AURA News Real Estate

Starwood Finalises the Purchase of 5 Buildings from Oaktree for €150M

4 June 2019 – Eje Prime

Starwood is finalising the purchase of four office buildings in Madrid and one in Barcelona from Oaktree and the German company Freo for €150 million in total.

Together the five buildings span a surface area of 78,428 m2 and have 1,323 parking spaces. They are currently leased to a number of companies, such as Indra, BBVA, Air France KLM and Hoist Finances, amongst others.

Specifically, the properties are located on Calle Julián Camarillo, numbers 4 and 6, Avenida de Manoteras, 44 and Valportillo Primera, 13 in Madrid; and on Calle Samontà in Sant Joan Despí in Barcelona.

The US fund is teaming up with the Spanish real estate company Drago Capital, as it continues to strengthen its position in Spain. In recent months, the alliance has purchased assets worth €400 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

New Neighbour for 22@: the Multinational Criteo Rents its New Offices from Oaktree

14 August 2018

The French company, specialised in digital marketing, will occupy an entire, 8,500-square-meter building on Almogàvers Street. The company will leave Torre Mapfre and double its workforce.

The neighbourhood of 22@ will have a new and famous neighbour starting next year. The French multinational Criteo will move its offices in Barcelona to the city’s technological district in 2019, after signing the lease for an entire, 8,500-square-meter building on Almogàvers Street that is owned by the Oaktree and Freo investment funds.

Operating from the Torre Mapfre since 2014, Criteo plans to expand its presence in the Catalan capital, where it has its second-largest office in Europe (just behind its headquarters in Paris), with its new headquarters in Barcelona. The company will double its workforce, from the current 350 employees to a high of 700, according to Expansión.

The building in which the multinational will take up residence will be completely renovated by the Barcelona architectural office of BCA, one of the most active in the area of 22@ and will involve an investment of twelve million euros.

The building is located in what is known as the golden mile of the tech hub, at 177-185 Almogàvers street, very close to the Glories Tower, an icon of the district. The building has three floors, 600 square meters of terrace on the roof and a large central atrium.

Original Story: EjePrime

Translation: Richard Turner

FREO Completes Second Purchase In Spain

22 May 2017 – Freo Group

FREO has made its second acquisition in Spain, this time in conjunction with a large American investment fund. Together they have purchased a value-add office portfolio comprising 14 assets distributed between Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. The portfolio was purchased from BBVA (one of Spain’s largest banks).

The majority of the portfolio consists of good quality office assets in the major sub-markets of Madrid and Barcelona – namely Julian Camarillo, Manoteras and Alcobendas in Madrid and 22@ in Barcelona.

FREO will be responsible for the asset management of the portfolio and will execute a variety of asset specific business plans due to the heterogeneity of the portfolio, ranging from small amounts of capex and leasing/lease renegotiation, through to total asset refurbishment and repositioning projects.

Original story: Freo Group

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Savills: Office Inv’t In Barcelona Exceeds Madrid For First Time Ever

25 April 2017 – La Vanguardia

Transactions in the Spanish office market amounted to almost €900 million during the first quarter of 2017, more than twice the figure recorded during the same period in 2016. Moreover, Barcelona exceeded Madrid in terms of investment, for the first time, with a differential of €50 million – investment in Barcelona amounted to €450 million – driven by the purchase of Torre Glòries, according to data from the real estate consultancy firm Savills.

Two mega-operations amounting to more than €100 million each boosted office investment during the first quarter, which represented 30% of the total figure recorded during the whole of 2016. Firstly, during the second week of January, Merlin Properties announced the purchase of Torre Glòries (Torre Agbar) for €142 million.

The second deal saw the sale of the so-called Boston portfolio, comprising 14 BBVA office buildings (eight in Barcelona, five in Madrid and one in Valencia), which were sold to Oaktree and Freo.

According to Savills, the operation involving Torre Glòries is one of the largest recorded in Barcelona in recent years, exceeded only by the €145 million that Deka spent in 2010 on the former headquarters of Caja Madrid on La Diagonal.

The fact that 20 of the 35 assets that changed hands during the quarter were located in Barcelona significantly increased the Catalan capital’s share of the national total. The city accounted for 52% of total investment, which allowed it to exceed Madrid for the first time in the historical series.

The volume of office investment in Barcelona amounted to almost €450 million, compared with €40 million during the same period in 2016. In Madrid, office investment exceeded €400 million, an amount that was distributed between thirteen assets. In interannual terms, the volume of investment in the capital increased by 60%. One of the major operations in Madrid was the sale of Barclays headquarters in Plaza de Colón, which was acquired by CBRE Global Investors for more than €55 million.

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Freo Buys An Office Building In Madrid For €15M

14 October 2016 – Expansión

The German fund Freo, which opened offices in Madrid and Barcelona at the end of last year with the aim of investing in the Spanish market, has completed its first purchase. The private equity manager has acquired an office building on Avenida de Manoteras in Madrid for €15 million. The property, known as Edificio Orion, used to be owned by the German fund manager Triuva, formerly known as IVG Institutional Funds.

The asset, constructed in 2001, is located at number 26 on the Madrilenian street and has a surface area of 7,300 sqm. According to sources in the real estate sector, the offices are fully occupied and currently house twelve tenants in total, including Whisbi Technologies, Sacyr, TPI Edita, Tento and several companies from the ACS Group. The operation will generate a return of 6% for the buyer.

Team

Freo is a private equity fund manager that also has its own investment vehicle. It was founded in Frankfurt (Germany) twenty years ago and has offices in all of Europe’s major cities.

Last year, Freo hired Daniel Mayans, former Director at GE Capital Real Estate in Spain, as the CEO of its Spanish subsidiary. It also appointed Óscar de Navas, who also came from the US multinational, as the Vice-President of Investment at Freo for the Spanish market. The firm’s purpose is to look for buildings such as Orion to add value to them, in terms of investment by renovating the offices, as well as in terms of returns by making improvements to the rental contracts.

Investment focus

That is the goal of the most international funds, which, given the shortage of assets in the most central areas of Madrid and Barcelona and the strong pressure to buy, are acquiring assets in more peripheral areas of Spain’s largest cities. Other funds that have recently made purchases on the Manoteras thoroughfare include: IBA Capital Partners, Axa Real Estate, Lone Star and Blackstone, as well as the Socimis Trajano Iberia and Merlin Properties.

The seller of the property in this case, the company formerly known as IVG Institutional Funds, which has been called Triuva since 2015, is the largest institutional real estate fund manager in Germany, with 45 funds in total. The subsidiary in Spain and Portugal manages assets worth €300 million, which have a combined surface area of 78,000 sqm.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)