tells me that we ought to be capable of meeting that need in the market and for the business to be profitable for Neinor”, said Velayos.

The property developer, which had managed to multiply its operating EBITDA by four by the end of September, to reach €9.5 million, expects to close this year in the black, “in a comfortable way”, highlights Velayos, who believes that the firm’s EBITDA at the end of December will amount to around €50 million, in line with the consensus of the market.

At the end of September, the firm had recorded a loss of €1.2 million and revenues of €156 million. “The most interesting aspect is that €100 million of that turnover came from the development arm, whilst €32 million came from the Legacy business and €23 million from Servicing”, highlights the director.

Neinor has committed to handing over 1,000 homes this year, spread across 14 promotions. “Nine of them have already been handed over and during the last quarter, the keys to the remaining five will be handed over, given that they now have their final construction certificate”, specifies the director, who assures that the 1,000 units are almost all pre-sold. “We only have 2% left, which we have not been marketing because we are waiting until the end to maximise the price of the best units”.

“We have been on a journey that has involved a lot of work over the last three years and now we are starting to hand over a significant volume of homes, which actually represent more than all of our major competitors put together. Neinor started first and so now we are reaping the rewards”, highlights Velayos.

Specifically, the company has an order book comprising 3,049 homes, which represent a volume of pre-sales of €1.019 billion. Moreover, comparing units with the same characteristics, the property developer has managed to achieve an 8.2% increase in prices and has also increased its margin to 28%.

That has allowed the firm to handle rising construction costs, which have increased by 3.8%, without any problems. Those costs “are expected to continue to rise, by 6%, but we will also seek to increase our margins”, says Velayos.

For next year, the company has set itself the target of handing over 2,000 homes in 31 developments where building work is already underway. “We also have some very solid pre-sales figures for 2019 of 78%; and the rest are not being marketed, given that the best way of protecting our margin is to wait to sell those units”, explains the CEO of Neinor (…).

Currently, the company has one of the largest land banks with capacity for 13,700 homes (…).

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meridia III Doubled its Revenues and Cut its Losses by 76% in H1

24 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Meridia III is reducing its losses. The Socimi owned by Meridia Capital recorded losses of €522,124 to June, which represented a reduction of 76% with respect to the first half of 2017, according to reports from the company to the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The company recorded revenues of €8 million during the first six months of the year, doubling its turnover in comparison with the same period last year. The firm’s EBITDA amounted to €3.3 million, reversing the negative figure of €964,673 recorded between January and June 2017.

In recent months, Meridia III has continued with its growth plans and has completed two high-profile divestments. The first was the sale to Barings of five office buildings that it owned in Avalon, as revealed by Eje Prime. That deal was followed by another at the start of October when it sold the property that houses Nestlé’s headquarters in Barcelona to Igis for €87 million.

Listed on the MAB since the end of 2017, Meridia Capital’s Socimi has also made some significant investments in the Spanish office market such as the purchase in March of a building in the financial district of Madrid for €26.5 million. The building, measuring 7,500 m2, is located at number 4 Calle Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, close to Paseo de la Castellana. Moreover, in Barcelona, the Catalan manager has leased its new building in the 22@ district to the international consultancy firm Everis.

At the beginning of October, Meridia Capital completed a capital increase of €13 million in Meridia III. The increase in funds will give the Socimi “greater guarantees to face and develop future projects and investments”, according to explanations provided by the manager in a document published on its website.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

El Corte Inglés & Merlin Negotiate an Alliance to Create a Real Estate Giant

11 October 2018 – El Confidencial

El Corte Inglés wants to fulfil the commitments it has made to the financial ratings agencies as soon as possible. At its recent, first-ever bond issue, it promised that it will reduce its €4 billion debt by half over the next 18 months. To this end, Jesús Nuño de la Rosa, President of the distribution group, has decided to expedite the sale of some of its real estate assets, the jewel in the crown of the holding company. According to financial sources, the company is negotiating an operation with Merlin Properties, the largest listed company in the real estate sector in Spain.

The same sources have confirmed the conversations between Jesús Nuño de la Rosa and Ismael Clemente, the CEO of Merlin Properties, the real estate Socimi in which Banco Santander holds a stake and which has assets under management worth €7.7 billion as at 30 June 2018. The negotiations are very open and cover all of the property types that comprise El Corte Ingles’s portfolio, appraised by Tinsa at €17.1 billion for the most recent annual report. Sources close to Merlin declined to comment on this information, whilst official sources at El Corte Inglés indicated that “the firm has not reached a global agreement with any operator”.

According to other sources, the most recent meetings have focused primarily on the purchase and management of the logistics assets owned by the department store company, which were already offered to several agents in the sector almost two years upon the advice of Morgan Stanley. Those conversations did not prosper due to the diversity of the portfolio, which comprises shopping centres, shops and logistics docks, some of which were worth very little at the time and so distorted the value of the portfolio.

But now, having made a commitment to Standard & Poor’s, Moodys and Fitch to reduce the group’s debt, De la Rosa has set himself the priority of divesting all of the assets needed to reduce the liability by around €2 billion. Through that, it will manage to reduce the ratio of debt to operating profit or EBITDA to 2x, compared to the current figure of 4x, which would give it an investment grade rating.

That would represent a very considerable change, which would allow the entity to obtain financing in the markets at cheaper interest rates – now it has paid 3% – given that its bonds could be purchased by all types of investors and not only by those looking to speculate such as now, given that fund managers that only acquire fixed income or equities with a minimum solvency and without risk of default are prohibited from subscribing to below investment grade securities.

Merlin Properties is the entity that is holding the most advanced negotiations with El Corte Inglés, which wants to close an agreement before the end of 2018 or, before 28 February 2019, at the latest, the date that marks the end of its financial year. The current proposal involves the acquisition of some of El Corte Inglés’s real estate assets and the signing of a contract as the manager of the portfolio. The distribution group’s portfolio comprises 94 properties, most of which are in Spain, of which 87% are shopping centres.

Of the total portfolio whose valuation amounts to €17.1 billion, almost €15 billion correspond to points of sale. But the physiognomy of those centres is very heterogeneous, as shown by the fact that whilst four of them are worth €2 billion, most of the assets could be sold for between €100 million and €200 million. But almost one third of the total are what El Corte Inglés itself calls unproductive. In other words, sites where they lose money. The group has tried to convert them into outlets for large brands, but the truth is very few of them have the characteristics to be able to be transformed into places of the calibre of Las Rozas Village and Factory.

In terms of the points of sale considered unproductive, the following stand out: Leganés (Arroyosur), Jaén, Oviedo, Elche, Guadalajara, Talavera, Albacete and Eibar. In addition to these shopping centres (which make losses), the company has another seven sites breaking even, such as those in Cádiz, Castellón, Córdoba and Arroyomolinos. The value of these shopping malls, as they are known in the sector, is more doubtful, given that a sale and leaseback contract could not be signed since the revenues do not cover the debt. Moreover, given their physical structures, most of them do not have windows, their transformation into offices, the main market of Merlin Properties, or hospitals would be more difficult.

Of the €7.7 billion in assets that Merlin manages, €5.5 billion correspond to offices, €934 million to shopping centres and €403 million to commercial premises on high streets.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hayfin & Atitlán Buy Land from Sareb to Lock Down Plan for Valencia’s Former Formula 1 Circuit

21 August 2018 – El Confidencial

The British fund Hayfin Capital and the Valencian investor Atitlán Grupo Empresarial are continuing to take steps to launch the most iconic urban development project and the one still pending execution in the city of Valencia with the greatest chances of generating gains.

At the end of July, a joint venture held by the two investment specialists completed the purchase of plots still owned by Sareb in the so-called PAI del Grao, a developable sector that occupies land on the former Formula 1 urban circuit in the regional capital. Hayfin and Atitlán acquired 14,000 m2 of land in total, with 8,100 m2 corresponding to residential use and 2,700 m2 to commercial use, according to market sources speaking to El Confidencial. The buildability is defined by the current urban plan of the Town Hall of Valencia, although it is finalising a new plan that will modify the distribution of that buildability. The expectation is that the final use of this land will amount to around 16,000 m2.

The investors paid €4 million in an operation that appears to have a low economic value but significant strategic potential. The sale of the assets by the bad bank chaired by Jaime Echegoyen (…) will allow the Spanish-British consortium to increase its percentage stake in the plan as a whole, which occupies a surface area of more than 300,000 m2 and will involve the construction of a new neighbourhood that will connect the Ciudad de las Ciencias and Avenida de Francia with Valencia’s maritime seafront. The area is set to become one of the most sought-after parts of the city if its developers decide to build high-quality residential properties (…).

Nevertheless, it will be a while before the new Valencian neighbourhood takes shape. As a result of the administrative and bureaucratic processes still pending, the real estate sector estimates that it will take between three and five years before developments in the PAI del Grao can start to be marketed. Nevertheless, if Hayfin and Atitlán are patient and manage to overcome the pitfalls, they may obtain juicy profits from an urban planning operation in which they have already invested more than €30 million but which could generate up to €300 million in property sales, according to the most optimistic estimates.

The plan for the former Valencia Street Circuit is the most ambitious project to be launched by the Atitlan Grupo Empresarial’s real estate division, which according to its own official data already has 100 homes under development, 200,000 m2 of surface area for rent and 1.5 million m2 of land under management, including its operations in Portugal.

With its olive-growing subsidiary Elaia the largest generator of current income, an aquaculture division (Sea8) and the service and construction company Mosaiq (formerly Obinesa-Lubasa), Atitlán generated sales amounting to €437 million last year and an EBITDA of €92 million. According to official figures, it employs 2,500 people across the group (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Víctor Romero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Montebalito Losses Rise, Reaching 830,000 Euros

14 August 2018

The real estate company’s Ebitda rose by 24% in the first semester compared to the same period in 2017, to 773,000 euros. In the year to June, the company had revenues of 4.6 million euros, up 22%.

Montebalito’s losses have increased. The Spanish real estate company’s losses went up by 14.6% in the first half of the year to reach 830,000 euros, the company reported to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). The company attributed the loss to the “negative impact of exchange rates (a depreciation of 17% for the dollar and 14% for the Brazilian real versus the euro) and losses on its trading portfolio.”

The group registered, on the other hand, a gross operating profit (Ebitda) of 773,000 euros, which represented an increase of 24% over the same period of 2017. The increase was led by an interannual increase of almost one million euros in the firm’s revenues, going from 3.8 million euros to 4.6 million euros, up 22%.

However, Montebalito’s financial losses reached 74% in the first half of the year. The real estate company almost doubled the 879,000 euros it had lost in June 2017, reaching a total loss of 1.53 million euros.

Two weeks ago, Montebalito announced that it would invest 8.8 million euros in the construction of forty homes in the Ciudad Lineal neighbourhood of Madrid. Also, last July, the historic real estate group announced that it had raised capital to amortise debt with Inversiones Malleo while it also awaits the incorporation of new partners as shareholders to execute its strategic plan. The developer foresees divestments of non-strategic assets in emerging countries and expects to concentrate on new projects in Spain and the European Union.

Original Story: EjePrime

Translation: Richard Turner

 

Haya Real Estate Negotiates Contracts with Sareb & BBVA Ahead of its IPO

31 July 2018 – Europa Press

Haya Real Estate, the Spanish real estate servicer owned by the US fund Cerberus, has linked its possible IPO in Spain to the “visibility” that it obtains over the negotiations that it is holding to renew its contract to manage the real estate assets of Sareb and to take over the contract of BBVA.

That is according to the firm’s Finance Director, Bárbara Zubiria, speaking during the presentation of the servicer’s half-year results.

With respect to Sareb, Haya Real Estate is currently offering the bad bank various alternatives ahead of the termination, in mid-2019, of its contract to manage some of the bad bank’s assets.

In terms of BBVA, the firm is waiting for the entity to decide whether to award it the management of the assets that it is going to transfer to a joint venture owned by the bank together with Cerberus.

For the time being, during the first half of the year, Haya Real estate saw its revenues rise by 20% to €130.2 million, boosted by an “increase” in the commissions that it charges for its activity and management.

Meanwhile, the EBITDA grew by 16% to €64.9 million, according to reports from the company.

During the first half of the year, the servicer led by Carlos Abad managed assets amounting to €38.8 billion, on which it closed transactions worth €2.4 billion, up by 58% YoY.

In financial terms, at the end of the period, the firm had corporate debt amounting to €463 million.

Spain’s first listed servicer

Haya Real Estate is continuing to weigh up the pros and cons of its leap onto the stock market even though two of the three real estate companies that had announced their debuts, Azora and Testa Residencial, postponed their own IPOs and have opted to list on the MAB instead.

In the event that it does make its stock market debut, the firm led by Abad will become the first of its kind to list on the stock market in Spain and one of the first in Europe.

The servicer of Cerberus is not a real estate company, but rather a company that manages and develops real estate assets for third parties, in this case, primarily assets that were foreclosed by the financial institutions during the crisis.

Constituted in 2013, the firm currently manages loans and real estate assets worth almost €40 billion. Some of the entities that have entrusted the firm with the management of their assets include Cajamar, Liberbank, BBVA, Sareb and Bankia, amongst others.

Original story: Europa Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meliá Sells 3 Hotels to Socimi Atom for €73.4M

13 July 2018 – Expansión

Meliá Hotels has announced an agreement with the Socimi Atom Hoteles, in which Bankinter holds a stake, for the sale of three hotels in Sevilla, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Fuerteventura for €73.4 million.

The transaction, which will generate a net accounting profit of €6.6 million, includes the hotels Meliá Sevilla, Sol La Palma (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and Sol Jandía Mar (Fuerteventura), respectively.

The establishments will continue to be operated by Meliá by means of variable rental contracts (25% of the total revenues) for periods of 5 years, with a maximum of 4 extensions at the discretion of Meliá and up to a maximum of 25 years.

The operation values each room at €66,000 and represents an EBITDA (result before depreciation and amortisation) multiple of 13.9 times.

As part of the agreement, Atom undertakes to invest €20.2 million in the three hotels, whereby allowing their “repositioning”. Thus, the price per room after the investment will amount to €83,000.

The hotel chain has said that this sale forms part of its “strategy to adapt the attributes of the brands of all of the establishments operated by the company”.

Original story: Expansión (by D. B.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meliá to Open 1 New Hotel Every 15 Days During 2018 and 2019

7 June 2018 – Expansión

Meliá is accelerating its growth trajectory and is seeking to continue exporting its brands overseas. The Mallorcan hotel chain is planning to open 50 new hotels around the globe over the next two years. “This means that, on average, and with the exception of force majeure or unexpected events, we will be opening a hotel somewhere in the world almost every two weeks”, said Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, Vice President and CEO of the group at the General Shareholders’ Meeting yesterday.

The company ended last year with 375 hotels and 96,239 rooms in 43 countries. Of the total, 68% of the group’s hotels are located in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), 33% in America and 9% in Asia-Pacific.

In this sense, the President of Meliá, Gabriel Escarrer Juliá, highlighted that expansion will continue to be a fundamental “motor” for growth. Escarrer Juliá explained that of the new openings planned until 2019, 20% will be located in EMEA countries, another 20% in the Mediterranean, 27% in America and another 33% in Asia-Pacific.

“Our bet for Asia-Pacific is clear if we consider that since 2013, we have more than quadrupled the number of hotels there to 45, including those that are operational and being opened”, he said.

Escarrer highlighted the operating performance of the company, which last year generated a profit, excluding capital gains, of €128.7 million, up by 27.8%, which allowed it to distribute a dividend of €0.1682 per share, in other words, €38.6 million.

Currently, 31% of the group’s EBTIDA, around €90 million, stems from the management of hotels. “This model allows us to generate high returns with minimal capital requirements since we invest in the acquisition of high-value management contracts and not in real estate assets”.

The CEO of Meliá underlined the effort undertaken in terms of digitalisation and quantified the investment in this area at €100 million over the last three years. That has resulted in the greater role of the corporate website in the business. The director explained that revenues proceeding from melia.com amounted to €520 million in 2017, up by 21%.

The director said that the group’s strategy involves continuing to rotate assets and strengthen their alliances with their partners to grow and improve the hotel portfolio. In 2017, Meliá spent €244 million maintaining and renovating its hotel portfolio.

“We have initiated a new valuation of our portfolio of assets, the global results of which we will have during the third quarter. I trust that the outcome of that valuation exercise will be positive.

Escarrer also referred to the challenges facing the company, including the push from new competitors such as Airbnb and the political instability.

Risk factors

“We feel very comfortable and confident of being able to fulfil the objectives of our strategic plan, although we monitor the main risk factors in our industry very closely, such as the evolution of the so-called collaborative economies and of processes that generate uncertainty, such as Brexit and the complex political situations in countries such as Italy and Spain”.

In any case, he reiterated the forecasts for 2018, with an improvement in RevPAR (average revenue per available room) (…) and an increase in margins of between 100 and 150 basis points.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Haya’s Revenues Rise by 12% in Q1 2018 to €56M

24 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Haya is continuing to grow its real estate business. The Spanish servicer, controlled by the US fund Cerberus, recorded revenues of €55.9 million during the first quarter of the year, whereby increasing its turnover by 12% with respect to the same period in 2017. Its EBITDA amounted to €24.4 million during the same period, up by 6% compared to last year.

The volumes of the real estate company amounted to €895.2 million, which represented a YoY increase of more than 40%. The generation of cash by the servicer amounted to €20.2 million, up by 58%, whilst the firm’s net corporate debt stood at €414 million.

Haya, which managed almost €40 billion in real estate assets during the first quarter, was awarded the new Bankia contract a month ago for the management of all of that entity’s toxic assets, including the REO portfolio from the recently absorbed BMN. This week, the servicer placed on the market 4,000 homes from the bank Cajamar.

Moreover, since the beginning of 2018, the company led by Carlos Abad has signed two new contracts for the management of assets with funds and institutional investors. Haya’s next challenge is its debut on the stock market, which Cerberus recently postponed until after the purchase of BBVA’s property portfolio has been signed, which the fund acquired in 2017.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ardian Places Indigo Sale On Hold after Raising €700M in Debt

4 May 2018 – Expansión

Ardian and its partner Predica (Credit Agricole) have decided to put on hold the sale of their parking lot subsidiary Indigo, one of the giants in the European sector with significant interests in Spain. The shareholders, which have been looking at various options for their investment over the last year, have opted to re-leverage the company in the end, with a €700 million bond issue, which will be used to refinance some of the debt that expires in 2020, and also, to distribute an extraordinary dividend to shareholders.

With this move, the possible sale of the former VinciPark has been put on hold, after Ardian went off the idea of divestment in 2017 when it did not obtain satisfactory offers for the asset. According to sources close to the operation, Indigo’s shareholders were left with three options: put the “for sale” sign back up; re-leverage the company and distribute an extraordinary dividend to the shareholders; or encourage a merger agreement with other parking lot groups.

Until a few weeks ago, all three options were on the table. One of the possibilities involved exploring an alliance with the Spanish firm Saba. The parking lot group controlled by Criteria (La Caixa) is also undergoing a process of transformation after the decision was taken by its minority shareholders, which together hold a 49% stake, to exit the company. That round of contact did not prosper and Indigo decided to begin the procedure to launch a macro debt issue, which took place on 12 April.

Sources in the sector believe that a merger between Saba and Indigo would have business logic given the minimal overlap and their capacity to form a group with sufficient critical mass to explore a stock market listing. Trading on the stock market has always been the ultimate dream of Saba’s founding partners. By contrast, Ardian avoids investments in listed groups (…).

Indigo is, together with Qpark and Apcoa, the largest parking lot group in Europe. According to the latest available figures, the company recorded turnover of €897 million in 2017, with an EBITDA of €310 million. The company’s net financial debt amounts to €1.666 billion. Saba and Empark also feature in Europe’s Top 8 ranking of the largest parking lot groups, but their turnover figures are significantly lower than those of Indigo and QPark.

According to experts, another factor that would contribute to accelerating the corporate movements in the sector is the ownership structure. The giants in the sector are owned by investment funds and private equity firms with a relative dearth of long-term investors. QPark is controlled by KKR, whilst the German firm Apcoa is owned by Centerbridge. Ardian controls Indigo and Macquarie is the new owner of Empark. Saba is the only company with an industrial shareholder – Criteria – and a long-term interest (…).

Although not its largest market, Indigo conducts significant business in Spain. Revenues amounted to €41 million in 2017, with an EBITDA of almost €20 million. It is Indigo’s third largest market in Europe, after France and the United Kingdom. The outlook for Spain is positive. According to the consultancy firm DBK, revenues from the rental of parking spaces (…) in Spain and Portugal amounted to €1.145 billion in 2017, which represented an increase of 3.8% with respect to the previous year. In 2016, that figure grew by 4.5%.

Original story: Expansión (by C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake