Tag: industrial warehouses

BMB Launches a Socimi to Invest €100M in Industrial Warehouses

16 October 2018 – Eje Prime

BMB Investment Management is betting on the tertiary sector. The fund manager is finalising the launch of a new Socimi to invest €100 million in the purchase of industrial warehouses.

After entering the residential market with two Socimis (Optimum Re Spain and Optimum III Value-Added Residential), the company led and chaired by Josep Borrell is now looking for higher returns with its latest firm, Optimum Rentals Socimi. This new investment vehicle will focus on the acquisition of assets that offer returns of between 6.5% and 10%, according to reports from Expansión.

The intention of BMB is that 80% of the budget will be allocated to the purchase of industrial warehouses, leased to solvent tenants and located in the industrial parks of Madrid and Barcelona.

Similarly, although Borrell rules out investing in logistics, he does not shy away from the idea that the fund may also take advantage of an opportunity or two in the residential sector or even in the hotel or retail markets.

Optimum Rentals Socimi is starting life with an initial budget of €100 million, of which €50 million will proceed from own funds and the remainder, from bank financing. Sources at the manager confirm that the plan is to maintain the fund in an independent way so that it will live off of its own income. Investors in BMB’s third Socimi are expected to include both institutional and real estate players, and the percentage of international capital is expected to be high.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

CV Grupo Debuts First Spanish Socimi on Euronext

17 September 2018 – Expansión

Salvador Vila Arcos and the Copoví Ridaura brothers have created Logis Confort, which owns seven industrial buildings in Valencia and Madrid, and they have opted to debut the entity on a secondary French market in light of the more onerous demands of the MAB.

One of the main developers of industrial warehouses in Valencia, CV Grupo, has converted its firm Logic Confort into the first Spanish Socimi to list on the Euronext Access market in Paris. The firm has opted for that secondary French market due to its less onerous requirements and its greater flexibility with respect to the Spanish Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

Logis Confort groups together seven industrial properties that the company leases, mainly in Valencia plus one in Madrid. The assets are worth €15 million. The firm started to trade in July with a benchmark price for its shares of €2.20, which represents a company valuation of €11 million. Although its corporate headquarters are located in Madrid, its three shareholders are from Valencia. The main shareholder is Salvador Vila Arcos, who owns 50% of the firm and is the owner of several firms that operate under the CV Grupo brand, with which it has developed and constructed some of the Ford suppliers’ park in Almussafes. His partners are two builders from that town, Edelmiro and José Manuel Copoví Ridaura, each of whom own 25%.

According to sources at the firm, the decision to opt for the Euronext exchange over the MAB fundamentally due to the conditions regarding the number of shareholders, the diffusion of the shareholding and of the free-floating shares – the percentage of total share capital trading freely on the stock market – demanded by the Spanish market and which did not fit with the company’s plans. Last year, the MAB tightened up its requirements in light of the Socimi boom to take advantage of tax benefits.

In fact, Logis Confort, which has relied on Armanext as an advisor, does not initially expect to open its share capital up to investors in general. Its strategy is to expand the Socimi’s capital by contributing more assets, some of which involve other partners who may join the shareholding of the company.

With this formula, the group also wants to take advantage of the creation of Logis Confort to reorganised its corporate structure and to be able to have an instrument for future operations and alliances.

As Expansión published, CV Grupo participates in companies with the investment firm Atitlán for the management of industrial warehouses.

Original story: Expansión (by A. C. A.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lanca Invests €2.5M in the Construction of a Logistics Warehouse for Iparvending Group

14 June 2018 – Eje Prime

The real estate company Lanca is strengthening its logistics business. The company has just completed the construction of a logistics warehouse at number 35 Calle Eduardo Torroja, on the Butarque Industrial Estate in Leganés.

The Basque real estate group has been working for the Iparvending Group once again, investing €2.5 million in the construction of a turnkey industrial warehouse for the leading automatic food distribution group. The operation has been brokered by Inverpremium.

Work on the asset was completed in April. The Basque real estate group is continuing with its strategic expansion plan to 2020, looking for new real estate investment opportunities involving premises, offices, industrial warehouse and plots of land.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Logistics Socimi Tarjar Buys Commercial Plot in Madrid for €1.17M

16 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Tarjar Xairo will add a fifth asset to its portfolio next year. The logistics Socimi has just purchased a plot of buildable land in Madrid for €1.17 million, according to a statement filed by the company with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The investment company is going to build a commercial premise on the site, which is located in the Cerro de las Columnas area of the Madrilenian town of Pozuelo de Alarcón. The building work for the construction of the asset will begin at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019. Tarjar will lease out the space once the project has been completed.

For the acquisition of the plot, the Socimi has signed a mortgage loan with CaixaBank amounting to €2.5 million. The company has used two of its existing industrial warehouses as collateral, located in Coslada (Madrid) at numbers 31 and 33 Calle Fuentemar. Tarjar is the landlord of the Catalan pharmaceutical giant Grifols in the first of those properties.

The loan will be repaid over 144 monthly instalments between now and 2032 and will have a fixed annual interest rate of 1.5% plus 12-month Euribor. The plot in Pozuelo will be added to the existing real estate portfolio, which already contains four industrial warehouses. Besides the two properties in Coslada, Tarjar owns a third logistics space in Madrid, at number 75 Calle Hierro. Moreover, beyond the Spanish capital, the Socimi owns a fourth asset on the Ribarroja del Turia industrial estate, in the province of Valencia.

In total, the four properties span a constructed surface area of around 25,000 m2 and a leasable surface area, primarily for industrial and office use, of 22,000 m2.

50% of Tarjar is currently under the control of María del Carmen Escribano Sánchez-Beato, who owns 86,692 shares in the Socimi. After her, the other two main shareholders are Juan Hernández Villa, who owns 12.7% of the Socimi, and Francisco Javier Echenique Gordillo, who owns 7.6%. Hernández Villa also manages the Socimi’s rentals through his company Arquibuba.

First anniversary on the MAB 

Tarjar Xairo started to operate as a listed company over a year ago now. The logistics Socimi rang the bell of the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on 20 February 2017 with a company valuation of €9.2 million. The company, which thereby became the 30th Socimi to debut on the stock market, set an initial share price of €53.12.

Now, with twenty more Socimis trading on the MAB (50 in total), Tarjar is betting on buildable land for commercial use, which it hopes will allow it to continue growing. In 2017, the Socimi registered a profit of €118,710, with revenues of €377,509, according to the company’s public records (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Includes its own RE Manager in the Popular Divestment Deal

3 May 2018 – La Información

Blackstone’s real estate platform, Anticipa, is going to collaborate with Aliseda – founded at the time by Popular – in the management of its voluminous property portfolio. The US fund acquired Anticipa in 2014 when it was awarded Catalunya Caixa’s portfolio, and it has just taken control of Aliseda, as part of the mega-operation signed with Santander. The Cantabrian group included the real estate platform, together with a dozen real estate companies, in the €30 billion gross portfolio of properties that it transferred to the new company, in which Blackstone owns 51% of the capital and Santander held onto the remaining 49%.

Blackstone decided not to merge the companies but they are going to collaborate together, according to information submitted to the market about the syndicated loan signed to close Popular’s transaction. The toxic exposure divested by Santander in the deal known as “Project Quasar” has been valued at €10 billion net, given that there was a provision cushion amounting to 63% of the original value in the case of the foreclosed assets and 75% in the case of the loans.

The transaction was structured with the contribution of 30% in capital and 70% in debt. The bank and the fund are going to contribute almost €3 billion in capital and the remaining almost €7.333 billion will proceed from a financial structure led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, together with Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Parlex 15 Lux, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Sof Investment. The operation has been advised by the law firm Allen & Overy, amongst others.

The “Neptune” portfolio constituted to obtain the financing includes Aliseda in the perimeter along with numerous real estate companies and stakes held in them by Popular, including Tifany Investments, Corporación Financiera ISSOS, Pandantan (Mindanao), Taler Real Estate, Vilarma Gestión, Marina Golf, Popsol, Elbrus Properties, Cercebelo Assets, Eagle Hispania, Las Canteras de Abanilla and Canvives. A large proportion of the assets transferred are plots of land, together with residential homes, industrial warehouses, commercial properties, offices, garages and almost €1 billion gross exposure in hotels.

This operation is going to allow Santander to dramatically reduce its exposure to foreclosed assets from €41.1 billion to €10.4 billion – a figure that is reduced to a net of €5.2 billion thanks to the provisions it has recognised amounting to 50% of the initial value – but enabling it to benefit from the divestments as a shareholder of the company receiving the portfolios with a 49% stake.

The plan includes the use of Socimis

The fund’s divestment plans include constructing or transferring some of the assets to Socimis, a vehicle that Blackstone has made use of for previous operations because it offers tax benefits such as avoiding the need to pay Corporation Tax if they distribute dividends. In gross terms, residential assets accounted for almost one-third of the perimeter of the original properties involved in the transaction.

After leaving the Popular portfolio in the hands of Blackstone, Santander still has €4 billion net in foreclosed assets and €1.2 billion in doubtful financing that it wants to get rid of soon. The bank plans to repackage the assets by batch and put them on the market, where half a dozen entities and Sareb are exploring how to get rid of almost €48 billion gross – the bad bank alone is looking for a buyer for the €30 billion whose sale is being managed by Haya Real Estate, and Sabadell has several batches up for sale amounting to almost €11 billion.

The Cantabrian group acquired Popular when it had closed the chapter to clean up its real estate and now it wants to return to that position quickly. It was its real estate division to leave behind the “red numbers” this year or by the early stages of 2019 at the latest.

Original story: La Información (by Eva Contreras)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Armabex: The MAB’s 44 Socimis Have a Combined Asset Value of €12.2bn

12 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The Socimis are still a major talking point in the Spanish real estate sector. Together, the more than forty Socimis that are listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) own assets with a combined market value of €12.221 billion, according to the report Armabex Analysis II. This year alone, seventeen new Socimis have been incorporated onto the MAB.

According to the findings of the report, the average market capitalisation of all of the Socimis currently listed on the MAB amounts to more than €155 million and their average own funds represent 62%. “The Socimi has become a fundamental element in the growth of the real estate market”, explains Antonio Fernández, President of Armabex.

Of the Socimis currently listed on the MAB, 31 have offices and homes amongst their properties available for rent and their market value represents 42% of the total. In 2017, nine of the seventeen new Socimis that debuted on the MAB held both types of assets in their portfolios.

Nevertheless, shopping centres, gas stations, hotels and industrial warehouses have also found the perfect vehicle to list on the MAB in the form of Socimis. In fact, in 2017, there was an increase in the number of shopping centre Socimis (five more in 2017); the first Socimis to include warehouses made their debut (also five in 2017); and the first gas station Socimi made its debut on the MAB along with three new hotel Socimis, amongst others.

By investment destination, Madrid has consolidated its position as the Spanish province in which Socimis invest the most in 2017. In this sense, thirteen of the seventeen new Socimis that started to trade in 2017 own real estate assets in Madrid. In this way, the 32 Socimis listed on the MAB that own assets located in the capital, have real estate assets worth €5.684 billion, which account for 46% of the total asset valuation.

Meanwhile, the evolution in Barcelona has been less satisfactory than expected; the portfolio of assets located in that province owned by the Socimis account for 11% of the total asset valuation, or €1.364 billion. Only five of the seventeen new Socimis that joined the MAB in 2017 own real estate assets in the Catalan capital.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Núñez i Navarro Doubled Its Profits In 2016 To €33.1M

5 September 2017 – Eje Prime

Núñez i Navarro recorded a good set of results last year. The company, the largest unlisted real estate company in Cataluña, saw its profits soar in 2016 to €33.1 million, up from €12.9 the previous year. In this way, the group has returned to growth and is getting closer to its best result ever, recorded in 2007 when it generated a profit of €48.6 million.

The group attributes the increase in its net result to an improvement in its recurrent rental income, a recovery in the value of its assets, which had depreciated during the crisis, and income resulting from a ruling, confirmed by the Supreme Court, which obliged Endesa to indemnify the company for the purchase and sale of real estate in Palma de Mallorca, according to Crónica Global.

By contrast, Núñez i Navarro’s turnover fell in 2016. The company recorded revenues of €110 million, down by 5.1% compared to the same period a year earlier, when its sales amounted to €116 million. The company’s consolidated own funds rose to €595 million.

The group’s business lines include property development and the operation of real estate assets, in particular offices, retail stores, homes, car parks, industrial warehouses and hotels.

The group’s Board of Directors still comprises members of the founding family. It includes Josep Lluís Núñez Clemente, his wife María Navarro Obón and their sons Josep Lluís and Josep María Núñez Navarro.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

D.E.Shaw Purchases €103m Of Property Developer Debt From Bankia

3 April 2017 – Idealista

Bankia has managed to sell Project Gold, a portfolio of property developer loans amounting to €102.97 million. According to market sources, the buyer is the investment fund D.E. Shaw Group. As a result of this operation, the bank chaired by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri (pictured above) has managed to decrease its doubtful debt balance by €77.24 million and sign its first portfolio sale of the year.

Project Gold comprises a portfolio of doubtful and non-performing loans amounting to €102.97 million, from a variety of industrial sectors, although the property developer segment accounts for the lion’s share.

According to a statement from Bankia, this operation allows the entity to fulfil a dual objective: to reduce delinquency, by selling off doubtful and non-performing loans, and to increase liquidity and free up resources for the granting of new loans. The sale of this package has reduced the entity’s doubtful debt balance by €77.24 million.

The bank has another batch up for sale: Project Tour is a package worth €166 million, containing 1,800 properties, including finished homes, land, commercial premises, industrial assets and hotels. These assets are located primarily in the Community of Valencia, led by Valencia; Cataluña, led by Barcelona; the Canary Islands, led by Las Palmas; Madrid and Castilla y León (where Segovia is home to the most assets).

The entity chaired by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri is known in the market as one of the most dynamic entities: in 2016, it had several portfolios up for sale in the market, including Project Ocean, a real estate loan portfolio worth almost €400 million, which was sold to Deutsche Bank; Project Tizona, containing mortgage loans worth €1,000 million; and Project Lane, with properties worth €288 million.

More than €2,000 million in homes and debt up for sale

According to data compiled by Idealista, the banking and extra-banking sectors currently have more than €2,000 million up for sale in the form of non-performing loans secured by properties and real estate assets (homes, premises, offices, industrial warehouses and land).

Some portfolios are well-known, such as BBVA’s Project Vermont, a batch of property developer loans secured primarily by newly-constructed homes, worth almost €100 million. Several funds were interested in acquiring that lot, specifically, Oak Hill, Fortress and AnaCap.

The same entity has several more packages on the market: Project Buffalo, which comprises homes worth €400 million in total. Another project from the entity chaired by Francisco González is known as Boston, which comprises 16 office buildings located in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, worth €200 million. Finally, Project Rentabiliza is a portfolio containing debt to property developers.

In addition, Liberbank has Project Fox on the market, a portfolio of real estate debt worth around €200 million. It is the entity’s first (but not its last) portfolio of unpaid mortgages.

Original story: Idealista (by P. Martínez-Almeida)

Translation: Carmel Drake

GreenOak Prepares New €900M Spanish Residential Fund

16 February 2017 – Cinco Días

The firm GreenOak Real Estate is preparing its second dedicated real estate fund in Spain, which is expected to have an investment capacity of around €900 million. On this occasion, the new vehicle will place a greater focus on the residential construction segment in Madrid and Barcelona above all.

Housing is attracting international funds. The enormous commitments pledged by Värde Partners, Lone Star and Castlelake have been known for several months and now, the US fund GreenOak is joining the party. (…). The recovery in the residential sector is attracting lots of overseas investors given that it offers higher returns than other real estate segments such as retail, offices and industrial warehouses.

And so GreenOak has now opened its second fund in Spain, from its British office, which is led by John Carrafiel. Its investment capacity is expected to amount to almost €900 million, both in terms of capital secured as well as additional bank financing, according to market sources. Some of those resources will be allocated to housing, both the renovation of existing stock and new builds. The fund will also develop buildable land in established residential areas, where active demand exists due to the lack of development during the years of the crisis.

The search for opportunities will focus on Madrid and Barcelona, markets where almost all new builds are being sold, according to sources in the sector, due to the demand that has built up in recent years. In order to construct its projects, rather than creating its own real estate company like other funds have done, GreenOak will establish partnerships with local developers that specialise in different markets.

GreenOak was created in 2010 by three partners from Morgan Stanley’s real estate business. Its main headquarters are located in New York, London and Tokyo; and Spain has been a strategic investment location since the beginning.

In 2015, the firm announced that it had raised its first fund amounting to €700 million, with a view to investing in property in our country. That vehicle has now completed around 15 operations in Spain, primarily in the logistics sector.

The first fund entered the housing sector for the first time with the renovation of a building on c/Fuencarral 77 in Madrid, close to the Tribunal metro stop. (…). The firm also has experience in residential construction in other countries, such as in the USA.

Last year, GreenOak also acquired four office buildings from Santander in the Avalon business park, on the Julián Camarillo industrial estate in Madrid.

It completed its major purchase in a single operation last year when it acquired the Las Mercedes business megacomplex, at kilometre 11 on the A-2, next to Barajas airport. That park contains nine office buildings with a surface area of 78,000 m2. According to sources in the sector, it acquired it for around €140 million from Standard Life.

Moreover, the first fund has been particularly active in the logistics segment, closing more than a dozen operations. In fact, the firm has considered putting up a portfolio of some of its industrial assets up for sale, just a year after acquiring them.

In addition, the firm debuted its own Socimi, called Gore Spain Holdings, on the Alternative Investment Market, on 19 January 2017, with an initial value of €144 million. That company owns 20 assets in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Valencia, Bilbao, Murcia and Sevilla, including logistics warehouses and the Avalon business park in Madrid.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Investment In Commercial RE Exceeds Pre-Crisis Levels

1 December 2015 – El País

The real estate companies are dealing with the recovery in the sector by restructuring their portfolios in favour of commercial properties. During the first nine months of the year, according to the consultancy CBRE, investment in offices, hotels, shopping centres and industrial warehouses amounted to €10,791 million. That figure exceeds the total amount invested during the whole of 2014 and ranks above pre-crisis levels. Operations undertaken by listed real estate companies and Socimis amounted to €6,300 million, i.e. almost 60% of the total, when in 2014, they accounted for 36%.

The €10,791 million spent on commercial properties during the first three quarters of the year by the Socimis, real estate companies, investment funds and individuals overtakes the total investment recorded during 2007, the best year of the real estate bubble era. The Director of Capital Markets at CBRE, Mikel Marco-Gardoqui, says that by this point in the year, total investment will have exceeded €11,500 million. “This is going to be a record year, and we expect investors’ appetite to continue in 2016”, he says. But the sector also warns that the “aggressiveness” associated with certain purchases raises concern against “semi-bubbles” in certain assets.

Socimis accounted for 46% of total investment during this period, which has allowed them to continue increasing their portfolios. Merlin Properties, which acquired the real estate company Testa for €1,793 million, leads this group of companies dedicated to rental properties, with assets worth €5,800 million, followed by Hispania (€775 million), Axiare (€773.4 million) and Lar Real Estate (€594.9 million). The ten Socimis listed on the Alternative Investment Market (‘Mercado Alternativo Bursátil’ or MAB) own around €3,058 million assets between them.

Strategic plans

It is not just these companies, with their tax advantages, that are participating in the bids for assets. Real estate companies – both listed and unlisted – have participated in another 13% of operations. The seven largest real estate companies on the stock market hold a portfolio of commercial properties worth almost €16,000 million.

Colonial, with a portfolio worth €6,290 million, expects to invest €1,500 million between now and 2019 through the purchase of new buildings, whilst Renta Corporación will spend another €500 million on acquisitions over the next two years. (…).

The restructurings carried out and the plans announced have been applauded by the markets, which have rewarded the majority of these companies with an improvement in their share prices. During the year to date, the value of Renta Corporación has increased by 55%; Realia by 39%; Hispania by 25%; Colonial and Axia, by 18.7%; and Merlin by 17.6%.

Moreover, Socimis and real estate companies are mediating a large part of the overseas investment arriving into the sector. For example, the main shareholders of Colonial include the sovereign fund Qatar Investment Authority and the English millionaire Joseph Lewis; meanwhile, various overseas funds holds stakes in Merlin Properties, and George Soros and John Paulson are shareholders of Hispania.

According to Marco-Gardoqui at CBRE, a significant difference between the investment that arrived in 2007 and this year is that the majority of the volume associated with the bubble was achieved through debt; today the funds come from private capital, although the banks have started to open the financing tap for the sector. (…).

Original story: El Páis (by Lluís Pellicer)

Translation: Carmel Drake