Tag: Europe

Savills: RE Investment in Europe will Amount to €230 bn in 2019

17 March 2019 – Expansión

Real estate investment in Europe will amount to €230 billion in 2019, according to a report by Savills Aguirre Newman and as such will exceed €200 billion for the sixth year in a row.

The main focus continues to be placed on Germany, the UK and France, but other markets such as Poland, Denmark, Finland and Portugal are expected to exceed their average investment volumes over the last five years in 2019.

Savills predicts that the main investors from outside Europe will come from the USA, Singapore and South Korea, like in 2018.

Investors are particularly interested in the logistics segment, and the residential sector in Europe’s major cities.

Original story: Expansión 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Bain Capital Launches a €1.25bn Fund to Invest in Europe

10 March 2019 – Eje Prime

Bain Capital has created a fund to invest €1.25 billion in European real estate. The US investment group is expected to concentrate a large part of that investment in Spain, where it already controls the property developer Habitat.

The target of the new fund will be portfolios of non-performing loans and non-strategic assets, of which there are plenty in the Spanish market.

Bain Capital has acquired several portfolios from financial institutions in Spain in recent years with a gross value of €3.5 billion.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mapfre to Invest in Property due to Low Interest Rates

7 March 2019 – Expansión

Mapfre has announced its intention to invest in more real estate in light of the low interest rates in the global markets. The insurance group ended 2018 with real estate investments worth €2.9 billion, accounting for 4.3% of its total investments, having invested heavily in the renovation of its asset portfolio during the year.

Given the scarce supply and illiquidity of the real estate markets in Madrid and Barcelona, the firm has already created two companies headquartered in Luxembourg to invest in properties in Paris and Germany. It also plans to acquire real estate in Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan and Luxembourg.

Moreover, it has teamed up with the German real estate fund manager GLL, with whom it aims to invest up to €300 million in properties in some of the main European cities.

The objective of the insurance company is to generate returns of between 4% and 6% p.a. on a recurring basis and to diversify its portfolio.

The firm did also divest some properties last year, in Portugal, Chile and Palma de Mallorca, which together with the appreciation of other assets, resulted in net gains for the group of €47 million.

Most of Mapfre’s investment portfolio comprises public and corporate fixed income securities, which had balances of €49.3 billion and €8.9 billion, equivalent to 56% and 18% of its total portfolio, respectively, at year end 2018. Equities accounted for €2.4 billion (4.9%) and investment funds €1.3 billion (2.7%).

Original story: Expansión (by E. del Pozo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Eurostat: House Prices Rose by 6.2% in Spain in 2017

11 July 2018 – Eje Prime

The acceleration of the housing market has placed Spain amongst the leading countries in Europe in terms of price rises. In fact, in just one year, the country has risen from 21st position, with an average increase of 4.6% in 2016, to 12th , with an average increase of 6.2% last year.

In 2016, Spain already exceeded the average rise for the European Union as a whole, which amounted to 4.6% at the time, but in 2017, it distanced itself further from the average, moving closer to the group of countries with the highest rises in prices: whilst in Spain, the increase amounted to 6.2% in 2017, the average rise for the European Union as a whole was 4.4%.

Spain outperformed Austria, where prices rose by 8.5% in 2016 (in 2017, they only increased by 5.3%); Norway, which went from an increase of 7.9% in 2016 to 5.4% in 2017; and the United Kingdom, where house prices increased by 7% in 2016 and by 4.5% in 2017.

Iceland, the Czech Republic and Ireland were, in that order, the three markets where house prices rose by the most in 2017, with rises of 19.5%, 11.7% and 10.9%, respectively. Iceland was the only country to feature in the top 3 in both years; in 2016, it was joined by Hungary and Sweden.

Several countries from Eastern Europe, such as Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Hungary (with high volatilities in terms of the evolution of house prices) were amongst the most inflationary in terms of house prices in 2017, together with countries in Western Europe, such as Portugal, where prices rose by 9.2%; the Netherlands (7.5%) and Sweden (6.4%).

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the only European country where house prices decreased in 2017 was Italy, with a reduction of -0.8%. It was accompanied by moderate price increases in Finland (1.6%), Cyprus (2.2%), France (3.6%) and Croatia and Poland (both 3.8%).

The figures from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, include purchase prices of new and second-hand homes. According to the EU entity, these prices “have fluctuated significantly since 2006”. “The annual growth rate in the European Union as a whole was close to 8% in 2006 and 2007, followed by decreases of 4% as a result of the financial crisis”, it continued.

Prices started to increase in 2014, with an average cumulative rise across the whole of the European Union of 11% between 2010 and 2017, and of 6% in the Eurozone during the same period, according to Eurostat. In the case of Spain, despite the increases in recent years, the country has registered a cumulative decrease of 17% since the start of the century.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Christian de Angelis)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Alantra Creates Leading European Advisor for Sale of Toxic Asset Portfolios

12 July 2018 – Expansión

Alantra has just signed a document that is going to make it the leading advisor to banks in Europe for the sale of toxic asset portfolios. The deal was signed yesterday in London and involves the purchase of KPMG’s international business specialising in those kinds of bank cleanups. The team comprises more than 35 professionals, mainly seniors, who will move across to form part of Alantra and who will take with them the sales mandates, worth €16 billion, that they are working on at the moment, according to sources at the firm.

After almost a year of negotiations with KPMG, the division is finally going to join forces with the investment banking team led by Santiago Eguidazu (pictured above) to create a new company with more than 75 professionals. The new company will be a subsidiary of Alantra and will be dedicated to advising banks regarding the best exits options for their portfolios of non-performing assets.

To date, Alantra has advised 80 operations in this business across five countries since 2014, for a total nominal value of more than €65 billion. Meanwhile, KPMG’s team has advised on more than 100 transactions worth €180 billion during the same period. The resulting company has averaged 45 transactions per year for the last four years and has advised an operation volume of more than €61 billion. The transaction will involve a cash disbursement for the Spanish firm of €2.83 million.

Banks and funds

The new division will be particularly active in the medium-sized transaction market generated by both banks and funds. The focus will be primarily on Europe, but also other countries around the world where the firm has a presence. In its activity, Alantra will compete above all with PwC, the other major player in the European portfolio business alongside KPMG, and with the US giants Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs for the largest contracts.

KPMG’s international team is headquartered in London, with local offices in Milan, Athens, Dublin and Lisbon. Alantra adds Madrid to that list, from where it has organised its global coverage of the portfolio business to date, which has seen it advise operations not only in Spain but also in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Eastern Europe.

The team at Alantra has been responsible for the sale of portfolios by almost all of the Spanish banks, ranging from Sabadell (with which it is working at the moment) to Santander, and including BBVA, CaixaBank, Bankia, Liberbank, Ibercaja and the domestic subsidiary of Deutsche Bank.

The current Head of Alantra’s Portfolio Business, Joel Grau, will lead the new subsidiary, together with Andrew Jenke and Nick Colman, from KPMG.

Global advice

Between the three of them, they will pursue the objective of replicating on a European scale the model that Alantra has been adopting in Spain, and which is based on providing global advise to banks from three perspectives: corporate operations, real estate (large properties and loans from financial entities, as well as those relating to shopping centres and hotels) and portfolios of toxic assets, according to sources at Alantra.

They will operate from two main centres: Madrid and London, where many of the funds that buy the banks’ portfolios are located and thanks to which the business is expected to soar, by reselling financial assets acquired or securitising them to put them on the market.

Original story: Expansión (by Inés Abril)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Amazon Opens its Support Centre for SMEs in 22@ (Barcelona)

23 April 2018 – Eje Prime

Amazon’s support centre for SMEs has opened its doors in the 22@ district of Barcelona. From its Sell Support Hub facilities, the US company is going to offer support services to small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in Spain, Italy and France that sell their products through Amazon Marketplace.

The facilities, which house more than 200 employees, are also going to be home to Amazon’s Research and Development Centre, specialising in machine learning. The date for the opening of that centre has not been released yet, but its doors are expected to open within the next few months.

From its new centre, Amazon is going to help companies understand how to use its tools to sell globally through its different web platforms. According to François Saugier, Vice-President of Amazon Marketplace in Europe, it is laying the foundations for companies to make the leap into the digital economy.

Seller Support Hub is going to facilitate the creation of 500 jobs over the next three years. Regarding the choice of Barcelona as the location for this centre, François Nuyts, Vice-President and Director General of Amazon.es and Amazon.it, said that “it is a city that combines international talent with a dynamic and innovative network of SMEs, entrepreneurs and startups”.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Christie & Co: There Are Still Plenty of Opportunities for Hoteliers in Spain

22 January 2018 – Press Release

Businesses can look forward to a period of increasing confidence as we head into 2018, according to the latest report by Christie & Co, specialist hotel property adviser in Spain and business property adviser in the United Kingdom. 

In its Business Outlook 2018 report, Christie & Co reviews the most important investment figures in Spain, Europe and the UK, as well as the main hotel indicators for the market in 2017.

According to the data available to Christie & Co, Spanish hoteliers must strengthen their position in the face of the recovery of competing destinations, such as Turkey, Egypt and Greece, which will exert greater pressure on prices and may divert some of the outbound tourism from northern Europe towards other sun and beach destinations.

The report emphasises the increase in investment registered in 2017 in Spain, mostly carried out by investors (51.2%), whose seven largest operations amounted to more than the entire country’s investment figure in 2016. In addition, the proportion of foreign investment represented 56% of total investment and mostly proceeded from the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

Regarding Portugal, the report highlights that only seven deals were known to the market in 2017, involving hotel assets sold individually to hotel operators (MGM Muthu and Hoti Hotels) and investors (Internos). The potential of Portugal in terms of hotel investment is growing, with many investors interested in Porto, Lisbon and the Algarve, mainly due to a remarkable market recovery, which, in the case of Lisbon recorded an increase in occupancy rates and RevPar of 2.8% and 14%, respsectively, during the 9 months to September 2017, with respect to the same period in 2016 (…)

Regarding the UK, where the advisor covers a wider range of sectors, Christie & Co identifies those which benefitted from activity fuelled, in part, by the availability of finance and a surge of investors, many from outside the UK, looking for good opportunities and strong returns.

The continued uncertainty surrounding Brexit has made its impact across all sectors, but the UK has also welcomed a spike in tourism and a surge of foreign capital into the UK market. Asian investors particularly view the UK as an attractive investment opportunity thanks to the country’s stability and relatively low value of the Pound (…).

As a conclusion to the report, Christie & Co believes that the economy is recovering and there are still plenty of growth opportunities, something that they are also embracing, bolstering their teams both in the UK and Europe, to capitalise their expertise to attract and support both new and well-established clients who need help navigating the market, and who want to ensure a high-performing business.

Original story: Press Release

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Christie & Co: Europe is Still the World’s Most Visited Region

9 January 2018 – Press Release

Europe was still the most appealing destination and most visited region in the world in 2017, despite some disruptions faced in recent years, according to a report published by Christie & Co.

The report, launched by Christie & Co’s Hotel Consultancy team and entitled ‘European Travel Trends and Hotel Investment Hot Spots’ identifies future investment opportunities in the European hotel market by highlighting areas for increasing the value of visitation in the European market, reviewing the growth opportunities of feeder markets in Europe, analysing issues surrounding accessibility and airport capacity and highlighting which markets are expected to achieve strong RevPAR increases in the coming years making them ideal candidates for investment.

Despite other reports detailing the impact of Brexit, to date, the impact on European tourism remains unseen and Christie & Co predict the general positive outlook for tourism in Europe will translate into increased demand for accommodation. European travellers remain the key source for European destinations with domestic and other European travellers accounting for almost 90% of demand. The established feeder markets including the US, Canada, Japan and Australia continue to generate visitation growth for the European market. India and China are expected to experience healthy GDP growth over the next five years and both have populations over four times the US and affluence continues to rise. Thus, creating tremendous visitation potential for the old continent.

Christie & Co have identified two opportunities for increasing the value of visitation in the European market; firstly, Spain and Greece lag behind Western and Northern Europe in terms of value of visitation per international arrival. Christie & Co sees a real opportunity to boost the value of visitation by improving the quality of the hotel stock. Secondly, there are good branding opportunities across the European market as the hotel stock in the majority of European markets remains currently heavily unbranded and in need of investment.

Airport capacity remains a key challenge as accessibility is one of the key drivers for tourism. Christie & Co have analysed eleven major airports in this report and the findings reveal that seasonality concerns can be mitigated through providing additional flights during the shoulder season, making seasonal destinations more attractive outside of their peak times. If airport capacity is addressed promptly it will create wider development opportunities for hotels and further infrastructure.

Anna Eck, from the hotels consultancy team at Christie & Co comments, “The findings of the report show quite clearly that whilst Europe as a destination remains extremely popular, there is huge opportunity for international brands to grow in the region. Markets such as Iceland, Poland, Demark, Portugal and Sweden provide options for hotel chains whilst Ireland, Spain, Portugal Poland and Sweden would be ideal for opportunistic investors willing to take more risk. These markets are all expected to achieve strong RevPAR increases in the coming years as well as demand growth in excess of supply.”

Carine Bonnejean, Head of Consultancy – Hotels at Christie & Co comments, “We have worked closely with our European colleagues to develop this report and as a pan-European team we are able to offer strategic advice to maximise the potential of our clients’ business and investments. The report finds that certain countries are ideal for different types of investor and we are able to identify which cities in those countries are worth prioritising. Whatever the situation, we help to formulate a strategy to generate the best outcome.”

Original story: Press Release

Edited by: Carmel Drake

AC Hoteles Plans To Open One Hotel A Week

7 November 2017 – Expansión

AC Hoteles by Marriott, one of the main Spanish hotel chains, plans to open 57 new establishments around the world between now and the end of 2018. Moreover, 12 of them will be launched before the end of 2017, according to the company’s President, Antonio Catalán.

“We are opening one hotel a week”, explained Catalán (Corella, Navarra, 1948) in an interview with Efe, in which he described the “spectacular” growth of the chain, which plans to have 190 hotels in total between 2017 and 2018, mainly in the USA and Europe.

Marriot Internacional acquired 50% of the AC brand in 2011 and since then, has rolled out establishments around the world and has started expansion into Asia. The chain forecasts turnover of €400 million this year, up by 20% compared to 2016. The US group contributed 110 million loyalty card holders to the group. “Marriott was a real coup”, said Catalán, who added that “the group has shown that it is there (for us) when the going gets tough”.

“Now, the company is completely healthy following the crisis and has no debt whatsoever”. Catalán founded the NH chain in 1977 when he purchased a hotel in Pamplona. In 1997, he decided to sell his stake and create AC. That chain now has 3,500 employees in Spain and 7,000 in the rest of the world. “I always talk about the big AC family; we do unusual things when it comes to recruitment. We don’t use temporary contracts”, says Catalán, whose aim “is not to earn millions at the expense of his employees”. (…).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg Will Construct 2,000 Homes During 2017

22 May 2017 – El Mundo

(…) In line with the strong performance of the Spanish economy and, more specifically, the residential market, the real estate investment platform Stoneweg, a company that manages funds on behalf of institutional investors and family offices in Europe and Latin America, has just made its official presentation, confirming that it has €750 million to invest in property development in Spain during 2017.

Although headquartered in Switzerland, the company was founded in 2015 by two Spaniards, Jaume Sabater and Joaquín Castellví, who both previously worked in the Real Estate area at the investment bank Edmond de Rothschild. Over the last few years, Stoneweg’s investment capacity in real estate assets has exceeded €1,600 million, spread across Spain, the USA, Italy and a small part of Switzerland. (…).

Commitment to Spain

“We decided to take positions in Spain in 2015, buying land and buildings from financial institutions, Sareb and individual owners”, said Joaquín Castellví, Stoneweg’s CEO in Spain. The reasons for the firm’s commitment to Spain include its confidence in the strength of the economic recovery, the “attractive” financing conditions being offered for real estate assets and the “speed and transparency” with which the firm is able to access and close operations with local agents. “Moreover”, added Castellví, “mortgages for real estate assets are increasing again, which means that the Spanish market will be the ideal place to sell assets in around five years”.

Stoneweg’s main investment focus is on the residential market (where it will allocate two-thirds of its capital under management) be it the development of new homes or the renovation of existing buildings. To this end, the modus operandi of the management company, which has already invested €450 million of the €750 million that it is planning to spend this year, consists of closing operations to purchase land or buildings with tickets of between €100 million and €150 million to build on themselves or in conjunction with local property developers.

Currently, the company has 30 residential projects underway (in varying phases), with a total of 1,300 homes, which are due to be ready at various points between this year and 2020. It also plans to close the year with 50 projects in its portfolio, corresponding to 2,000 homes for sale.

Stoneweg insists on building homes “in accordance with the highest international standards, to ensure an extraordinary level of comfort”.

In terms of their locations of choice, Castellví confirmed that his company is focusing on Madrid, Barcelona and the Mediterranean Coast, “but” he says, “ we are flexible both in terms of the type of project, as well as location within the aforementioned areas”. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Luis M. De Ciria)

Translation: Carmel Drake