Tag: fund raising

On the Hunt for Capital: Socimi Quonia Considers Issuing Bonds to Finance its Growth

11 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Quonia does not want to put any limits on its capacity for indebtedness. The company is considering carrying out a corporate bond issue to increase its financing options and, whereby, continue with its development plan, according to explanations provided by the company’s CEO, Eduard Mercader, speaking to Eje Prime. Through this move, Quonia would also open itself up to institutional investors.

The fact that Socimis must dedicate at least 80% of their profits to dividends “limits their capacity to accumulate debt”, explains Mercader. In this way, the main option for these types of companies when they are looking to grow is primarily through capital increases. However, the company’s executive is looking for “alternative formulae”, to apply “in the short term”.

Mercader’s decision to resort to bonds is also a consequence of the difficulties faced when completing capital increases with investors outside of Europe, such as in this case. Quonia was created in 2014 by the Mexican investors Divo Milán and Ana Saucedo and investors from that country currently contribute the majority of its resources.

Quonia has just completed a €3 million capital increase, although the company had approved the possibility of raising up to €26.5 million. Before the end of the year, the company will obtain another €1 million through the capitalisation of investor loans.

Although the resources forecast by the Socimi were greater, Mercader says that the final amount does not limit the company’s development plan. “We adapt ourselves to the capital that we receive”, says the executive, and adds that Quonia “is continuously raising funds”.

After its launch with the purchase of an asset in Barcelona, Quonia has been attracting different investors from Mexico, Europe and the USA. In July 2014, the company adopted the Socimi regime and in July 2016, it made its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) where it is currently listed.

“We are very much a real estate Socimi, we do not have a financial profile at all”, explains Mercader – “we buy assets with a lot of potential”. The company’s portfolio currently comprises seven assets, located in Barcelona, Lagreo and Sevilla, of a residential, hotel and commercial nature. The valuation of the company’s portfolio in October 2017 amounted to €85 million, with a gross value of €57 million.

The company is currently finalising the sale of one of its properties. Specifically, the building located at number 166 Calle Balmes in Barcelona. It is an eight-storey residential property, with commercial premises on the ground floor, constructed in 1930 in the rationalist style. Both this property and the one at number 45 on the same street are being used as residences for students.

Quonia, whose average investments range between €10 million and €13 million, is on the lookout for opportunities in Spain to continue growing its portfolio. With Barcelona and Madrid always in its sights, the company is branching out to new destinations for its new investments in cities such as Málaga and Sevilla, as well as País Vasco, where it is analysing several operations. Palma is another city where it is considering investing (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by P. Riaño and J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Civislend: A Pioneering Crowdlending Platform For RE Sector Is Born

14 November 2017 – El Mundo

Civislend is commencing operations in Spain. The Participative Financing Platform (PFP) is a pioneer in real estate crowdlending in Spain. Authorised by the National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV) and the Bank of Spain, its aim is to mediate between property developers and investors, streamlining the bureaucratic processes and simplifying all of the administrative procedures to raise funds quickly and safely in exchange for the payment of interest. The company aspires to become the leading portal for the financing of real estate projects.

Manuel Gandarias (pictured above), CEO of Civislend, defines the platform as “an effective meeting point between real estate developers looking for a source of financing that complements traditional bank lending and investors interested in obtaining an attractive return on their savings”. Gandarias insists that “Civislend does not substitute banking institutions, but rather provides sufficient resources to finance the land on which real estate projects are developed, whereby serving as a trampoline for the granting of property developer loans”.

The comprehensive risk analysis that Civislend carries out before publishing a project on the Marketplace is one of the best guarantees of success compared with other alternatives based on crowdfunding that already exist in Spain. “The strict control filters that we apply in Civislend reduce the risk of non-payment to the minimum, in order to ensure that investors are protected as much as possible”, says Gandarias.

First projects already underway

Civislend has just launched the fund raising phase for its first two projects, which can be viewed in the Marketplace. They are two 20-home residential complexes, located in Brunete (Madrid) and Tomares (Sevilla). Both have received a type A scoring, which means that investors may obtain an APR of 7.88% and 7.90%, respectively, over 20 months, with a minimum risk and the payment of interest every four months.

The whole process begins when a property developer requests financing. A preliminary study is carried out, which serves to check the firm’s solvency, as well as the suitability of the real estate project. Next, a feasibility study is conducted, which involves the performance of a due diligence, after which the project is granted a rating on the basis of its risk profile: minimum (A and A+), medium (B and B+) and moderate (C and C+). These guarantees are complemented by other actions such as the pledging of shares in the companies responsible for developing the project and the registration of charges (liens) over the assets, where appropriate.

Any savers looking to obtain returns from their funds, with a controlled risk, can invest in Civislend. After registering, investors may choose the project that interests them the most in the Marketplace and decide how much they want to contribute. Non-accredited investors may invest between €250 and €3,000 per project or up to €10,000 per year in all PFPs in Spain, whilst there are no limits on how much accredited investors can invest. The property developers who approach Civislend in search of financing may request up to €5 million. For projects amounting to less than €2 million, both non-accredited and accredited investors may invest; whilst for projects worth more than €2 million, only accredited investors may invest.

Gandarias points out that “depending on the scoring of the project, investors will receive an annual interest return of between 6% and 12%. (…).

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

WeWork, The Co-Working Giant, Arrives In Spain

13 September 2017 – El Español

The co-working space giant WeWork, which is worth around $22,000 million, has finally arrived in Spain. And it already controls two offices in Barcelona and Madrid. The latter is going to open first, with a hosting service for small companies and independent professionals.

The offices in Madrid are located on Paseo de la Castellana, 43. This 9-storey newly-renovated office building, with a surface area of 6,000 m2, is owned by Colonial and used to house the headquarters of the consultancy firm PwC and also of Abengoa (which moved out in July 2016 to cut costs).

WeWork is not yet offering on its website the space that it has available in Barcelona. According to Ejeprime, it signed an agreement with the Catalan group Castellví in July to occupy a building in the 22@ district, where many of the main technological companies are concentrated.

The strategy that WeWork has adopted for its arrival in Spain is similar to the one that it has implemented in other markets: it does not own any real estate properties outright but rather reaches long-term agreements to lease them. Nevertheless, in May, it signed an alliance with an investment firm with the aim of acquiring real estate assets.

Who is WeWork?

WeWork is a project born in 2010 that offices flexible work spaces for workers. In Madrid, its launch prices start at €250 per month (in the case of individual desks for workers) and range up to €14,500 for private offices with up to 50 desks.

The company, which has a presence in another 17 countries, has raised more than $4,400 million, with investors ranging from fund managers, such as Fidelity and T Rowe Price, to banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

The most recent capital injection was received in August. In total, $4,400 million was contributed by the Japanese technological and telecommunications giant Softbank.

There has been debate over the valuation of the company in recent months. The $20,000 million figure represents 20 times its forecast revenues for 2017. That is much higher than those of its competitors such as Regus. The reason? It is not only a business that is growing quickly (by more than 80% if the forecasts for 2017 are fulfilled, according to CBInsight, with $1,000 million of revenues), but also because of its projection as a expert in how companies work with access to a vast quantity of data, as the magazine Wired pointed out in a recent report.

How does WeWork work?

The company has already created a Spanish company: WeWork Community Workspace SL. It was constituted at the end of June and its administrators include Mike Nolan, the company’s Head of Global Business Planning and Abraham Safdie, Vice-President of the International Business.

Its tax structure is very similar to that of other companies in the sector, such as Uber and Yahoo: the parent company that controls the subsidiary, WeWork Companies International BV, has its centre of operations in the Netherlands, a country with a very favourable tax regime and used by multinationals to reduce their tax bill.

Original story: El Español (by J.M.G)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Vbare Invests €100M To Expand Rental Home Portfolio

17 May 2017 – Expansión

The Socimi Vbare is currently analysing the possible purchase of new rental homes worth €100 million. In addition to expanding its business portfolio, the firm wants to expand the geographical reach of its activity, currently centred on Madrid, to include other cities.

The firm plans to close these operations in the short term provided it manages to raise the necessary funds. It is currently working to secure financing from domestic and overseas institutional investors, according to a statement issued by the company, whose shares are traded on the MAB.

Vbare believes that the Spanish residential market “will continue to attract the attention of large investors in the market and will consolidate itself as one of the priority investment focuses of 2017”.

To this end, the Socimi ratified its intention to raise funds in order to “take advantage of the investment opportunities that will arise in the Spanish market over the next three to five years”.

Vbare has just published its results for the first quarter of the year, which saw it record a net profit of €1.19 million, down by 8.8% compared to a year earlier. The rental income from its housing portfolio increased six-fold to €260,000.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar España Raises €104M To Finance New Purchases

16 March 2017 – Expansión

Lar España has signed two financing agreements with ING and BBVA amounting to €103.9 million. The Socimi intends to use the funds raised to acquire new assets over the next few months.

Following the signing of these agreements, the Socimi now has debt amounting to €558 million, of which €418 million corresponds to bank loans, with the remaining €140 million relating to a bond issue carried out at the beginning of 2015.

In this way, Lar España’s net gearing ratio currently equals 33% of the gross value of its assets and will rise to 38% once the latest funds have been invested. The Socimi has highlighted that “it still has a long way to go” before its financing increases to 50% of fixed leverage.

Meanwhile, Credit Suisse’s funds have acquired a 4.31% stake in the Socimi Lar to become one of its significant shareholders alongside the US manager Pimco, which owns a 20% stake, Franklin Templeton (15%), Brandes Investments (5%), Bestinver (4.1%), Blackrock (3.6%) and Threadneedle Asset Management (5%).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Housers Will Build First Building In Spain Using Collective Financing

26 August 2016 – El Economista

The real estate market has evolved so much in recent years that now anyone can become a residential developer without triggering the start of a new real estate bubble, as happened before the crisis, when many entrepreneurs decided to enter this business without any prior knowledge of it.

This has been made possible thanks to an initiative developed by Housers, which has started to raise funds, through crowdfunding, for the construction of the first residential building in Madrid to be financed by this shared investment model, and the subsequent sale of its homes. This is also the first real estate project of its kind to be undertaken in Spain.

The project involves the purchase of land, the demolition of a small existing residential property on the site, as well as the complete construction of a residential building, which will comprise five homes and three duplex lofts.

According to the company, the turn-key construction projectwill begin once the financing has been raised, and will take approximately 24 months. The homes will go up for sale when the building work commences.

The cost of the real estate project is estimated to amount to €1.041 million, of which €255,228 corresponds to the gross acquisition cost of the existing building, €539,000 relates to the construction of the new building, and the remainder corresponds to processing costs, taxes and a cushion for unforeseen expenses.

The project aims to raise €748,000 (71.8% of the project) through crowdfunding, with each investor able to participate from as little as €50; and €293,000 through a mortgage to improve returns for investors.

The term for the sale of all of the homes is 24 months. During this period, the gross yield is expected to amount to 44.06% and the net yield will reach 27.94%; those profits will be distributed in the form of dividends to all of the participating investors. Housers estimates that the sale of all of the homes in the building will generate €1,242,000. The residential building will be located in Madrid, in the district of Tetuán, an area that has very high potential given the scarce stock of new homes there.

Housers celebrated its first birthday a month ago and in that time, it has created a community of more than 8,000 investors and has received contributions amounting to more than €8.5 million to finance the purchase of 38 properties in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Marbella.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BBVA Places €1,250M 7-Year Mortgage Bond Issue

9 March 2016 – Cinco Días

On Tuesday, BBVA launched a 7-year mortgage bond issue, amounting to €1,250 million, at a price of 52 basis points above the mid swap rate, the reference rate for this kind of placement.

The operation was well received, with demand amounting to €2,700 million, according to market sources. That drove down the price from 60 basis points first thing, to the aforementioned spread of 52 basis points above the reference rate. The figure represents the cheapest price at which any Spanish bank has placed debt so far this year.

By geography, 41% of the debt was placed with German and Austrian investors; 18% was placed with Spanish investors; 10% with Norwegian investors; 9% with investors from France and the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) and 8% with Italian investors.

In addition, another 4% of the debt was placed with investors in Europe; another 3% in the UK and Ireland; and another 2% in Switzerland. By type of investor, the main buyers were central banks and official bodies (37%); followed by fund managers (27%); insurance companies and pension funds (18%) and banks (17%).

The banks that acted as the underwriters of this debt issue were BBVA itself, as well as Citigroup, Crédit Agricole, Lloyds Bank and Sociètè Gènèrale.

BBVA already issued €1,000 million in 5-year mortgage bonds during the first few days of the year. This type of issue has been very popular in recent times. Also in January, Bankia issued €1,000 million in 5-year bonds; Santander placed €1,000 million in 10-year bonds; and the Spanish subsidiary of Deutsche Bank issued €500 million in 7-year bonds.

Meanwhile, CaixaBank issued another €1,500 million in 7-year bonds at the beginning of February and Banco Popular followed suit later that month with the issue of €1,500 million in 7-year bonds.

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake