Tag: GreenOak

Catalana Occidente Buys Castellana, 55 From Standard Life For €60M

22 December 2016 – El Confidencial

Real estate investors are making the most of the last few days of 2016. The Catalana Occidente group, through its subsidiary Plus Ultra Seguros, has purchased the building at number 55 on Paseo de la Castellana from Standard Life. The asset is located on Madrid’s most important thoroughfare and represents an geunine object of desire for all of the major real estate investors. The group has paid almost €60 million for the building, which represents a yield of around 3%. For Standard Life, selling the building for this amount signals the finishing touch to a perfect operation, given that the insurance company invested €35 million when it acquired the property.

The building has a surface area of 5,625 m2, distributed over seven above ground office floors of 734 m2 each. Moreover, it has a garden for exclusive use by its employees and 27 parking spaces. The property was completely renovated in 2007, but its main architectural and protective features were respected, such as the façade that overlooks Paseo de la Castellana, the entrance hall and the main staircase.

The process has been advised and managed by CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield – the consultancy firms that have conducted a competitive process involved a restricted number of investors.

Castellana 55 is one of the most iconic buildings in the prime area of Madrid and its surface area is leased out in its entirety. Moreover, it is one of just a handful of assets that has gone up for sale in the most prime area of Madrid. Sources familiar with the operation say that the process has received a lot of interest, given the vast shortage of prime products in the market.

Sales and Brexit

The sale of Castellana 55 is the second major divestment that Standard Life has made in Spain this year, after it sold the Las Mercedes Business Park to GreenOak for €140 million. Las Mercedes is an office complex measuring almost 80,000 m2, comprising 10 buildings. It is located on the outskirts of Madrid, next to the A-2 highway and close to the Campo de las Naciones Exhibition Centre and Barajas airport.

The manager completed this operation in June, just one month before it was hit by Brexit and was forced to announce the suspension of trading of its fund Standard Life Investments UK Real Estate Fund. The vehicle, which has funds amounting to GBP 2,900 million (€3,420 million), focuses exclusively on investments in the UK, although in October it announced that it has returned to normality.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Puts All Of Its Logistics Assets Up For Sale

29 November 2016 – El Confidencial

Early in the summer of 2015, the opportunistic fund GreenOak surprised the market by announcing its unbridled appetite for the Spanish logistics market. In June of that year, the vehicle funded and managed by John Carrafiell announced that it had just purchased five logistics assets in the Community of Madrid, with a combined surface area of 200,000 m2, and that it had agreed to acquire another 100,000 m2.

Over the next few months, the fund completed a barrage of operations, involving the acquisition of, amongst others: a 14,000 m2 platform, which became the largest logistics operation in the País Vasco in 2015; a 30,000 m2 asset in Toledo, leased to Schwepees; the Michelin logistics platform in Seseña, which has a surface area of 47,000 m2; and a portfolio covering 144,320 m2 spread across several properties in Zaragoza and Massalvés (Valencia), which it purchased from Prologis.

Thus, in just 12 months, GreenOak fulfilled its objective of acquiring a portfolio covering 500,000 m2, but rather than develop it, the US fund has now decided to put it up for sale, and whereby take advantage of the strong appetite from institutional investors and specialists in the sector. According to several sources familiar with the sale, the fund has opened a formal sales process, whose first key milestone was recorded last week, with the presentation of preliminary offers from interested parties.

The US firm Eastdil Secured, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, is coordinating the process, according to the same sources, who point out that this advisor was also chosen by the Canadian fund Ivanhoe to coordinate the sales process of Xanadú, one of the largest shopping centres in Spain, which was sold for around €500 million.

GreenOak’s decision to divest its entire logistics portfolio is seen in the market as an operation by an opportunistic fund, which knew how to buy cheaply and which has decided to take advantage of the interest from more stable investors to generate rapid capital gains. The consideration for the operation is expected to exceed €200 million, compared with the figure of around €125 million that GreenOak has invested to build the portfolio.

Opportunistic buyer

GreenOak signed its first major property purchase in Spain in 2014, when it acquired seven shopping centres from the Dutch group Vastned Retail for €160 million. (…).

It then went onto buy the building located at number 77 on Calle Fuencarral, which it acquired from the General Social Security Treasrury for €21 million; followed by the Sevilla Factory shopping centre, which it bought for €12 million; an office building in Port Cornellá (Barcelona), which it purchased for €10.1 million; and four buildings in the Avalon Business Park (Madrid) and another one in Arroyo de la Vega (Alcobendas), on which it spent more than €55 million in total, according to the figures disclosed in the annual accounts of Gore Spain, the Socimi through which the fund channels its investments in our country.

The icing on the cake for GreenOak came in June this year, when it acquired the Las Mercedes Business Park from Standard Life. The property is located on the outskirts of Madrid, next to the A-2 motorway and comprises an 80,000 m2 complex with 10 buildings, of which nine are used for offices, with the tenth used for the provision of general services.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CBRE: Real Estate Investment Down By 24% In H1 2016

5 July 2016 – Expansión

The real estate sector is still a preferred investment destination, after a record and unusually active 2015, but investors are now putting the brakes on, which has caused investment volumes to decrease during the first half of 2016.

Between January and June 2016, real estate investment amounted to €3,921 million, 24% less than during the same period in 2015 when, excluding the purchase of Testa, investment stood at €5,200 million. This difference is even more marked if we include Merlin’s purchase of Testa, in which case, investment during the first six months of last year soar to €8,400 million, according to data from the real estate consultancy CBRE.

The decrease in investment reflects a reduction in the supply of real estate properties, the uncertainty at the political and economic level and a normalisation of the quality-price relationship of assets. Despite everything, the level of investment to June was 40% higher than the average recorded over the last ten years.

By sector, the most affected has been the office segment, with a reduction in terms of investment of 48%, to €871 million. Meanwhile, investment in retail and hotel assets fell by 30% and 48%, to €1,341 million and €543 million, respectively. Meanwhile, investment in logistics assets doubled to reach €462 million; that segment now accounts for 12% of total investment.

In terms of type of investor, the Socimis, which accounted for 42% of all real estate investments made last year, have lowered their profiles to participate in just 10% of real estate transactions during H1 2016. By contrast, international funds now account for 68% of total investment. In terms of the geographical origin of the overseas capital, the USA leads the way, with 39% of total investment, followed by Australia (8%) and the UK (6%).

The most important operations during the first six months of the year included: Blackstone’s purchase of 4,500 rental homes for €540 million; Invesco’s acquisition of a portfolio of Gonuri hypermarkets for €358 million; and the purchase of the car park manager Parkia by the Australian fund First State for €300 million. In the office sector, the largest deal was GreenOak’s purchase of the Las Mercedes business park in Madrid for €128.5 million.

Optimistic outlook

Looking ahead towards H2 2016, the President of CBRE España, Adolfo Ramírez-Escuero, acknowledges that the forecasts made at the beginning of the year, that investment would amount to between €8,500 million and €9,000 million in 2016, seem “somewhat optimistic” six months on.

Ramírez-Escudero explained that the result of the UK’s referendum has taken the European real estate sector by surprise. “It is likely that investors will wait until the rules that are going to frame the relationship between the UK and the EU have been defined more clearly, as well as to find out how they will influence the economy on both sides”, said the President of CBRE España regarding Brexit.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Purchases Las Mercedes Business Park For €140M

24 June 2016 – Expansión

The US fund GreenOak Real Estate has purchased the Las Mercedes business park in Madrid from Standard Life Investments for around €140 million, according to sources close to the deal.

In 2004, Standard Life Investments invested around €150 million in the construction of the business park, located on the outskirts of Madrid next to the A-2 motorway. The business park, located on Calle Campezo 1, opposite Madrid Barajas airport, is just a few metres away from the Plenilunio shopping centre – measuring 70,000 sqm – owned by Klepierre.

Covering 78,500 sqm, the business complex comprises nine office buildings and a private garden. Constructed on a plot of land measuring four hectares, the complex includes a common area with two cafeterias, a restaurant, a supermarket, a courier service and a gym. The business park is served by public transport and a shuttle bus, which connects it with Madrid. In addition, the business park has parking spaces with capacity for 1,652 vehicles.

The Las Mercedes business park is currently occupied by tenants such as Altran, Applus, la Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Reguladora and Xerox. Clifford Chance, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and Gleeds have advised the buyers, whilst Gomez-Acebo &Pombo and CBRE have advised the sellers.

GreenOak, which opened its office in Madrid in 2015, has been very active in Spain. Last year, it acquired the Sevilla Factory shopping centre and a building on the Madrilenian Calle Fuencarral. In addition, in 2014, it joined forces with Baupost and Lar to purchase seven properties located in Madrid, Málaga, Barcelona, Burgos and Alicante.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Buys Building on c/Fuencarral For €21M

28 December 2015 – Expansión

International funds are starting to invest in the residential market. Whilst their first acquisitions (in Spain) involved offices and shopping centres, now many investors are interested in purchasing homes and land for development. Such is the case of GreenOak. This US fund has just completed the purchase of the building at number 77 on Calle Fuencarral in Madrid. The property, measuring around 8,000 m2 in total, contains homes and offices covering a surface area of around 6,000 m2; the ground and first floors are occupied by a shopping arcade measuring more than 2,000 m2.

The aim is to completely renovate this property to convert it into homes. “Our aim is to offer a quality asset at an attractive market price. We do not know the details of the project yet, but it will be high quality, in keeping with the neighbourhood and bearing in mind the (needs of the) residents of Chueca and Malasaña”, explains Javier Zarrabeitia, partner at GreenOak in Spain.

International experience

The fund, which opened its office in Madrid this summer, having channelled all of its investments until then from London, has invested €21 million on the purchase of this building. “It is the first time that we are developing a property in Spain, but we have already undertaken similar projects in Los Ángeles, New York and London. We are a team of 60 people and we all get involved in these types of projects”.

This is GreenOak’s first residential project in Spain, a market in which it has been particularly active in recent months. “We have invested more than €400 million this year and we have the capacity to invest €700 million”, says Zarrabeitia. “We have closed 18 operations this year, and have been heavily focused on the logistics segment, where we now own 350,000 m2 of surface area, primarily in Madrid, but also in Bilbao. We have also purchased four buildings in the Avalon de Madrid complex, another one in La Moraleja and one in Barcelona, as well as the Sevilla Factory shopping centre, with a surface area of more than 16,000 m2”.

The key to this investment whirlwind is the fund’s capacity to invest in operations of different sizes, explains its CEO. “Our smallest investment in Spain amounted to €8 million and the largest will amount to around €40 million, but our capacity is unlimited, and we invest in volumes where the Socimis and other funds do not operate, which gives us a niche to be competitive”.

Next year, the fund will continue closing operations in Spain. “We believe that it will continue to be possible to raise capital for Spain: with very low interest rates, a significant decrease in prices, sellers with needs and growth in the country thanks to the low euro, we expect to see the restructuring of the labour market and banking sector, as well as a recovery in tourism”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Acquires 4 Office Buildings In Madrid’s Avalon Business Park

24 August 2015 – Mis Oficinas

The US fund GreenOak has purchased four office buildings from Banco Santander. The offices, which are located on Calle Santa Leonor in the Avalon Business Park (Madrid), have a combined surface area of 21,170 m2 and 353 parking spaces. In May, Meridia Capital purchased the other five buildings that make up the park (spanning 25,785 m2 and with 423 parking spaces) from the Naropa family office.

The main tenants of these offices include Arcelor, Konecta and Tatacs. All three lease more than 1,000 m2 of office space each.

GreenOak, founded in 2010, has a portfolio of assets under management worth $5,400 million.

Original story: Mis Oficinas

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Recruits Zarrabeitia From CBRE

16 July 2015 – Expansión

International funds still regard Spain as one of their favourite destinations for investment. As such, one of the most active firms, the US fund GreenOak, has just strengthened its team in Spain to boost its commitment to the market.

The fund, which specialises in the real estate sector, has recruited Javier Zarrabeitia, former director of CBRE España. Zarrabeitia, the son of the CEO of Testa Inmuebles, is a specialist in capital markets. Before joining CBRE, he advised large real estate transactions, such as the sale of BBVA’s building on Castellana, 77 to GMP for €90 million. In fact, GreenOak was one of the finalists in that auction.

In addition to Zarrabeitia, GreenOak is planning to hire three or four other people over the coming months at its offices in Madrid. The firm currently has a team of ten professionals dedicated to the Spanish market, although most of them are based in London.

Francesco Ostuni leads the Spanish team – he is the European Director of Acquisitions at GreenOak, and was formerly a director at Morgan Stanley and before that at the Qatar sovereign fund. In turn, Ostuni reports into the founding director of the fund, John Carrafiell, who led Morgan Stanley’s real estate strategy for several years, and closed operations such as the purchase of Canary Wharf. (…)

GreenOak, which has assets under management amounting to $5,000 million (€4,533 million) around the world, has already made several real estate investments in Spain during the last year.

Background

The US fund took its first big step in Spain last year, when it purchased seven shopping centres from the Dutch group Vastned Retail for €160 million. Subsequently, it tried to enter the office market – it participated in the process to purchase not only Castellana 77, but also Castellana, 89 – Ahorro Corporación’s headquarters – which was ultimately purchased by Corporación Financiera Alba, owned by the March family.

In recent months, GreenOak has been adding to its portfolio of Spanish investments, with the purchase of five logistics assets in the Community of Madrid, encompassing 200,000 m2. The US fund paid between €60 million and €75 million to close that acquisition.

The firm plans to close new operations in the short term, mainly in the logistics segment – where it has agreed to buy three more assets – , as well as the market for shopping centres and offices, after its two previous failed attempts.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Buys ‘Sevilla Factory’ Shopping Centre For €15M

10 July 2015 – Expansión

The French-Dutch group Unibail Rodamco, one of the largest shopping centre owners in Europe, has closed the sale of one of its assets in Spain: the Sevilla Factory.

According to the Spanish Association of Shopping Centres, the property, which opened in the year 2000, has a constructed surface area of 20,000 m2, of which almost 16,000 m2 comprises retail space, and is spread across one floor. In addition, the shopping centre has 1,200 parking spaces.

The new owner of the centre is the fund GreenOak. That fund closed one of the largest shopping centre transactions in Spain last year, together with Baupost and the Spanish real estate company Lar, when it acquired seven properties in Madrid, Málaga, Barcelona, Burgos and Alicante. It paid €160 million to Vastned for those properties. According to real estate sources, the fund will now spend €15 million on Sevilla Factory.

Knight Frank has advised Unibail and Deloitte’s RE team has advised GreenOak. Both have declined to comment on the deal.

Background

Through this transaction, Unibail Rodamco continues with its plans to divest its shopping centres in Spain that have lower footfalls. Sevilla Factory receives an average of 1.9 million visitors per year.

To this end, in recent months, the company has sold several shopping centres and has been preparing new deals. In December, Unibail sold the Habaneras shopping centre in Alicante to the US fund Harber for €65 million. Whilst a few months earlier, it sold Albacenter to the Socimi Lar España for €28.4 million.

Now, the French-Dutch real estate company is considering selling Equinoccio in Majadahonda (Madrid) and Barnasud in Barcelona. Unibail Rodamco is also the owner of other shopping centres in Spain, such as La Vaguada and Parquesur in Madrid and Splau in Barcelona.

Meanwhile, GreenOak is one of the funds that is backing Spain most heavily at the moment. Since its creation in 2010, it has invested around $2,500 million. Now it is focused on four key markets: USA, Japan, England and Spain.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Buys 5 Logistics Assets In Madrid For €75M

24 June 2015 – Expansión

GreenOak hereby completes its second major deal in Spain. Over the last few months, the US fund has closed the purchased of five logistics assets in the Community of Madrid, which cover a surface area of 200,000 m2 (100,000 m2 of facilities and 100,000 m2 of land).

Based on the prices of these assets in the market, GreenOak must have paid between €60 million and €75 million for the five assets, according to various real estate sources.

The US fund is planning to continue its growth in this segment and has already agreed to purchase another three logistics assets, also in the Community of Madrid, which will add a further 100,000 m2 to GreenOak’s portfolio in Spain.

The fund plans to continue acquiring assets – in Barcelona, Zaragoza and Valencia as well – to reach (a surface area of) half a million square metres over the next 12 months.

All of the assets purchased by GreenOak are located in Getafe and in the Corredor del Henares and are currently leased out to companies such as Seur, Montfrisa and TransXtar. The vendors have been banks, other funds and family-owned companies.

“Logistics is an asset class where scale and experience make a difference. We are focusing on Spain, where we have the strongest interest”, says John Carrafiell, founding partner at GreenOak.

“Given our resources to undertake investments in the sector, our team on the ground and our real estate due diligence skills, GreenOak can close deals quickly, with investments of between €5 million and €100 million”, says Carrafiell.

The chief executive at GreenOak is leading the fund’s strategy in Spain first hand. Carrafiell is regarded as one of the gurus of global real estate investment. He used to lead Morgan Stanley’s business in this segment and in 2004 he closed one of the largest deals ever in the UK, the purchase of Canary Wharf.

Fund history

After leaving Morgan Stanley, Carrafiell created GreenOak in 2010. Since then, the fund has raised assets under management amounting to €4,751 million and has opened offices in USA, London, Seoul, Munich, Tokyo and Madrid.

GreenOak signed its first major purchase in Spain last year, with the acquisition of seven shopping centres from the Dutch group Vastned Retail for €160 million.

Moreover, in recent months, GreenOak has tried to enter the office market. It was in the running for the purchase of Castellana, 77, which was eventually sold to GMP; and Castellana, 89, which was acquired by Corporación Financiera Alba, owned by the March family. The fund expects to close the purchase of offices and shopping centres within the next few weeks.

 Original story: Expansión (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The March Family & GreenOak Compete To Buy Ahorro Corp’s HQ

13 April 2015 – Expansión

The financial group has given investors two weeks to submit their final bids. The leading candidates are the March (family), GreenOak, Colonial and Infinorsa.

Ahorro Corporación has prompted a new battle for real estate in the business district of Madrid. And it is proving to be the winner. The financial group is now on the home stretch in the sale of its headquarters, located on Paseo de la Castellana, 89; and the offers received to date have far exceeded the company’s initial expectations. The bids received are approaching €140 million, almost 50% higher than the price offered two years ago (€90 million – €100 million).

Ahorro Corporación and its advisor Aguirre Newman, have now made a shortlist of three candidates to buy the property. According to sources consulted, the investors with the strongest bids are Corporación Financiera Alba, controlled by the March (family), the fund GreenOak, the investor group Infinorsa – which owns Torre Europa – and the real estate company Colonial.

The improved macroeconomic environment (in Spain) and the war waged by these investors to acquire the main properties in Azca, have led to the rise in property prices. The over-supply of funding has also led to greater competition.

The price offered (€140 million) is at the high end of the consideration sought by Ahorro Corporación. Nevertheless, market sources say that the price may decrease slightly – to around €130 million – once the binding offers, which must be submitted in a couple of weeks, have been finalised. Ahorro Corporación has extended the initial deadline due to a request for new information from the interested parties.

100% occupancy rate

The financial group purchased the property from Banco Zaragozano in 2003 for €93.5 million. The building has a surface area of 20,000 square metres, spread over 14 floors and 530 parking spaces. As well as Ahorro Corporación itself, the building’s tenants include Sareb, the French opticians Alain Afflelou and Deloitte. The ground floor of the building is leased to restaurant chains including Lateral, Maki, Wagaboo and New York Burger. The building was constructed in 1977 and refurbished in 2008.

This is not the first battle between real estate investors in recent months. In January, BBVA sold the Torre Ederra, on Paseo de la Castellana, 77 – also in the Azca financial district – for €87 million. On that occasion, the real estate company GMP beat Infinorsa in the final round.

The sale of its headquarters is just another one of a number of divestments undertaken by Ahorro during its redefinition process, which KPMG is advising.

Over the last year, the financial entity has carried out transactions such as the sale of its fund manager, ACGestión to Abanca; the transfer of its infrastructure funds to GEDCapital; and the sale of its securisation manager, Ahorro y Titulización (AyT) to Haya Real Estate, owned by Cerberus.

The group is continuing to focus on its strategic businesses, namely fixed income and equity brokerage and advisory services.

Ahorro is focused on the international diversification of its business in the face of the disappearance or absorption of its former shareholders and clients – the savings banks – by other financial groups.

This group will have to face the remodelling of its shareholder base in the short-medium term, given that some of its shareholders, such as Bankia, will be forced to exit. Other shareholders that holds stakes in the group include: Cecabank, CaixaBank, Kutxabank, Liberbank, BMN, Ibercaja, Unicaja, Abanca, BBVA, Sabadell, Ontinyent and Pollença.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake