Tag: four-star hotels

The Ruggieri Family Buys Eurosic’s Spanish Socimi

18 October 2017 – El Confidencial

One of the wealthiest families in France has set its sights on Spain’s tourism market. The Ruggieri family, owner of the Batipart Group, reached an agreement in August with the also French firm Eurosic to purchase the Socimi that that firm had created in Spain, and has now renamed the entity Elaia Investment Spain.

After taking over 66% of the vehicle, Batipart has put all of the wheels in motion to enable the company to make its debut on the stock market before the end of the year, just like its previous owner had planned.

In this new business venture, Ruggieri is accompanied by Euler Hermès, owner of 13.81% of the Socimi; Allianz Invest Pierra, owner of another 9.21%; and around twenty individual investors who own the remainder of the share capital.

Elaia owns twelve real estate assets in Spain, primarily hotels and tourist apartments, although it also owns two residential properties in Madrid, on the centric streets Bailén and Atocha.

The Socimi focuses on three-and four-star category hotels and on taking advantage of the boom in tourist apartments. It owns two assets of each type in Mallorca and a hotel and two apartment blocks in Málaga, whilst, in Cataluña, it owns a hotel in Roses (Gerona), one tourist rental building in Barcelona and another in Estartir (Gerona).

In total, the Socimi has invested €145 million so far acquiring its portfolio, although its objective is to reach €280 million. To that end, it is currently holding talks with various investors, whose contributions will range between €10 million and €30 million.

When it debuts on the MAB, Elaia expects to have a market capitalisation of €120 million, a figure that will make it one of the largest Socimis on the market. The company will be managed by Elaia Management Spain, a subsidiary of Batipart, and the plan is to undertake some of its expansion together with Pierre & Vacances, its main partner in Spain.

The Socimi’s roadmap foresees it continuing with its intense asset acquisition policy for the next year or so, before spending the following two years repositioning those assets. The divestment phase is expected to be activated from 2021 onwards and that strategy is expected to be carried out on an asset by asset basis, culminating in 2024, with a forecast rate of return (IRR) of 15%.

Eurosic-Gecina’s heritage

The Batipart Group was founded in 1988 by Charles Ruggieri, who was born in Italy but who settled in France many years ago, where he is one of the top 100 wealthiest people in the country, with a net worth of around €900 million. A historical shareholder of Eurosic, in June, he agreed to sell his 24% in the real estate company to Gecina, in exchange for taking ownership of all of the leisure, health and hotel assets in the portfolio, including Elaia, worth €463 million in total.

That agreement was signed on 29 August, which is when Batipart took control of the Spanish Socimi. Moreover, the group owned by the Ruggieri family also has a presence in the nursing home sector, through the Korian Group, and it owns six hotels in Africa.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Saint Croix Acquires Blanco Store On c/Goya For €15M

13 February 2017 – Eje Prime

Saint Croix, the Socimi owned by the Colomer family, has won the bid to acquire the Blanco store located on Calle Goya in Madrid. The company has spent €15 million on the premises, which several other investors, including Jesús Antúnez, also bid for. Antúnez came close to winning, but Saint Croix took the prize in the end.

The Socimi owned by the Colomer family (which also owns the real estate developer Pryconsa) has spent €15.25 million acquiring the property, which has a gross leasable area of 863 m2. In other words, it has paid a price equivalent to more than 17,600/m2. The company has also acquired two parking spaces as part of the operation.

Until now, the premises were owned by the real estate arm of the former owner of the Madrilenian chain Blanco (which specialises in fashion retail), namely, Inversiones Blasol. The company, whose administrator is Bernardo Blanco Moreno (son of the founder of the Blanco fashion chain) and which was constituted in 19991 with the corporate purpose of leasing real estate assets, filed for voluntary creditors’ bankruptcy in December 2014 in Commercial Court number 10 of Madrid. The company is now in the middle of negotiating its bankruptcy arrangement.

Inversiones Blasol has several other assets up for sale, including a store on Calle Pelai, 1 in Barcelona. That establishment has a commercial area of 200 m2. Jesús Antúnez also bid for those premises, and sources consulted by Eje Prime report that he offered €4 million.

According to the most recent results filed by the company, as at 30 September 2016, the Socimi had a portfolio comprising 209 assets, worth €339.26 million. They include retail premises, such as the Zara store on Conde de Peñalver (Madrid) and several supermarkets leased to Día; office buildings such as CLH’s headquarters on Calle Titán; and several four- and five-star hotels on Isla Canela (Huelva), managed by chains such as Iberostar, Meliá and Barceló.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

CaixaBank Puts 144 Hotels Up For Sale Worth c. €1,000M

20 May 2016 – Expansión

CaixaBank has launched a mega hotel operation. The Catalan entity wants to sell off the majority of the hotel assets that have come into its possession during the course of the crisis, as well as some that it will soon foreclose. To this end, it has brought Project Sun onto the market, advised by N+1, whereby it is looking to sell its exposure in 144 hotels, valued at almost €1,000 million, according to financial sources.

The operation is divided into two portfolios: one with unpaid loans secured by 112 hotels; and the other with 32 hotel assets already foreclosed by the entity. In total, the properties that CaixaBank wants to sell contain almost 11,000 rooms.

This is the largest financial operation involving the divestment of hotels launched to date in the Spanish market. Bankia undertook a similar operation in 2014, with Project Amazonas, containing hotels worth €800 million, which were awarded to the specialist fund Starwood; and another one in 2015 for €400 million – known as Project Castle, which was sold to Davidson Kempner Capital and Bank of America.

Market trend

Santander and Sareb also wanted to join the party. Last year, the entity led by Ana Botín launched Project Formentera, containing 17 hotels worth €170 million. Meanwhile, Sareb, put a portfolio up for sale containing assets inherited from Polaris World, which were worth €500 million before they were transferred to the bad bank. Both operations have been postponed until this year.

The operation launched recently by CaixaBank has been distributed amongst investors. The entity hopes to close the deal during the month of July. Of the 144 hotels, two thirds are located in Andalucía (37), Cataluña (22), the Canary Islands (19) and the Balearic Islands (17), with an average value of almost €7 million. Both Andalucía and the Canary Islands are regions were CaixaBank increased its presence thanks to the acquisition of Banca Cívica. The other assets are distributed all over Spain.

85% of the hotels are four- and five-star properties, and more than half are holiday properties, situated on the coast. The portfolio also includes rural and urban accommodation. This type of portfolio mainly attracts large international opportunistic funds, such as Cerberus, Apollo, Oaktree, Starwood – specialists in hotels – and Blackstone.

Once they have been awarded such portfolios, investors try to make profits from the operation by selling the hotels to large specialist groups or to local property developers; and by restructuring the debt. Project Sun contains 108 loans, of which 35 are up to date and 75 are overdue. (…).

Clean-up

For CaixaBank, this type of operation allows it to reduce its default rate, obtain profits – depending on the price paid – and release provisions. The Catalan entity held €9,500 million of problem assets (net of provisions) linked to the real estate sector at the end of the first quarter 2016. This figure had decreased by 11% in the last year thanks to the sale of portfolios and foreclosed assets through Servihabitat.

In addition to this portfolio, the Catalan entity has another group of assets up for sale, Project Carlit, advised by PwC, through which it hopes to sell of €790 million in doubtful loans to property developers.

Original story: Expansión (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake