Tag: hotels

Hispania’s Profits Fell by 56% YoY in 2018 to €96.5M

28 February 2019 – Expansión

Hispania recorded a net profit of €96.5 million in 2018, down by 56% compared to a year earlier, according to the accounts filed with the CNMV by the listed real estate investment company (Socimi) controlled by Blackstone.

Revenues from rental income rose by 6.8% to amount to €151.7 million, according to the Socimi’s accounts, which were managed by Azora until August, whereas now their management is divided between HI Partners (hotels), Rivoli (offices) and Fidere (homes), all of which are linked to Blackstone. The company is expected to cease trading on the stock market on 1 April.

In September, Hispania’s new management team decided that Azora would no longer manage the three branches of the Socimi, a move that resulted in the early termination of the contract, in exchange for the payment of a penalty amounting to €224 million.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lone Star & Cerberus Increase their Commitment to Spanish Property

21 February 2019 – Expansión

The need for the banks to reduce their exposure to property and the funds’ appetite for the Spanish real estate sector have converged in recent years leading to the transfer of portfolios of debt and foreclosed assets worth millions of euros. Blackstone, Cerberus, Lone Star, the Canadian pension fund (CPPIB), Bain, Axactor and Lindorff are the funds that have been behind most of the major transactions involving portfolios of bank debt secured by real estate collateral during that period.

Emilio Portes, Director of Quantitative & Risk Management at JLL for Southern Europe, said that, following a frantic 2017 when more than €55 billion was transacted, last year saw portfolios sold with a gross value of more than €45 billion (…).

In 2018, the indisputable star was Lone Star, which took control of a portfolio worth around €12.8 billion from CaixaBank. Specifically, CaixaBank sold that portfolio along with Servihabitat to a company called Coral Homes in which Lone Star owns an 80% stake. Cerberus was also active last year with the purchase of several portfolios from Sabadell, Santander and CaixaBank with a total gross value of €12.5 billion. Behind it, came CPPIB, Axactor, D.E. Shaw and Lindorff, according to data provided by JLL.

“The sum of the transactions recorded over the last two years exceeds €100 billion, which places Spain as one of the countries with the largest transaction volume in Europe and the most liquid in terms of real transactions”, says Portes. In those portfolios, there are various types of assets, mainly residential, but also land, offices, premises and hotels.

The year ahead

During 2019, the banks will continue to divest assets, although with smaller portfolio sales. “In 2019, we expect a transaction volume of €20 billion, in addition to whatever Sareb ends up doing”, revealed Portes. He explains that most of the large Spanish banks have now reduced their NPA (non-performing asset) ratios to below 5%.

Following the activity undertaken by the large banks, all eyes are now focused on the medium and small-sized entities, particularly those with the greatest property exposure and therefore most pressure, as well as on Sareb, which has assets worth more than €35 billion still left to sell (…).

The heirs of the banks’ property, having purchased at significant discounts, have an average investment horizon of five years before they undo their positions (…)

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CaixaBank Granted Loans Amounting to €2.2bn to Hotels in 2018

19 February 2019 – Expansión

CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism granted loans amounting to €2.186 billion to the Spanish hotel sector in 2018, a figure that represents an increase of 46% with respect to the previous year. Moreover, 2,800 operations were carried out, up by 8% compared to 2017. The Balearic Islands and Cataluña are the autonomous regions that received the most loans.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Christie & Co: Hotel Investment Amounted to €4.9bn in Spain in 2018

13 February 2019 – Press Release

According to data available to Christie & Co, total hotel investment in Spain in 2018 amounted to €4,860 million, across a total of 223 transactions (surpassing the 185 transactions registered in 2017). That represents an average price per room of €128,000 and an increase of 24.6% in the total investment volume versus 2017, positioning Spain in second place after the United Kingdom (where investment amounted to £6,500 million), but ahead of Germany for the first time (where €4,000 million was invested).

In terms of investor profile, the report highlights the importance of investment firms as the largest source of capital in 2018, representing 53% of the total investment, with more than €2,560 million (up from 42% in 2017). Hotel companies, with 24% of the total investment figure (vs. 20% in 2017) are in second place, and REIT companies are in third place once again with 15% (vs. 16% in 2017). Furthermore, regarding origin, it is worth noting that investment from domestic players decreased in comparison to the previous year (35% in 2018 vs. 51% in 2017), to be replaced by an increase in US investors (40% in 2018 vs 23% in 2017) and the entrance of new investors from Thailand (8%) and México (4%).

The report also emphasizes how the estimated investment figure was greatly increased by portfolio transactions and significant assets, which represented more than 60% of the investment volume across the whole country. Blackstone, which was the main player in 2017 with the purchase of the HI Partners portfolio (€630 million) was again a protagonist in 2018 with the purchase of 48 hotels from the Hispania REIT portfolio, for €1,900 million.

Likewise, transactions such as the purchase of the Atom Hoteles portfolio, the joining of the Chinese group Gaw Capital and the increase in the stake of Omega Capital in the Hospes hotel chain, the 9 urban hotels in the Silken portfolio acquired by CBRE Global Investment Partners and Pygmalion Capital Advisers LLP, the takeover of NH Hotel Group by Minor International, and the purchase of Hotel Villa Magna by the Mexican REIT RLH Properties for €210m (with a record price per room of €1.4 million) caused the total volume transacted in Spain in 2018 to once again beat all the established standards (…).

Finally, the analysis shows how almost 93% of the transactions carried out in 2018 (vs. 90% in 2017) were concentrated in the same six Spanish regions as in the previous year: the Canary Islands (29.6%), the Balearic Islands (21%), Andalucía (16.5%), the Community of Madrid (12.9%), Cataluña (6.8%) and the Community of Valencia (6.3%). Regarding the average price per room per region, the Canary Islands led the ranking in the resort market, with €140,000 per room, while the Community of Madrid led in the case of urban destinations with an average price of over €200,000 per room.

Original story: Press Release

Translation: Carmel Drake

Thomas Cook Signs a €51M Loan with CaixaBank to Finance Hotel Purchases

4 February 2019 – Hosteltur

Thomas Cook today announced that its joint venture with LMEY Investments, called Thomas Cook Hotel Investments (TCHI), has obtained a second round of financing amounting to €51 million thanks to an agreement with CaixaBank. The funds will be used to acquire hotels in Spain and the Mediterranean.

Thanks to that agreement, the joint venture’s funds to purchase hotels have increased by €91 million over the last three months, following the agreement signed with Piraeus Bank, according to reports from HostelTur news (…).

Those funds will be used to invest in opportunities that arise in Spain and the Mediterranean area. In fact, TCHI has also announced the acquisition of one 250-room hotel in the Canary Islands and another 300-room hotel in the Balearic Islands. In total, the seven hotels that the company currently owns represent assets worth €250 million and contain 2,200 rooms.

The fund has the objective of owning between 10 and 15 hotels over the next two years. A channel for more hotel acquisitions has been identified by the company and the team is focused on executing the expansion plan for the coming years.

TCHI was created in March 2018 to support the growth of the Thomas Cook’s own brand hotel portfolio as part of its strategy to take greater control over its hotel inventory and the customer experience (…).

Original story: Hosteltur 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Apple Leisure Group Debuts in Spain with its Purchase of a Majority Stake in Alua Hotels

23 January 2019 – Revista 80 Días

The US group is one of the largest managers of accommodation in the Caribbean. This purchase allows it to enter the vacation segment and the European market.

Apple Leisure Group (ALG), one of the largest hotel investors in the USA, has acquired a majority stake in the share capital of Alua Hotels and Resorts, the hotel group founded in 2015 by its main executives and the private equity fund Alchemy Partners. The amount of the purchase has not been revealed, although the joint operating result of the chain’s main hotels amounted to €6 million in 2017. Given that the properties are located in areas with high tourist demand and good forecasts, the amount of the operation could have exceeded €40 million, based on the multiples that are typically used for this type of transaction.

With this acquisition, ALG is entering the European market through the sun and beach holiday segment. And it is doing so in a country such as Spain, which receives more than 80 million tourists per year in search of that kind of offer. Alua Hotels has 11 hotels located in Mallorca, Ibiza, Fuerteventura and Tenerife, together with an apartment building in Ibiza.

In total, ALG will manage more than 3,000 4-star hotel rooms, focused on the type of tourist who wants a superior service to that usually found in the average accommodation establishments in beach areas. The US company is planning to undertake more acquisitions in the European market and has announced that it wants to become a reference player in the main destinations in the Mediterranean (…).

Apple Leisure Group is one of the most important investment conglomerates in tourism in the USA. It used to be owned by the investment fund Bain Capital (…), which sold it in 2017 to the funds KSL Capital Partners and KKR for an undisclosed sum. (…). According to data from the conglomerate, it manages 14 brands and handles more than 3.2 million passengers per year (…). Its turnover exceeds USD 3 billion per year (…).

Original story: Revista 80 Días 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Iberostar will Add 1,500 Rooms to its Portfolio in 2019

24 January 2019 – Expansión

Grupo Iberostar is continuing with its expansion plans and intends to add seven new hotels to its portfolio this year, containing 1,500 rooms in five countries. The new establishments will open in Palma de Mallorca and Madrid, in Spain; in Monastir and Sousse, in Tunisia, where the Spanish hotel chain already has a presence; as well as in Istanbul (Turkey), Rome (Italy) and Lagos (Portugal), where the group will make its debut.

The company, which opened 13 establishments last year, explained that 2019 is going to be “key” for the consolidation of the projects it has underway in Los Cabos and Litibú (Mexico) and for others, which are more advanced, in destinations such as Montenegro, Aruba, Albania and Cuba.

The chain, which is owned by the Fluxá family, owned 96 hotels around the world containing 31,720 rooms at the end of 2018. In Spain, the company owned 35 hotels and 9,888 rooms at the end of last year.

In terms of operational data, Iberostar closed 2018 with revenues of €2.659 billion, which represented an increase of 9% YoY, and it created around 4,000 jobs (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R.A.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pryconsa Draws a Roadmap to Build 1,300 New Homes by 2020

17 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Pryconsa is remaining strong in its commitment to the Spanish residential market. The property developer is planning to build at least 1,285 homes by 2020, located across the Community of Madrid as well as in the municipalities of Cáceres and Valladolid, according to sources at the company speaking to Eje Prime.

During the course of this year, the company is going to launch fourteen developments, containing a total of 727 homes, located in different parts of the Community of Madrid (such as Alcalá de Henares, the Puerto Hierro area, Torrejón de Ardoz, Boadilla del Monte and Vicálvaro), as well as in Cáceres and Valladolid.

On the other hand, in 2020, Pryconsa is going to start work on the construction of 558 homes, spread across six developments and located in the city of Madrid and the surrounding areas (Alcalá de Henares, Vicálvaro and Carabanchel). Nevertheless, as the group explains, “it is most likely that during this year, the number of projects started will increase”.

In addition, the company has the objective of handing over 561 new homes in 2019, 1,196 in 2020 and another 1,107 in 2021. For now, Pryconsa has the intention of focusing on the centre of the country, although it does not rule out entering other cities soon. “It will all depend on the situation and on the opportunities in the market, but that will happen from 2021 onwards”, say the sources.

Currently, Pryconsa has its headquarters in Madrid and operates delegations in Valladolid, Sevilla, Ayamonte and Valencia. The company, which has a workforce of 500, recently settled in the Mediterranean city, to open a Prygesa office, one of its firms specialising in the development of homes.

More than fifty years in the Spanish real estate sector

Founded in 1965, Pryconsa is a company that spans the entire construction cycle: from the purchase of land to the construction of assets and their sale. Besides the residential sector, the group also works in other segments, and is present in the hotel, retail and office sectors through its Socimi Saint Croix Holding Immobilier.

The Socimi, constituted in December 2011, is the owner of six hotels, twelve office buildings, thirteen retail premises and one logistics centre, most of which are located in the Community of Madrid, the group’s main area of operation.

Led by Marco Colomer, Pryconsa is one of the great survivors of the real estate crisis that Spain suffered from 2007. Nowadays, the company continues to be one of the largest residential property developers in the country, with more than 54,000 assets delivered by the end of 2018.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Berta Seijo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Málaga: One of Spain’s Top Cities for Hotel Investment Again in 2018

11 January 2019 – La Opinión de Málaga

Málaga has consolidated its position as one of the tourist areas with the highest volume of hotel investment in recent years, even though the data for 2018 was somewhat lower than that registered in 2017, which was an “extraordinary” year, according to a report presented yesterday by the consultancy firm Colliers International Spain. In this way, Málaga recorded a total investment of €215 million in 2018, which represented 5% of the national total, estimated at €4.81 billion. The study includes investments in existing hotels (improvements and sales/purchases) as well as those dedicated to land and non-hotel properties (for their conversion to hotel use).

The consultancy firm explained that hotel investment at the national level increased by 23.1% in 2018 with respect to the previous year, to achieve a “new historical maximum”. Nevertheless, in the case of Málaga, investment decreased by 50%, motivated by the high levels reached in the area in recent times, with a “very vertical” investment, which has made investors “more cautious” following an “extraordinary” 2017 (…), according to the Partner and Director for Hotels at the consultancy, Miguel Vázquez.

In 2018, ten hotel transactions were closed in Málaga (two in the capital and eight in the rest of the province). The most important deal was the purchase of a hotel by the Greek hotel group Ikos Resorts. In the capital, the purchases corresponded to NH Málaga and Vincci Málaga – in both cases, the ownership changed hands but the hotel management remained the same.

Two buildings were also purchased for hotel use, both in the capital: the Equitativa (acquired by the Didra investor group) and another on Calle Puerta del Mar, where the chain Catalonia is going to open a hotel. On the other hand, there were two land operations, also in the capital, by Room Mate and Well&Come.

The Canary Islands was ranked ahead of Málaga as the region that accounted for the most investment in 2018 (€1.63 billion), which represented 35% of the total, followed by the Balearic Islands, with €944 million (21%). Madrid accounted for another 13% of hotel investment (€601 million) whilst Barcelona recorded €244 million (5%), very similar figures to Málaga. The Catalan capital also saw its investment volume decrease by 50% in 2018, according to data from Colliers International Spain (…).

The strength of the holiday sector

Based on the figures for 2018, Spain was ranked in second place for hotel investment in Europe, behind the United Kingdom, according to data recorded to September 2018, with a market share of 24% of the total for the region, which amounted to €21.6 billion. In total, 273 hotels were purchased, containing 36,189 rooms, 91 more than during the previous year, when 182 establishments changed hands involving 28,813 rooms (…).

Original story: La Opinión de Málaga (by José Vicente Rodríguez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Approval Granted for Socimi Arrienda Rental’s Debut on the MAB

21 December 2018 – La Vanguardia

The Coordination and Incorporations Committee of the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) has issued a favourable report ahead of the stock market debut of Arrienda Rental Properties Socimi, with a reference value of €2.74 per share, after the company was valued at €56.4 million.

The MAB has reported that the stock trading code for Arrienda Rental will be YARP and that it will be governed by the fixing system, with prices being fixed twice in each session, at 12 noon and 16h.

Arrienda Rental is a real estate company that has adopted the Socimi framework and which is dedicated to the acquisition and development of urban properties for their rental.

The Socimi owns 239 assets, all of which are located in the Community of Madrid: 2 hotels (Clement Barajas and Täch), 3 plots of land, 4 offices, 18 retail premises, 40 homes and 172 garages.

Before its stock market debut, the Socimi had 51 shareholders, including Francisco García Rubio, who owns 21% of the capital.

Arrienda Rental has 4 managing directors who are also owners, namely: José García Sánchez, Luis Miguel Gutiérrez Abella, Víctor García Rodríguez and Juan Francisco García Muñoz.

Arrienda’s valuation has been performed by the appraisal company Gesvalt.

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake