Tag: Eroski

MDSR Buys A Portfolio Of Hypermarkets For €150M

21 September 2017 – Expansión

The fund MDSR Investments has completed another purchase in Spain. The firm has acquired a portfolio of hypermarkets leased to Carrefour and Eroski, which were owned until now by Tristan Capital. The operation, which has been closed for a value of approximately €150 million, represents the largest transaction in Spain involving hypermarkets and shopping arcades so far this year.

The portfolio has a gross leasable area of 86,836 m2. Located in Segovia, Jaca, Fuengirola, San Javier, Tomelloso, San Sebastián and Ribadeo, the first four operate buildings under the Carrefour brand. Moreover, the operation also includes shopping arcades in Segovia, Jaca and Tomelloso.

This is the seventh operation to be undertaken by the firm, which is managed by an Israeli group and financed by US investors, since it arrived in Spain a year and a half ago. Moreover, it is the firm’s second transaction in recent months, given that, in March, it acquired a portfolio of five Eroski hypermarkets, owned until then by Joparny, for around €30 million.

In October 2016, MDSR Investments acquired the Travesía de Vigo shopping centre for €49 million.

In this operation, MDSR has been advised by Savills on the real estate side and Dentons for legal aspects; whilst Linklaters has advised the seller on the legal side.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar Buys A Shopping Centre & 22 Eroski Stores From Rockspring For €111M

29 March 2017 – Inmodiario

The Socimi Lar is continuing to build up its collection of assets. It has spent €111 million buying the Parque Abadía shopping complex in Toledo and a portfolio of 22 Eroski stores, from the British fund Rockspring. It has completed these purchases entirely using its own funds, just one week after securing bank financing amounting to €104 million.

Parque Abadía, which Lar has purchased for a price of €63.1 million, is the largest retail space in Castilla-La Mancha, with a gross leasable area of 54,100 m2 – of which 37,114 m2 forms the subject of the transaction – and currently has an occupancy rate of 100%. It is the most iconic retail complex in the area, with retailers of the calibre of Alcampo, Media Markt, Decathlon, Leroy Merlin and Kiabi.

The location of Parque Abadía is another one of the asset’s strong points. Specifically, it is located on the motorway between Madrid and Toledo, which makes it highly visible and means that it can be accessed very easily. Parque Abadía is just ten minutes away from Toledo’s city centre and more than 300,000 people live within half an hour of the shopping centre by car.

Meanwhile, the 22 stores that Lar has purchased for €47.6 million are completely occupied and operated by the Eroski Group. They have a combined surface area of 28,822 m2 and the portfolio is very diversified from a geographical perspective.

Ten of the stores are located in the País Vasco – the area in which the retailer has its highest market share -, seven are located in the Balearic Islands, two in Navarra, another two in Cantabria and one in La Rioja.

The incorporation of these assets into Lar’s portfolio is allowing it to grow in the retail asset space. It now owns more than €1,000 million retail assets, which account for 75% of the Socimi’s total assets.

Lar owns 31 real estate assets, whose value amounts to €1,385.7 million, of which €1,072.4 million correspond to 16 retail spaces located in Madrid, Toledo, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja, Vigo, Valencia, Sevilla, Alicante, Cantabria, Lugo, León, Vizcaya, Navarra, Guipúzcoa, Palencia, Albacete and Barcelona.

Original story: Inmodiario 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Incus Capital Finalises Sale Of 4 Shopping Centres

25 October 2016 – Expansión

Three years after arriving in the Spanish real estate market, the fund Incus Capital is getting ready to divest its positions, and whereby benefit from the boom in the market and reap the rewards of the investments it has made in shopping centres. Specifically, the fund is finalising the sale of four shopping centres for a total consideration of €150 million.

Incus is holding exclusive negotiations with Deutsche Bank regarding the sale of the Alcalá Magna shopping centre, located in the Madrilenian municipality of Alcalá de Henares, for €100 million. The German entity is turning its attention to these types of assets once again, after starring in the largest acquisition in the market so far this year with its purchase of Diagonal Mar (in Barcelona) for almost €500 million.

Profits

From the sale of Alcalá Magna, Incus Capital will generate significant profits just two years after acquiring the asset. Incus Capital bought Alcalá Magna for almost €82 million from the investment fund CBRE RPPSE, managed by CBRE Global Investors, in the summer of 2014. Alcalá Magna, which opened in 2007, has almost 100 retail units and a gross leasable surface area (GLA) of 35,000 m2.

The commercial complex, designed by the international studio Chapman Taylor, has many high profile tenants, including Zara, C&A, Cortefiel, Mercadona and Massimo Dutti.

In addition to Alcalá Magna, Incus Capital is going to sell another three shopping centres that it currently holds in its portfolio, namely: El Mirador de Cuenca, Alzamora in Alcoy (Alicante) and Los Alcores in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Sevilla). To this end, Incus is holding exclusive negotiations with the British fund Patron to sell those three assets for a combined price of almost €50 million. The operation is expected to close in December.

Incus was constituted in 2012 and its purchase of these three assets from Morgan Stanley for almost €30 million (80% less than Morgan Stanley paid for them in 2007) represented its first real estate operation in the country. El Mirador de Cuenca, inaugurated in November 2002, has a retail surface area of 24,723 m2 spread over four floors (two retail and two parking).

Los Alcores, which opened its doors in August 2003 in Alcalá de Guadaíra (Sevilla), has two shopping floors and one car park. Its two main tenants are Eroski and Cinesur. Meanwhile, Alzamora, which was inaugurated in Alcoy (Alicante) in October 2003, has three shopping floors, a Supercor and almost 600 parking spaces.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deloitte Is The Leading Advisor Of Shopping Centre Deals

20 October 2016 – Expansión

The Big Four are positioning themselves as major players in the market to advise real estate operations and are gaining ground in a segment that has been dominated by other players until now. The professional services firms are looking for new business niches in order to generate returns and strengthen their audit businesses, which generate significant recurring income for their balance sheets, but which are now mature markets, with limited margin for growth.

This effort has led the Big Four to dominate the transaction advisory sector and, in the case of Deloitte, it has managed to gain a foothold in the market that has been particularly dominated by real estate consultancy firms until now: the shopping centre segment.

Specifically, the company chaired by Fernando Ruiz now leads the ranking after participating in almost half of the major operations closed in 2016 to date. So far this year, transactions amounting to almost €2,000 million have been signed in the shopping centre segment, which has become one of the star products of the real state market, boosted by the economic recovery and improvement in consumption.

In this growing market, which still has further potential for growth, Deloitte has earned its place as an advisor of choice. Specifically, the professional services firm achieved a market share of more than 50% of the transaction volume, outperforming CBRE, with 32%, PwC, with 7% and JLL and Savills, with 4% each.

Deloitte participated alongside CBRE in the largest operation of the year so far in the shopping centre segment: Diagonal Mar (Barcelona). The asset was acquired by Deustche Bank from Northwood over the summer for almost €500 million. Deloitte advised the buyer whilst CBRE advised the seller.

The professional services firm has also advised Carrefour on its purchase of 36 supermarkets from Eroski for €205 million and TPG’s acquisition of the L’Aljub shopping centre in Elche (Alicante) for €100 million. Another major operation closed this year in this segment involved the Gran Via de Vigo shopping centre, which was acquired by Lar España in a deal advised by another Big Four firm, PwC.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Henderson, IBA, Has & Drago Bid For Gas Natural’s RE Assets

19 October 2016 – Expansión

The bidding for Gas Natural’s real estate gems in Madrid is entering its final phase. The British fund manager Henderson Global Investors, IBA Capital, through its Socimi Zambal, the US investment fund Has Capital and the Spanish management company Drago Capital have all submitted binding offers for the four corporate office complexes that the energy firm has put up for sale in the Spanish capital.

The assets include: the group’s operating headquarters in Madrid, located on Avenida de San Luis 77 (pictured above); a property on Avenida de América 38; the Acanto complex, at number 11 on the same street; and the Antonio López complex on Calle Antonio López 193.

The investors have submitted offers valuing the assets, which have a combined surface area of 57,000 sqm in office space and 1,695 parking spaces, at around €300 million, according to sources in the sector.

The gas firm, which engaged the real estate consultancy firms CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield to sell its main real estate assets in Madrid this summer, plans to chose the candidate during the second half of November and close the deal before the end of the year.

The firm, chaired by Isidro Fainé, is negotiating with these four investors regarding the option of selling the four office complexes in a single operation or awarding the assets in batches. In this sense, both IBA Capital and Has Capital have already submitted offers for all of the assets as well as for different batches, an option that the other candidates may also consider.

The operation, whereby Gas Natural will sell the properties but continue as the tenant, will allow the firm to raise funds without needing to move its employees or look for new offices.

The operation represents the largest sale & leaseback deal in the segment in recent years. (…). The volume of sale & leaseback operations reached its peak between 2007 and 2010, but has slowed down since then. Nevertheless, the formula has been used recently by companies such as Telefónica and Eroski. (…).

The future of sale & leaseback operations

However, new accounting legislation, which no longer allows property sales that are subsequently rented out to be accounted for as off balance sheet financing structures, may put a stop to this option of real estate asset optimisation.

Specifically, IFRS 16 requires companies to recognise rental commitments as debt, except those that have a term of less than a year or relate to low value assets. This standard, which will replace the standard currently in force, IAS 17, eliminates the dual accounting model for lessees, which differentiates between financing lease contracts, which are recorded on balance sheet, and operating lease contracts, which do not require future lease commitments to be recognised (on balance sheet).

Although the new law does not enter into force until 2019, companies are obliged to analyse their lease contracts in advance and make new estimates, which must be updated on a regular basis.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo and M. A. Patiño)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Incus Capital Puts 3 Shopping Centres Up For Sale

6 July 2016 – El Confidencial

The retail market is on a roll. Whilst a few weeks ago, it was revealed that the British fund Northwood is looking for a buyer for Diagonal Mar, the second largest shopping centre in Cataluña; now, another investor, Incus Capital, wants to unwind some of its positions and raise funds through the sale of three commercial assets, which it purchased three years ago from Morgan Stanley for €30 million.

The assets for sale, which have been baptised as “the good”, “the bad”, and “the ugly” are: El Mirador de Cuenca (Cuenca), Los Alcores (Alcalá de Guadaíra-Sevilla) and Alzamora (Alcoy-Alicante). Morgan Stanley and Grupo Lar purchased these three centres in 2007 for €116 million just before the real estate bubble burst, and sold them to Incus Capital six years later, at a loss of €80 million.

According to several market sources, these three assets are back on the market once again, although no offers have been received yet, since the sales process is still in its preliminary phase. The sources consulted state that Incus will successfully close the operation before the end of the year with significant profits, in other words, for more than €30 million. CBRE is advising Incus Capital on the sale, but neither of the companies wanted to make any comments about it.

The three assets are on the market together once again. “Investors buzzing over Spain are looking for reasonably-sized transactions, and so it makes more sense to sell these assets together than separately. Investors prefer to make one purchase amounting to €30 million, than three amounting to €10 million each”, said one expert in the sector, who explained that, although these are not prime assets, given that they are located in smaller cities, they are dominant in their respective regions and do not face any competition, which makes them very attractive. In addition, Incus has carried out a very active management (of the assets), which means that they now have higher occupancy rates and are in a better condition than three years ago”.

The shopping centre segment has been particularly dynamic in the last two years and, according to experts in the real estate market, total investment in 2016 may exceed the figures recorded in 2015 (€2,000 million). During the first quarter of this year alone, retail investment amounted to between €750 million and €800 million, with several high profile transactions, including the purchase of the Festival Park shopping centre in Mallorca for €100 million and the fund Invesco’s purchase of a portfolio of Eroski supermarkets for just over €350 million.

Incus Capital was created in 2013 and these three shopping centres became its first portfolio of assets in the Spanish market. The firm was created by Andrew Newton (ex-Lehman Brothers) and Alejandro Moya (ex-Morgan Stanley).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Asturias Retail & Leisure Socimi Will Debut On The MAB On Friday

29 June 2016 – Telecinco

The company Asturias Retail and Leisure Socimi will debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on Friday 1 July, after it received the green light from the MAB’s Coordination and Incorporations Committee, which has confirmed that it fulfils all of the necessary requirements for listing.

Using the valuation report prepared by the independent expert Ernst & Young Servicios Corporatives, the company’s Board of Directors has set a reference value of €19.15 for each one of its share, which values the company at €95.8 million.

The debut of the company, which will become the eighteenth Socimi to join the MAB, still requires prior approval from the MAB’s Board of Directors.

The company’s trading code will be YAST and its shares will be traded through the price fixing system. Renta 4 Corporate is the company’s registered advisor, whilst Renta 4 Sociedad de Valores is acting as its liquidity provider.

Asturias Retail and Leisure Socimi owns three properties in Oviedo, through two subsidiaries: the shopping centre known as Intu Asturias and seven retail premises, a hypermarket leased to Eroski and a service station.

Original story: Telecinco

Translation: Carmel Drake

C&W: RE Investment Grew By 20% In Q1 2016

22 April 2016 – Expansión

According to Cushman & Wakefield, during Q1 2016, 40 operations were closed in the real estate sector, worth €2,400 million.

Real estate investment in Spain grew by 20% during the first quarter compared with the same period in 2015, with the signing of around 40 operations, worth €2,400 million, according to a report published on Thursday by Cushman & Wakefield.

“The first quarter of the year continues to show the strength of investment activity in the Spanish real estate sector”, said the real estate consultancy, which explained that more than 40% of the figure recorded during the 3 months to March related to a single transaction, namely the portfolio of offices acquired by Metrovacesa.

The office sector secured the most capital (51% of the total), with investment of almost €1,200 million, followed by the retail sector, which accounted for 36% of the total investment volume.

The main operations closed during the quarter were: Invesco’s purchase of an Eroski portfolio for €358 million; and the portfolio of offices in Madrid and Barcelona, owned by BBVA, Santander and Banco Popular, which are now owned by Metrovacesa.

According to the CEO of Cushman and Wakefield, Oriol Barrachina, “the lack of available high quality office space is creating difficulties for companies to find the space that they need, which has caused the rate of new rentals to drop but, at the same time, the price of office rentals, in the best areas of Madrid and Barcelona, to rise, as the availability of the best buildings continues to decline”.

“This potential for rental growth, which we have seen now for over a year, is one of the main reasons why investors are so still so interested in taking up positions in the sector”, he explained.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Savills: RE Inv’t In The Retail Sector Totalled €2,400M In 2015

14 March 2016 – Cinco Días

Real estate investors really like the retail sector in Spain. In fact, last year, they demonstrated their interest through the purchase of shopping centres, hypermarkets, supermarkets and other retail outlets. In 2015, total investment in the sector amounted to €2,400 million, to reach a new peak in the historical series prepared by the consultancy firm Savills, which dates back to the year 2000.

This data is better than any recorded during the real estate boom years of the last decade. The figure represents an increase of 14% with respect to 2014 and of 10% with respect to the market peak to date, recorded in 2006.

In terms of the number of operations in this segment, the increase of 35% with respect to last year, with 46 investment operations, also marked a new record with respect to the level reached in 2014, when 35 operations were signed.

Moreover, sources at Savills say that the pace of activity does not seem to have slowed down so far in 2016 – the number of transactions to date is in line with the number recorded during the first quarter last year. Almost €600 million has been invested so far this year, which represents a level similar to the annual volume recorded during the years of the crisis, between the period from 2009 to 2013.

The consultancy firm calculates that the current portfolio of operations in the pipeline (pending signing) and assets that are going to come onto the market in the short term could amount to an additional €2,500 million.

On the investor side, Socimis have become key players, with new players such as Lar España, which has attracted hundreds of millions in foreign funding.

In any case, cross-border investment by European and US funds accounted for more than two thirds of the total in 2015 and almost all of the investment made so far this year. On the sell side, international firms also account for most of the activity. “Players who purchased at the low point in the cycle and those that are now looking to rotate their assets are taking advantage of the recovery to generate more profits”, say the sources.

The largest transaction last year involved the sale of the Puerto Venecia shopping centre in Zaragoza, which Intu acquired from the fund Orion Capital for €451 million. That was followed by the sale of the Plenilunio shopping centre, which Klépierre bought from the same fund for €375 million. In third place was the sale of a portfolio of Eroski supermarkets to Invesco for €358 million.

Original story: Cinco Días (by A. Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Eroski Finalizes The Sale Of Its Real Estate Company Gonuri And Other Assets To Raise EUR 300 Million By August

7 February 2016 – El Diario Vasco

Eroski is working around the clock to give their creditor banks “enough comfort” – as financial people say, by the end of the month. The group led by Agustin Markaide must complete before March the sale of sufficient real estate assets to repay EUR 299 million to those entities which last year agreed refinancing over EUR 2,500 million in debt until 2019.

Actually, Eroski does not have to pay in the coming days, but show the banks sufficient documentation proving that the negotiations are going well and that it will satisfy the payment before July 31st, when the six-month grace period of that tranche of refinancing matures.

Original story: El Vasco (by Julio Díaz de Alda)

Translation: Aura Ree