Tag: Fadesa

Manuel Jove, the Founder of Fadesa and Inveravante, Dies

The Galician businessman Manuel Jove, founder of the real estate companies Fadesa and Inveravante, has died in A Coruña after a year-long battle against an illness.

The businessman Manuel Jove Capellán (A Coruña, 1941) has died at his home in A Coruña, after a year-long battle against an illness, according to his holding company Inveravante.

Married, with two children (his eldest daughter, María José, died in 2002), Jove was one of the symbols of Spain’s last real estate boom. He turned his company Fadesa into one of the largest in the property development sector, and it went on to star in one of the most famous operations of the time: the purchase of Fadesa by Fernando Martín to create the giant Martinsa Fadesa.

Fadesa’s Former Owner Returns to Real Estate

24 August 2018 – Eje Prime

Manuel Jove has returned to the Spanish real estate sector. The Spanish businessman, once the owner of the ill-fated real estate giant Fadesa, is determined to generate a profit from the land worth €540 million that he owns through his holding company Inveravante.

The executive from A Coruña, one of the 15 wealthiest people in Spain, is starting to move away from his businesses relating to renewable energy to return to the fold of real estate development, according to reports in El País.

Jove has worked in this vein for the last five years and in 2017, he managed to sell the vast majority of the 264 homes that he brought onto the market. So far in 2018, the businessman has already started work on new urbanisations in Madrid, Andalucía, the Canary Islands and his native Galicia. Jove still has a lot of work to do, thanks to the plots of land that he owns all over the country.

In addition to the residential market, the executive has a considerable presence in the hotel sector. His chain, Attica 21, improved its turnover last year, whilst the residential complex that Jove owns in Tánger (Morocco) comprising 800 homes has recently incorporated the operation of a five star Hilton hotel. As a result, the real estate arm of Inveravante is growing at a rate of 35% and now accounts for 34% of sales.

In 2017, boosted by the wind farms, which accounted for 57% of turnover, as well as a small wine and food products division, Inveravante recorded revenues of €184 million, up by 22% compared to the previous year.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Azora Postpones the Liquidation of its European RE Investment Fund

6 March 2018 – Expansión

Strategy / The manager is asking the shareholders of Azora Europa 1, including Sabadell, Bankia, Abanca, Manuel Jove and the President of Ebro Foods, Antonio Hernández Callejas, to extend the divestment period.

With renowned shareholders, the firm Azora Europa 1 has convened an Extraordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting on 21 March, where it is going to address a change of strategy. The company was created by the heads of Azora in 2005 with the aim of looking for real estate investment opportunities. Two years later, when the real estate bubble burst in Spain, the firm started its journey with investments from Sabadell, Bankia, Kutxabank and Abanca, the businessman Manuel Jove – President of the holding company Inveravante and founder of the real estate company Fadesa –, and the President of the listed company Ebro Foods, Antonio Hernández Callejas.

Azora Europa 1 chose Eastern Europe as its primary investment destination and rental properties as its main asset. Thus, between 2008 and 2015, Azora Europa undertook 10 real estate projects in Poland and another one in the Czech Republic. During that period, Azora’s fund closed its investor period with a total volume of €410 million, of which €140 million corresponded to own funds.

Ten years after its launch, its directors terminated the fund’s journey and requested authorisation from its shareholders to initiate the divestment process. Nevertheless, one year on, the company has taken a step back from that initial plan and is going to ask its investors to postpone its complete liquidation. The fund, which at its height accumulated a dozen properties, two for residential use and the rest for office use in Poland and the Czech Republic, has decided to divest the residential complexes and the Galerías Louvre in Prague, and exclusively hold onto its office portfolio in Poland. The reason given is the high returns offered by those assets, say sources at Azora. It is a portfolio leased almost in its entirety and which includes, amongst others, the headquarters of BNP Paribas Fortis in Krakow and the Harmony Office Centre in Warsaw, whose main tenant is Millennium Bank.

Now, the heads of Azora (the company that also manages the Socimi Hispania) are going to have to obtain approval from their shareholders, on 21 March, to extend the initial divestment period. At the meeting, the subject of a capital reduction will also be addressed, for a maximum amount of €6.16 million.

Valuation

According to the latest published accounts, Azora Europa 1’s real estate investments were worth €260.7 million as at December 2016, compared with €269.5 million a year earlier. In 2016, the fund recorded revenues of €30.6 million, of which €12.8 million proceeded from the sale of properties (compared with €1.8 million generated from the same concept a year earlier). In that year, Azora Europa 1 recorded losses of €3.73 million, primarily due to provisions recorded for the impairment of tax credits.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pryconsa is Awarded the Bus Depot Plot in Madrid for €19.1M

15 January 2018 – Eje Prime

Pryconsa didn’t end up having to put up a fight for the plot in Carabanchel. Rather, the Spanish property developer was awarded the plot that used to house the EMT (Municipal Transport Company) bus depot in Madrid, for which the Town Hall was asking €16.3 million and for which it will end up receiving €19.1 million. In reality, no one else submitted a bid in the auction for this residential-use plot on which around 268 homes may be built and which has an available buildable surface area of 26,820 m2.

The total surface area of the land spans 37,475 m2 and, at the height of the pre-crisis boom, it was worth €75 million, according to El Confidencial. The plot has been put up for sale before, on up to five occasions, without success for the Spanish capital’s Town Hall. Now, and despite the clear decrease in market prices, the EMT has managed to improve the asking price with which it started the auction a month ago by 21%.

Located in the neighbourhood of Buenavista, interest in the plot has changed sharply over the last decade. The first auction for the plot was held in 2006, when besides the company chaired by Marco Colomer (Pryconsa), the EMT also received offers that were significantly higher than the current one from several other large real estate companies, some of which no longer exist. Back then, possible suitors included Colonial, Reyal Urbis, Sacyr, Fadesa and Agofer, the property developer owned at the time by Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado, the current boss of the emerging Vía Célere.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

 

Manuel Jove Joins Forces With BBVA To Construct New Homes

8 November 2016 – La Opinión A Coruña

Inveravante, the corporation owned by the A Coruñan businessman Manuel Jove, has joined forces with Anida, the real estate arm of BBVA, to create a new firm, Avantespacia Inmobiliaria, which will focus on building new homes in Spain, according to a statement made today by the two companies.

During the initial phase, the partnership will build 850 new homes in the centre of several cities such as Madrid, Málaga and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and, in a second phase, it will take on other new developments, also in large capital cities.

With this initiative, the Galician businessman makes a return to the residential property development business in Spain, given that it is the first project that he has undertaken in the sector in the last decade, following the sale of Fadesa to Martinsa in 2006. Nevertheless, during the intervening years, through Avantespacia, the real estate division of Inveravante, Jove has developed housing complexes in cities in the north of Africa, specifically in Casablanca and Tanger, and is considering embarking on projects in Mexico and Brazil.

Now, “given the strong outlook for the real estate sector in Spain”, Jove’s firm and the subsidiary of BBVA have decided to unite some parts of their respective buildable land portfolios in a return to house construction.

Inveravante will control 70% of the partnership, called Avantespacia Inmobiliaria, whilst Anida will own the remaining 30% stake.

The two partners have already launched their first project in Malaga, involving the development of 135 homes, which will be constructed on a plot of land formerly owned by Tabacalera, in one of the areas “with most potential” in the city, next to the new Paseo Marítimo.

The next initiatives, which have already been put on the market, will be undertaken in Madrid, on Calle Francisco Silvela and in the neighbourhood of Las Rosas.

Avantespacia will be in charge of the architecture and construction aspects of the properties, as well as the marketing, although the homes will be included on BBVA’s specific websites. Manuel Jove used to be a shareholder of Spain’s second largest bank.

Original story: La Opinión A Coruña

Translation: Carmel Drake

Manuel Jove Invests With His Marineda Partners Again

16 April 2015 – Expansión

After selling the Marineda shopping centre in La Coruña last summer to the Socimi Merlin Properties for €260 million, Manuel Jove (pictured above) and his partners are now working together on some new real estate projects.

The founder of Fadesa and his partners, the businessmen José Collazo and Modesto Rodríguez, have carried out two increases in the share capital of their company, Starco Invest. The company, created in September 2007, is 50% controlled by Manuel Jove, through a subsidiary of his holding company Inveravante, whilst Collazo and Rodríguez each hold a 25% stake.

At the end of March, the shareholders of Starco conducted two capital increases amounting to €12,526 million and €6,263 million, respectively, according to data recorded in the Commercial Register. In the case of the first, the operation was completed through a monetary contribution. Meanwhile, the second transaction was performed through the contribution of an asset, namely a plot of land occupying around 10,700 square metres, which has been approved for tertiary (residential) use.

The plot of land is located on the La Grela industrial estate in La Coruña and according to real estate sources, it was purchased from a financial entity. Until a few months ago, the textile company Caramelo, in which Jove also holds a stake, had its headquarters on this site. However, the company had to transfer the land to its creditor bank as part of the bankruptcy process, which it has been immersed in since April 2013.

The partners of Invest Cos have confirmed the acquisition of this land and said that they do not yet know what the land will ultimately be used for.

After selling his company, Fadesa, to Fernando Martín for more than €2,200 million in 2007, Manuel Jove created the company Inveravante, through which he has invested in numerous real estate and renewable energy projects.

Meanwhile, Jove joined forces with Modesto Rodríguez, José Collazo and José Souto (who no longer holds a stake in Starco) to undertake the Marineda real estate project, which mainly focused on the shopping centre, but which also included a hotel (which was also transferred to the Socimi last year) and an office building.

Jove and his partners generated a profit of around €50 million from the sale of Marineda, according to sources close to the transaction. In September, the businessmen wound up the company Invest Cos and since then they have been jointly managing the offices.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake