Tag: Grupo Baraka

Riu Wins Legal Battle over Ownership of Edificio España

15 November 2018 – Preferente

On Thursday, the judge of the Court of First Instance number 51 of Madrid rejected the provisional measure requested by Grupo Baraka against Riu Hotels regarding Edificio España, where the hotel chain is finalising the construction of the largest hotel in the centre of the Spanish capital.

The judge sided with Riu and ruled that Grupo Baraka must pay the legal costs. Baraka sought to record in the Property Registry that an open litigation case existed regarding the ownership of the building, but that claim has been rejected by the court.

Riu considers that the legal ruling clearly shows “the lack of basis imposed by Mr Casanova and his business group, which represents an important step for clarifying that Riu is the sole owner of the property”.

The hotel chain led by the siblings Carmen and Lui Riu expects to open its new hotel in Madrid, the jewel in the crown of the Riu group, next spring.

Original story: Preferente (by R. P.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grupo Baraka Sells a Logistics Warehouse in Murcia to Corum for €14M

11 June 2018 – Expansión

The Baraka Group, controlled by the businessman Trinitario Casanova, has closed an agreement to sell one of the logistics assets owned by its construction company Trabis.

Specifically, Baraka has sold a logistics warehouse, called Trabis II, located in the Murcian town of Yecla, the region where Casanova’s companies are headquartered. The property, which has a constructed surface area of 14,000 m2, has been sold for €14 million through a sale and leaseback contract.

“The advantage is that the buyer is guaranteed an asset in which the tenant will continue to undertake its activity”, explained Pablo Carvajal, Director of Capital Markets at Catella, the consultancy firm that has advised the new owner in the transaction.

The buyer is the French fund manager Corum Asset Management. Created in 2011 and with offices in Paris and Amsterdam, the firm set itself the objective last year of investing €500 million in real estate assets across Europe, with a special focus on Spain. For its investments, whose yields exceed 6%, Corum works with two funds Corum Origin and Corum XL, the latter was launched last year.

This is not the first time that Baraka and Corum have closed an operation together. In July 2016, the French firm paid more than €24.8 million for another logistics building also leased to Trabis.

Corum is one of the international investors that has opted to purchase logistics assets in Spain, a booming market due to its high returns and the increase in the e-commerce business. “The logistics investment market is proving attractive for domestic and international investors alike and increasingly more are investing in this type of asset. Between January and May, €250 million has been invested in these types of properties”, say sources at Catella.

At the overall level, investment during the first half of the year is expected to reach €5 billion. “During 2018, €3 billion has been invested in tertiary (non-residential) assets. Taking into account certain transactions pending completion, we expect to see investment of close to €5 billion during the first half of the year, around €1 billion less than during the same period in 2017”, he predicts.

Casanova

The divestment of this logistics warehouse comes just weeks after Trinitario Casanova entered the Madrid Nuevo Norte real estate project (known as Operación Chamartín). The businessman has committed to pay €400 million to the initial owners for the rights to 1.2 million m2 of land (now in the hands of the Ministry of Development) where the company DCN, controlled by BBVA and SanJosé, is planning to build an urban development with more than 10,500 homes.

In addition, Casanova is working on the marketing of the future shopping arcade in Edificio España, the property that he purchased from Wanda for €172 million to immediately sell it on to the RIU hotel group.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grupo Baraka to Invest €20M in Casa Cerdá in Murcia

25 May 2018 – Expansión

Grupo Baraka is continuing to grow its portfolio of properties. The real estate group chaired by Trinitario Casanova has purchased Casa Cerdá, located in Murcia, from a group of individual investors. The plan is to convert the property into luxury homes for rent.

The investment by the Murcian firm in the property will amount to €20 million, including both the purchase and renovation of the asset. The Casa Cerdá building, with a surface area of 3,500 m2, is one of the most iconic properties in the city. The asset, which is almost ninety years old, is located in Plaza de Santo Domingo.

The property is going to be remodelled to house 24 premium homes for the rental market. The first homes will be available for rent from the beginning of 2019.

Moreover, the lower part of the property is going to be converted into a flagship store for a “large company”, which will occupy around 1,000 m2.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Baraka Invests €40M in Another Logistics Asset

13 March 2018 – Expansión

Grupo Baraka, the corporate holding company chaired by the Murcian businessman Trinitario Casanova, is maintaining its commitment to the logistics sector. After purchasing a plot spanning more than 30,000 m2 in Barcelona from Consum in February for the construction of a logistics warehouse, the company has now acquired 95,600 m2 of industrial land in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) on which it is going to construct a logistics platform.

Grupo Baraka plans to invest around €40 million in the project, including the acquisition of the plot and the commissioning of the logistics platform, which is expected to be ready within eight months and which will occupy a surface area of 45,000 m2, according to explanations provided by the company yesterday.

Specifically, the land acquired by the real estate group is located on the El Encín industrial estate, where the US multinational Owens Corning used to operate a factory, until two years ago.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Baraka Completes €7M Capital Increase & Ends Deal With Hines

13 December 2017 – Eje Prime

Trinitario Casanova is ending the year with a low profile. After the hype of Edificio España and his various other investments in the Spanish real estate market, the Murcian businessman is preparing for next year by inflating his financial capacity by €7 million. Moreover, his company recently broke its agreement with Hines to market the asset that the former sold to the latter, specifically, number 13 Calle Preciados, according to sources close to the group speaking to Eje Prime.

The group’s most recent activity includes a €6.8 million capital increase by the company Baraka Invest Global, the investment arm of Trinitario Casanova, through which he invests in real estate and other types of business. In this way, the company’s share capital rose to €96.8 million, according to the Official Gazette of the Mercantile Registry.

Baraka Invest Global is the company through which Trinitario Casanova has carried out its most recent real estate operations. It is also the parent company of other entities such as Baraka Ventures of Florida, specialising in real estate investments; Baraka Viviendas, specialising in the development of homes and residential land; and Baraka Renta, which is responsible for promoting and operating shopping centres for rent.

Despite fortifying its investment companies, the firm has lost several businesses along the way this year. One example is the agreement that it held with Hines regarding number 13 Calle Preciados. Sources in the sector explain that, although Casanova had signed a marketing agreement with the US group, that deal is no longer valid, and Hines is now solely responsible for marketing the asset (…).

Baraka sells land

Nevertheless, Trinitario Casanova has been pushing ahead with many of the projects in his portfolio (…). In November, he sold the last three residential plots he owned in one of the development areas in the north of Madrid, Valdebebas. In fact, Grupo Baraka sold land with a total buildable surface area of 35,000 m2, after reaching an agreement with the joint venture between Gestilar and Morgan Stanley. The new owners plan to invest €100 million on the construction of around 200 homes (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Riu Gets Green Light For Its Renovation Of Edificio España

22 September 2017 – Eje Prime

After a very drawn out negotiation process and having being passed from Wanda to Grupo Baraka and then to the hotel chain Riu, Edificio España has finally received the green light for its renovation. The Town Hall of Madrid has granted the building permit to allow Riu to start to refurbish its Riu Plaza.

Sources at the Town Hall’s Sustainable Urban Development (DUS) department, explain that the Activities Agency granted the authorisation yesterday, which, given the complexity of the construction work, establishes a program of approval comprising two phases: firstly, the restoration work will be performed, and then the definitive licence will be granted for the inauguration of the hotel, according to EFE.

The first phase of the building permit covers work to conserve the façades, external work to recover recesses, the dismantling of embellishments and the replacement of windows and railings, as well as partial restructuring work, refurbishment and restoration for the adaptation of the existing structure and the dismantling of protected interior elements.

On the other hand, the second phase includes the definitive licence for the inauguration of the hotel activity and the retail space, with the performance of partial restructuring work, construction of internal partition walls and facilities, and external work to assemble the identifying elements of the hotel and the planned retail space, according to sources in the team led by José Manuel Calvo.

Located in the central Plaza de España, the property was constructed by Spanish architects Julián and José María Otamendi between the years 1948 and 1953, and it was the tallest building in Spain at the time. The Chinese multinational Wanda acquired the iconic building with the aim of opening a hotel, luxury homes and a shopping centre, but to that end, it wanted to pull down the existing structure and then reconstruct the façades at a later date, something that the municipal Government refused to allow.

In the end, Wanda sold the building to Grupo Baraka, owned by the Murcian businessman Trinitario Casanova, who visited the property together with the mayor of Madrid and who promised to build a hotel with two swimming pools and a shopping arcade, in collaboration with Riu.

The hotel chain then reached an agreement with Baraka to acquire 100% of Edificio España, and so it will be the entity responsible for undertaking the construction work, in two phases.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Casanova Buys Land In Cataluña To Build 2 Logistics Warehouses

5 September 2017 – Eje Prime

Grupo Baraka is still shopping. The company, led by the Murcian businessman Trinitario Casanova (pictured above) has just closed two real estate transactions in Cataluña. The group has acquired two plots of land with a combined surface area of 72,000 m2, where it plans to build two logistics warehouses of up to 19,000 m2 each.

One of the plots is located in Sant Esteve de Sesrovires and the other is in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, both in the province of Barcelona, according to El Economista. The company has not made any statement regarding the price it has paid for the plots.

These transactions follow the purchase of a plot measuring 600,000 m2 in Montcada i Reixac (also in the province of Barcelona) in July, for which the group paid around €300 million. On that plot, the group plans to construct a health care complex comprising at least one hospital, as well as care-in-the-home properties and garden areas.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hotel Chain Riu Ends Up Acquiring Edificio España

2 June 2017 – El Mundo

The soap opera surrounding the sale of Edificio España in Madrid reached its finale yesterday morning, with the completion of a three-way operation, which saw the Chinese Group Wanda official sell the building’s deeds to the hotel chain Riu. The hotel group reached an agreement with Grupo Baraka to acquire 100% of the property and to subsequently undertake the necessary renovation to convert it into the first hotel in Spain to operate under its Riu Plaza brand.

All of the parties met at the notary’s office yesterday morning in Madrid, and once the purchase of the property from Wanda by Grupo Baraka (which held the initial purchase rights) had been formalised, the latter sold the property to Riu Hotels & Resorts. The consideration paid amounted to €272 million, according to the consultancy firm JLL, which has advised the sale.

“Our strategic plans include opening a Riu Plaza hotel in Spain and this opportunity in Madrid, in an unbeatable location and in an iconic building, completely fulfil all of our requirements,” said Carmen and Luis Riu, CEOs of Riu Hoteles. “The operation had been on the cards for several months before the option opened up of Riu acquiring 100% of the building. After analysing that opportunity in detail, we decided that we didn’t want to waste it”, explained the directors.

Trinitario Casanova, President of Grupo Baraka, will take responsibility for leasing the retail space, measuring 15,000 m2, where several department stores will be opened.

The building work could start today

After hearing of the sale, the Councillor for Sustainable Urban Development at the Town Hall of Madrid, José Manuel Calvo, said that the new owner of Edificio España could start the building work to consolidate Edificio España right away. The licence to undertake the structural work was granted on 31 March and its terms are “not affected” by the identity of the building’s owner.

The processing of the permit to open a hotel in the skyscraper will take a bit longer. Sources at the Palacio de Cibeles (the Town Hall) predict that the green light will be given for the construction of the establishment in “the autumn”, given that the municipal technicians and Baraka’s architects have been working together on this project for several months now.

In terms of the retail surface area, which will be housed on the lower floors of the property, in Plaza de España, the presentation of an affidavit is all that is required to start the refurbishment work.

The hotel

The future Hotel Riu Plaza will occupy 24 of the 27 floors in Edificio España, whilst the remainder will be used as retail space. The establishment will have approximately 650 rooms and will be a 4-star property.

The hotel will also have a space measuring more than 1,800 m2 for events, which will include an open plan room measuring 1,500 m2, with 6 m high ceilings, which will become a unique space in the centre of Madrid.

The establishment will also have two restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, where there will also be a Sky Bar and an additional space for events, spanning more than 900 m2.

Original story: El Mundo (by Luis M. Ciria, Marta Belver and Roberto Bécares)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hines Buys Five Guys’s New Outlet On Gran Vía 44 For €40M

22 January 2016 – Expansión

The US real estate company Hines has acquired the retail premises at number 44, Gran Vía in Madrid for €40 million. The property has just been leased to the US hamburger chain Five Guys, which has signed a long-term contract to open its first restaurant in Spain there.

The premises have a surface area of around 900 m2, spread over three floors, and Five Guys expects to open its first Spanish outlet in the summer (2016). The US chain has more than 1,300 fast food outlets all over the world.

Hines has purchased the asset from the Spanish real estate company Grupo Baraka and has executed the transaction through its fund Hines Pan European Core Fund, which recently made its debut in Spain with the acquisition of another retail premises for around €38 million. That property is located in the centre of Barcelona and is leased to Desigual.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake