Tag: gesfesa

Bankia Sold its Stake in NAU for Less Than €6M After Reducing its Value by €11.7M

25 June 2018 – Valencia Plaza

The sale of 48.62% of the Valencian real estate company Nuevas Actividades Urbanas (NAU) by Bankia Habitat was closed for a price of less than €6 million. That is according to the latest accounts deposited by Bankia Habitat – corresponding to 2016 – in which the company indicates that it sold a set of shares whose net book value amounted to €6.973 million.

In addition to the shares in NAU, the sold package included the 46% that Bankia held in the company Costa Bellver SA, which was acquired by the Calabuig family for €1 million, as well as other stakes in the firms Espai Comercial Vila-real SL and Viladecavalls Park Centro Industrial Logístico y Comercial SA. As a result, the price at which Bankia sold its stake in NAU must have amounted to less than €6 million.

It is also a lower value than the amount assigned to the company just a year ago. According to the accounts of Bankia Habitat, in 2015, the company recognised an impairment provision amounting to €11.7 million.

When asked about this, sources at Bankia explained to Valencia Plaza that “the stake in NAU was adjusted in 2015 to reflect the estimated market value of that stake, to get it ready, from an accounting point of view, for its possible sale”. “There was no more to it”, they underlined.

In terms of the exact sales price of NAU, Bankia explained that it is not authorised to divulge the figure “for reasons of confidentiality agreed between the parties when the transaction was signed”.

A firm that started life with a share capital of €503 million.

Atitlan and Gesfesa have controlled NAU since March 2017, when they acquired 79.66% of the company through the firm Demeter Aurea SL. The rest of the shares are held by Sabadell Real Estate Development SL (15.22%) and Multiactividades Reunidas SL (5.12%).

The company, created in 2009 with a share capital of €503 million, holds stakes in important buildings including the Aqua and Arena Multiespacio shopping centres, but it is weighed down by a heavy debt, amounting €200 million, according to its new owners.

At the end of 2017, following divestment operations such as the sale of three plots by the subsidiary MAI for €33 million and the stake in the Cirsa Valencia casino, that amount had been reduced to around €95 million, of which €35 million corresponded to the consolidation of subsidiaries.

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Dani Valero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Acquires 15% Of NAU, Which Holds Stakes In 2 Shopping Centres In Valencia

7 September 2017 – Valencia Plaza

Gesfesa, the firm owned by the Ferrando and Quesada families, has transferred the shares that it held in the real estate investment company Nuevas Actividades Urbanas (NAU) to Banco Sabadell. NAU owns significant stakes in the Aqua and Arena shopping centres in the city of Valencia.

That is according to the most recent annual accounts filed by the company Gesfesa Valencia SL, which reflect the operation within the caption “Variation in Group companies and associates”. “During the year, 51,862,209 shares in the company Nuevas Actividades Urbanas were transferred to Banco Sabadell by way of payment for a debt that we held with the entity”, reveals the company in its annual report.

The shares, which represent just over 15% of NAU’s total share capital, convert the financial institution into the new partner of Atitlan, which has controlled an 84.5% majority stake in the company since last March, through the entity Demeter Áurea.

When asked about the deal, sources at Banco Sabadell refused to confirm any of the details of the operation, but according to sources in the real estate sector, Gesfesa has now paid off all of its debt with the financial institution. The same sources add that Sabadell would have valued the stake it received at around €30 million, which means that the value of NAU amounts to around €200 million in total (…).

NAU’s assets

NAU, in which Sabadell now holds a stake, owns an attractive portfolio of assets, although it has suffered in recent years from a high level of debt and a complex relationship with the Montoro family. The Montoros are NAU’s partner in the ownership of its most sought-after assets – the aforementioned Aqua and Arena Multiespacio shopping centres.

Oceanic Center, the company that owns the Aqua Multiespacio retail, hotel and leisure complex, is one of the companies that NAU and the Montoros own jointly through the firm Navisa, however, the recent purchase of the 50% stake that used to be owned by Iberdrola left the family in control of most of the shares.

Meanwhile, the ownership of Valencia Natura Park, which owns the Arena Multiespacio shopping centre, is shared equally between the parties, with 50% in the hands of NAU and the remaining 50% held by the Montoros. The same applies in the case of Osito Park, which owns land next to the El Osito de la Eliana shopping centre. Another important asset is the Vega Cullera SL company, the property developer of the so-called Manhatten de Cullera – which is 100% owned by Navisa, in which the Montoros holds a majority stake.

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Dani Valero)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Iberdola Injects €617m Into Its Real Estate Arm

3 February 2015 – Cinco Días

The company has conducted a capital increase of €154 million.

Iberdrola has recapitalised the debt that it held with its real estate subsidiary, Iberdrola Inmobiliaria. The energy group has injected €616.7 million into its subsidiary through a capital increase of €154.2m and an issue premium, explained the company. In this way, Iberdrola Inmobiliaria “cleans up its balance sheet and is made stronger to face its new challenges”.

The group’s real estate subsidiary, chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, recorded losses of almost €70 million in 2013 and turnover of more than €45 million, according to the most recent company accounts filed with the Companies Registry. The company held debt, primarily with its parent company, amounting to more than €500 million, according to those accounts.

Iberdrola Inmobiliaria was created in 1993 from the merger of Iberdrola’s real estate companies. During the 1990s, it grew its business as a residential developer. By the end of the decade, it had focused on three main areas: the development of housing; the development and operation of rental property; and the management and development of land.

During the years leading up to the burst of the real estate bubble, the company undertook some major investments and also launched businesses overseas. In 2006, it invested €240 million in the construction of a shopping centre in Valencia, together with local constructors, Gesfesa and Valencia Residencial. That same year, it approved a €200 million investment in the Porta Firal project, located at the entrance of the Gran Via Fair (in l’Hospitalet), which was in the middle of its own enlargement program.

In 2007, it recorded turnover of almost €400 million and approved a €300 million investment in a geographic expansion plan. In July of that year, it acquired a 35% stake in the tourist resort Puerto Peñasco (in the state of Sonora, on the west coast of Mexico) for €43.12 million. In 2008, it bought residential land in Bulgaria for €44.6 million for the development of a tourist resort.

The economic crisis thwarted the expansion plans of the energy company’s real estate subsidiary, which nevertheless continued to operate throughout the worst crisis to hit the Spanish real estate sector in decades. In 2010, Iberdrola injected €400 million into the subsidiary, in a similar operation to the one just undertaken. In 2013, it acquired a minority stake in Sareb.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alberto Ortín Ramón)

Translation: Carmel Drake