Tag: Grupo Avintia

Alicante Global Group Teams Up With Basque Property Developer Ferrocarril

25 October 2017 – Valencia Plaza

Alicante Global Group, the new real estate venture from the former President of the Santa Ana group, Juan Antonio Iniesta, and the former President of the Alicante employers’ association Coepa, Moisés Jiménez, to place property developments foreclosed by the banks back on the market, is expanding its base.

According to Iniesta himself, in statements to Alicante Plaza, the businessmen from Alicante have joined forces with the Basque property developer Grupo Ferrocarril (which is now based in Rivas Vaciamadrid), which will be in charge of finishing and selling those developments.

As this newspaper published at the time, Alicante Global Group, comprising the Alicante-based companies The Casas Company and Alicia Hoteles, was created with the intention of acquiring developments foreclosed by banks during the toughest years of the real estate crisis, completing them, revaluing them and putting them back on the market. The Group signed its first operation in May with Liberbank: two residential towers in Gran Vía, Alicante, and several villas in the luxury residential development Altea Hills.

The partner that Iniesta and Jiménenez have been looking for in this regard is the Basque property developer Grupo Ferrocarril, which specialises in the construction of private homes and social housing, both in its home region and also in Madrid in recent years. The group, chaired by the businessman Rafael González Cobos, has, in turn, formed a strategic alliance of its own with the Madrilenian giant in the sector Grupo Avintia, owned by the property developer Antonio Martín Jiménez, which has been heavily backing the Community of Valencia: at the start of 2016, it inaugurated its offices in Valencia capital, and it now has eight projects underway there (one of which is actually in Alicante) and more than 600 homes under construction. Together, the two firms have created the Ferrocarril Avintia group to operate in South America (…).

According to explanations provided by Iniesta to questions posed by this newspaper, it is likely that Martín Jiménez’s company (Grupo Avintia) will be responsible for the execution of most of the improvements of the acquired developments, by virtue of its agreement with Ferrocarril (…).

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by David Martínez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Baupost Finalises Purchase Of Luxury Property Developer Levitt

19 October 2017 – Expansión

The luxury real estate construction sector is retaining its shine. One of the property developers that survived the previous cycle, Levitt-Bosch Aymerich, is on the verge of changing hands. A consortium of American investors, led by the fund Baupost Group, is holding exclusive negotiations to purchase the property developer that specialises in luxury homes, which has a market capitalisation around €200 million.

Sources in the sector explained to Expansión that the operation is in the due diligence phase (the assets are being audited) and that, although no agreement has been reached yet, the operation may be closed soon if the negotiations continue.

Baupost will team up with a local operating partner, Alpine Grove, for the operation. The advisors on buyer include PwC and the law firm Garrigues, on the legal side. Meanwhile, Deloitte Legal is the legal advisor on the sell-side.

According to the latest available information from the Mercantile Register, Levitt-Bosch Aymerich’s net equity amounted to €162 million at the end of 2016. The company recorded a turnover of €61 million and an attributable net result of almost €6 million. Besides Baupost, several other US investment funds that are very active in Spain also submitted bids for Levitt. In this way, market sources indicate that Lone Star, Värde and Castlelake all expressed their interest in the company over the last 12 months.

Levitt, founded in 1929, with the construction of a luxury residential development in New York, arrived in Spain in 1971 with the help of José María Bosch Aymerich, who died in 2015.

In 1973, the company undertook its first development on the Monteclaro urbanisation on the outskirts of Madrid. Since then, it has constructed several high-end developments in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as some office complexes.

In this regard, in October 2014, the company sold five office buildings in Madrid to Merlin for €130 million in order to focus on its residential business.

The firm is currently working on some developments in Valdemarín (Aravaca), in one of the most exclusive areas of Madrid as well as on the El Juncal urbanisation in Alcobendas, amongst others.

Shopping fever

If this deal is closed in the end, it will join the fever of property developer sales that has been happening in Spain in recent years. Examples include Lone Star, which purchased Kutxabank’s real estate subsidiary Neinor in 2014 for €930 million. Also, in February, Värde acquired Vía Célere for €90 million and merged it with DosPuntos – the former real estate subsidiary of the SanJosé group -. In addition, that same fund purchased Aelca from Grupo Avintia for €50 million in June 2016.

Meanwhile, Castlelake, which started to back the Spanish housing market back in 2013 with the purchase of land, launched Aedas Homes just a year ago. Other investors are also backing the market through agreements with local groups to build homes, such as the case of Morgan Stanley and Gestilar, and Green Oak and Ibosa, amongst others.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde – One Of The Largest RE Developers In Spain

24 August 2016 – Expansión

The US fund Värde has been one of the most active investors in the Spanish real estate sector in recent years.

It made its last purchase in June here, when it bought the real estate group Aelca. Specifically, Värde signed an agreement with the Avintia Group to purchase the company for around €50 million.

The US fund is also a major shareholder in Dospuntos – the former real estate division of the Sanjosé group, the result of the integration of Parquesol within the construction group – . The fund acquired 51% of Sanjosé Desarrollos Inmobiliarios in August 2015 after acquiring a 25% stake from Popular for approximately €90 million.

Dospuntos has launched a plan for the promotion and development of homes that includes an investment amounting to €2,000 million over six years and it is, alongside Neinor Homes – the real estate arm of the fund Lone Star – one of the main residential property developers in Spain.

Dospuntos’ plan involves starting the construction of homes this year and completing around 800 homes in 2018 and almost 1,500 in 2019. With this roadmap, the group hopes to reach its cruising speed in 2019, with the completion of 2,000 homes per year.

In addition to Värde, the property developer is also partially owned by the funds Marathon and Attestor, as well as Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA), JPMorgan and Barclays.

The US fund also controls Bancopopular-e (Banco Popular’s card business). Värde purchased 51% of the business from the financial institution in October 2015. In addition, Värde acquired, together with Kennedy Wilson, the real estate arm of Popular, Aliseda, for approximately €800 million.

At the global level, the fund, founded in 1993 in Minnesota (USA) manages more than $40,000 million and has 200 employees, of which 65 are professional investors with more than twelve years experience.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake