Duro Felguera Sells 2 Madrid Office Buildings to Signal Capital

14 March 2018 – Property Funds World

Signal Capital Partners has completed the acquisition of two office buildings in Madrid from Duro Felguera. Optimus Global Investors acted as sole advisor instructed by the vendor.

The largest building is the corporate headquarters of Duro Felguera in Madrid, which is located at Via de los Poblados 7, in the consolidated Campo de las Naciones Business Park. The freestanding office building comprises an area of almost 14,000 sqm GLA, set over five floors, as well as two basements with 228 car parking spaces. Duro Felguera has entered into a new lease over part of this building.

The Campo de las Naciones office market is considered to be one of Madrid’s most established and attractive office markets outside the CBD, strategically located midway between the Barajas airport and the CBD and near Madrid’s exhibition centre. The building benefits from both high visibility from the main ring road (M-40) and large open plan floor layouts. It is also next to the Cristalia Business Park, comprising almost 100,000 sqm of office accommodation, a modern hotel and amenities such as a nursery and several restaurants.

The second property is a vacant office building located at Calle Jacinto Benavente 4 in Las Rozas, Madrid. That property comprises an area of 2,600 sqm GLA, set over three floors and with 133 car parking places. The property, next to Tripark, is located in the Las Rozas Business Park, a consolidated office area in the northwest of Madrid in which well-known multinationals such as HP, Bankia, Oracle, Día, Santander, Adidas, ING and Triodos, amongst others, are located. It has a high occupancy rate, is easily accessible by car from the main highways of Madrid (A-6, M-40 and M-50) and enjoys amenities such as restaurants, gyms, shopping centres (Las Rozas Village and Heron City) and leisure activities.

Kris Van Lancker, Managing Director at Optimus Global Investors, says: “This has been one of the most complex transactions in which Optimus has successfully advised. The difficulty lay in finding the fine balance between the financial and office space needs of Duro Felguera in the scope of its global refinancing program and the investment requirements of Signal Capital Partners. It allows Duro Felguera to divest its non-strategic assets and at the same time helps Signal meet its risk-adjusted return targets.”

Original story: Property Funds World

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Heron City Sale Fails to Spark Interest amongst Investors

12 December 2017 – El Confidencial

A concept too unique for a market that is used to something a lot more familiar. That is the moral that can be drawn from the decision by Heron International, the property developer behind the famous Heron City centres, to put into quarantine the sales process of the three leisure centres that it owns in Spain.

The offers received by the British company fall well below its expectations, which has caused it to reconsider its whole strategy and take the decision, last week, to suspend the current sales process, according to sources familiar with proceedings.

As El Confidencial revealed in September, the British company engaged CBRE to find a buyer for its whole portfolio, which comprises Heron City Las Rozas (Madrid), Heron City Paterna (Valencia) and Heron Diversia Alcobendas (Madrid), and which has a valuation of between €230 million and €250 million.

Nevertheless, the appetite in the market has been lower than anticipated because the usual suspects who typically participate in these types of operations (large international funds and Socimis) actually specialise in shopping centres, whose casuistry differs from those of leisure centres, and where lots of investment opportunities are still emerging.

In 2017 alone, with less than a month to go before the end of the year, 17 transactions involving shopping centres and retail parks have been closed across Spain, according to data from the trade association AECC, led by giants such as Xanadú. Moreover, during the next two years, around twenty new centres are expected to open and six centres are due to be expanded, which will see an additional gross leasable area come onto the market of more than 2 million m2.

The result has been that Heron International has decided to suspend the sales process and redefine its strategy. The three Heron City complexes, which span a combined gross leasable area of 84,000 m2, have 6,100 parking spaces, receive more than 12 million visitors per year, and represent a brand that arrived in Spain almost three decades ago with a very specific leisure concept, based on cinemas and a restaurant offer that tries to distance itself from classic fast food.

Since its arrival in Spain, Heron International has only starred in one operation, involving the sale of one of its leisure centred, namely Heron City in Barcelona, which it sold to Babcock & Brown and GPT at the end of 2006 for €138 million. Almost a decade later, as El Confidencial revealed, that complex was acquired by ASG, the Spanish subsidiary of Activum, a deal that represented that firm’s first operation in the Catalan capital.

The leisure centre in Barcelona, as well as those in Las Rozas and Paterna were all built by the British company. In the case of Diversia, it purchased that centre in 2003 in conjunction with Realia (50%) and a decade ago it took over all of the share capital when it also acquired the stake owned by FCC’s subsidiary.

Original story: El Confidencial (by R. Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Heron International Engages CBRE To Sell All Its Assets In Spain

11 September 2017 – El Confidencial

The group that revolutionised the concept of shopping centres in Spain has completed its cycle in our country. The British firm Heron International, the developer of the Heron City retail and leisure spaces, has decided to divest all of its establishments in Spain. To this end, it has just engaged CBRE to organise a restricted sales process, in which only a limited number of investors, who have already been selected, are going to be invited to participate.

Sources at the real estate consultancy acknowledge that they have been awarded the exclusive mandate for this process, but they declined to comment further. Nevertheless, sources familiar with the process say that all of the potential buyers on the closed list (which includes major investors, Socimis and institutional funds)have now been contacted and that the portfolio is worth between €230 million and €250 million.

Specifically, the portfolio comprises the Heron City Las Rozas centre (Madrid), the Heron City Paterna centre (Valencia) and Heron Diversia Alcobendas (Madrid), which have a combined gross leasable area of 84,000 m2, along with 6,100 parking spaces and more than 12 million visitors per year. Those figures make this transaction one of the most important in the retail segment at the moment.

The operation includes the right to use the Heron City brand, which will allow the new owner to continue to fly the flag of a concept that arrived in our country almost three decades ago. It represents more than just a shopping centre, since it also encompasses leisure, restaurants and experiences, and is committed to outdoor spaces and partnerships with iconic brands.

For example, in terms of cinemas, Heron always works with Kinépolis and Cinesa to develop large, high-end cinema complexes; whilst Virgin is its typical travelling companion for gyms; moreover, the gastronomic offering always includes some premium concepts, steering clear of classic fast food.

History in Spain

Since it first arrived in Spain, Heron International has only starred in one sale operation involving a retail centre, that of Heron City Barcelona, which it sold at the end of 2006 to Babcock & Brown and GPT for €138 million. Almost a decade later, that complex was acquired by ASG, the Spanish subsidiary of Activum, in that firm’s first operation in the Catalan capital.

Both the Catalan centre as well as those in Las Rozas and Paterna were constructed by the British company, whereas Diversia was purchased in 2003 in a 50:50 alliance with Realia; a decade ago, Heron took over all of the share capital, after it acquired the 50% stake from FCC’s subsidiary.

Nevertheless, although the property developer is known for its retail centres, its history in Spain goes well behind that concept and is directly linked to the turbulent times of the 1980s and the purchase that it made then of the real estate division of Rumasa, as well as of Las Torres de Colón.

Following those acquisitions, it made a commitment to the Government to undertake investments in our country amounting to 30,000 million pesetas (equivalent to €180 million), an agreement it more than fulfilled with the development of its shopping centres. Moreover, its good work in our country also includes the construction of several hotels that, subsequently, have been sold.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Political Uncertainty and Populism Threaten RE Recovery

1 June 2015 – El Economista

The electoral success of Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) in Madrid and Ada Colau (Barcelona En Comú) in Barcelona has started to take its first victims in the real estate sector. Barely a week has passed since the elections and “some investors have already suspended deals to purchase property in Spain”, warn certain sources close to the negotiations.

The uncertainty regarding the possible political agreements has hit the property sector hard, “just when it was starting to recover”. In Madrid and Barcelona alone, large urban projects amounting to €14,000 million have already been called into question.

Major construction companies, financial institutions and large international funds are involved in these developments, including the Chinese magnate Wang Jianlin, who came to Spain with plans to invest around €4,000 million and who now see his real estate plans for the country being endangered.

“Right now, the sector is beginning a process of paralysis in certain segments. All of the investors are waiting for the possible political agreements to be settled so that they can carry out transactions”, explain sources in the sector.

“The is a great deal of uncertainty and considerable ungovernability in many cases, as well as expected increases in taxes and public spending, coupled with the suspension of forecast investments, which may result in the withdrawal of foreign capital”, they warn.

This situation may result in “an important step backwards for the emerging recovery”, given that it comes at a time when the real estate sector was really beginning to take off; record levels of investment were recorded last year. Before the elections, experts predicted that the level of transactions was going to continue (this year), but following recent events, “it is now very difficult to make forecasts”. These warnings coincide with others made this week by several important businessmen, such as the Chairman of OHL, Juan Miguel Villar Mir, who said that (political) groups such as Podemos put Spain’s economic recovery in danger. In a similar way, the markets have penalised the election results and the Ibex 35 recorded a loss of 2.91% last week.

(…)

The urban plans proposed by Carmena and Colau leave most of the major projects, both those already underway as well as those still to be awarded, up in the air. In Madrid, they endanger million-euro developments such as Operación Chamartín, the Madrid Río shopping centre, Operación Mahou-Calderón, the Canalejas complex, Operación Edificio España, la Ciudad de Justicia and even Operación Campamento.

Whilst in Barcelona, projects such as La Maquinista and Heron City shopping centres, the refurbishment of the Nou Camp and urban developments in the surrounding area, the ski slope in the free trade zone of Barcelona SnowWorld and the conversion into hotels of iconic buildings such as Torre Agbar, the Deutsche Bank building on Passeig de Gracia or Project Núñez i Navarro are also at risk.

(…)

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla and Javier Mesones)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Project Formentera: Santander To Sell €170M Hotel Debt Portfolio

18 May 2015 – El Confidencial

A new portfolio of hotel debt has just come onto the market. At a time when investors’ interest in these transactions is at an all time high, Santander has put loans worth €170 million relating to 17 hotels up for sale.

A new portfolio of hotel debt has just come onto the market. At a time when investors’ interest in these transactions is at an all time high, Santander, the largest Spanish bank, has decided to pique the insatiable interest of international funds in this type of transaction through the launch of an operation known as: Project Formentera.

It involves a portfolio of loans worth €170 million, linked to 17 hotels. The majority are located in the Community of Valencia and the Canary Islands, which encourages operations with investors interested, primarily, in the holiday segment and in the (Canarian) archipelago.

The portfolio that Santander has just launched joins those being promoted by two of its main rivals, BBVA and Bankia, which have also decided to take advantage of the window of opportunity that has opened to try to offload some of their debts, which include loans that the financial entities are very keen to divest.

According to sources in the market, unlike what may happen in the residential market – a business the banks know very well, since historically they have had the best prepared teams to manage such assets when they fail – the hotel business is a very specialised segment, whose incident rate (casuística) is more difficult for financial entities to manage.

This means that their priority, in general terms, is to try and sell debt, rather than foreclose it and take ownership of assets that they are much less familiar with than residential. If we add the insatiable appetite of the large international investors for the hotel sector, fuelled by the perfect combination of low prices and a strong recovery in the tourism sector, now is the perfect time to carry out these kinds of transactions.

A string of transactions

In fact, at the end of last year, Bankia closed the sale of a batch of hotel loans to Starwood and Sankaty for €400 million (Project Amazona) and is now finalising the second part of that transaction, known as Castle, whose finalists are Apollo, Oaktree and Bank of America. BBVA has also just opened the bidding for 14 hotels it inherited from unpaid loans, a process known as Project Otelo; meanwhile Sareb has just engaged N+1 to manage the sale of a portfolio with a nominal value of €500 million, which is linked to the property developer Polaris World, in an operation known as Project Birdie.

And so the list goes on. A few weeks ago, the German bad bank FMS Wertmanagement sold the portfolio known as Gaudí to Oaktree for close to €500 million – a batch of problem loans linked to, amongst others, the iconic luxury hotel Arts de Barcelona, as well as another high-end property in Cascais (Portugal), five shopping centres, including Plaza Éboli and Heron City, several storage buildings, and residential and industrial assets.

Moreover, the large financial entities that signed the €152 million syndicated loan with the Basque property developer Urvasco, which, in turn, owns the hotel chain Silken, have spent the last few months selling their stakes both in this debt, as well as in those linked to certain establishments, including the Puerta de America hotel in Madrid; Bank of America is taking advantage of this window to enter through the ‘front door’ of what is considered to be the last great Spanish hotel chain up for sale.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Objects Of Desire: 16 Shopping Centres Up For Sale

14 May 2015 – Expansión

Between January to March (2015), funds and Socimis have invested €988 million in the purchase of large shopping establishments; and that figure that could reach €2,500 million for 2015 as a whole.

The 682 shopping centres in operation in Spain have become objects of desire for all investors interested in the Spanish real estate market. Thus, between January and March, these investors spent €988 million on the purchase of all kinds of shopping centres. “In January 2014, institutional investors did not want to purchase in Spain and now we have a very wide range of buyers: from institutions, which do not mind paying more for a good property, to opportunistic funds”, explains Vitor Pacheca, Senior Consultant of Retail Capital Markets at JLL España.

Last year, the Spanish market was the fourth favourite in Europe for investors interested in shopping centres and retail parks, with transactions as significant as Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza, which the British group Intu purchased for €451 million, having purchased Parque Principado in Asturias in 2013. Those are not the only real estate projects being pursued by the British real estate firm in Spain; it is currently developing two (shopping) centres, one in Malaga and the other in Valencia.

The most high profile case in 2015 has been Plenilunio. The Madrilenian property was acquired by the French operator Klépierre for €375 million on 17 March. The As Termas shopping centre in Lugo also changed hands; it was purchased by the Socimi Lar España. And AireSur in Sevilla was acquired by the fund CBRE Global Investors. “Last year, 28 (shopping) centres were bought and sold, representing a total investment volume of €3,200 million. In 2015, we expect that more centres will be sold but for a smaller total amount, around €2,500 million”, says Pacheco.

Although the flurry of transactions is not expected until the final quarter of the year, several shopping centres are scheduled to change owner shortly. “There are around 16 shopping centres for sale in Spain at the moment. We estimate that as many as 30 such assets may change hands between now and the end of the year”, say sources at JLL.

Doughty’s centres

That is the case of El Rosal in León and Plaza Éboli (pictured above) in Pinto (Madrid). The private equity firm Doughty Hanson is finalising the sale of those two properties, whose ownership will be transferred over the next few weeks.

The Plaza Éboli shopping centre, which was opened in 2005 and measures 62,000 m2, will be acquired by the US investor HIG for €30 million. In the case of El Rosal, which measures 151,000 m2, the new owner will be the Socimi Lar España, which has already purchased other shopping centres such as L’Anec Blau in Castelldefels (Barcelona) and Albacenter in Albacete. The Socimi will pay €90 million for El Rosal.

Another one of the 16 shopping centres up for sale is Moraleja Green in Alcobendas (Madrid). The property is on the market again after it was sold to ING by CBRE Global Investors last year. Now, the real estate division of the Dutch bank is putting it up for sale, after paying €68 million.

The Heron City shopping centre in Barcelona is also up for sale; it opened in 2011 and occupies a surface area of 101,000 m2, of which 36,358 m2 is dedicated to retail space.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake