Tag: investments

Angel Cano’s Firm to Market Flats in Benidorm’s Giant In Tempo

4 October 2018

The proptech firm Sonneil will market 270 flats, seeking clients for the tallest residential building in Spain.

After years of paralysis, the tallest residential building in Spain, at 192 meters, will begin work on its last phase of construction, while starting sales of its 270 flats. The SVP fund (which owns the property) has commissioned the real estate company Sonneil, owned by Ángel Cano, the former CEO of BBVA, to sell the apartments on an exclusive basis. Sales are expected to begin shortly, the proptech firm announced on its website.

Sonneil is a proptech, which apply information technology to real estate transactions, based in Alicante. Its founder is Alfredo Millá, an ex-executive at Solvia, Sabadell’s servicer. Juan Pedro Moreno, president of Accenture; Albert Ribera, founder of Trovit; and the lawyer Juan Busquets are partners.

Last year, Sevenzonic, run by several former executives at BBVA, including Ángel Cano, and Javier Rodríguez Zapatero, former general manager of Google in Spain and president of the ISDI business school, also invested in the company. Sevenzonic was founded to invest in new technology companies.

The real estate agency Sonneil has not revealed any potential prices or the date that sales will begin. This firm is highly focused on international clients looking for coastal housing in Spain. More than 60% of the buyers it attracts are foreigners, mainly Belgians, Nordics, Dutch and Germans.

As a proptech company, Sonneil uses hyper-segmented online marketing tools segmented by client type, through social networks, Google Ads and web positioning. The real estate company seeks to reduce the number of intermediaries that act in a sale, especially in the case of international clients, becoming a single agent.

Construction on the building began in 2007. Its developer, Olga Urbana, was declared insolvent in 2014. Sareb (the bad bank of the Spanish government,) became its main creditor, selling the debt to SVP Global last year. The American fund took over the project and announced its intent to finish construction on the skyscraper, which has been paralysed for years.

Original Story: Cinco Días – Alfonso Simón Ruiz

Translation: Richard Turner

On the Hunt for Capital: Socimi Quonia Considers Issuing Bonds to Finance its Growth

11 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Quonia does not want to put any limits on its capacity for indebtedness. The company is considering carrying out a corporate bond issue to increase its financing options and, whereby, continue with its development plan, according to explanations provided by the company’s CEO, Eduard Mercader, speaking to Eje Prime. Through this move, Quonia would also open itself up to institutional investors.

The fact that Socimis must dedicate at least 80% of their profits to dividends “limits their capacity to accumulate debt”, explains Mercader. In this way, the main option for these types of companies when they are looking to grow is primarily through capital increases. However, the company’s executive is looking for “alternative formulae”, to apply “in the short term”.

Mercader’s decision to resort to bonds is also a consequence of the difficulties faced when completing capital increases with investors outside of Europe, such as in this case. Quonia was created in 2014 by the Mexican investors Divo Milán and Ana Saucedo and investors from that country currently contribute the majority of its resources.

Quonia has just completed a €3 million capital increase, although the company had approved the possibility of raising up to €26.5 million. Before the end of the year, the company will obtain another €1 million through the capitalisation of investor loans.

Although the resources forecast by the Socimi were greater, Mercader says that the final amount does not limit the company’s development plan. “We adapt ourselves to the capital that we receive”, says the executive, and adds that Quonia “is continuously raising funds”.

After its launch with the purchase of an asset in Barcelona, Quonia has been attracting different investors from Mexico, Europe and the USA. In July 2014, the company adopted the Socimi regime and in July 2016, it made its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) where it is currently listed.

“We are very much a real estate Socimi, we do not have a financial profile at all”, explains Mercader – “we buy assets with a lot of potential”. The company’s portfolio currently comprises seven assets, located in Barcelona, Lagreo and Sevilla, of a residential, hotel and commercial nature. The valuation of the company’s portfolio in October 2017 amounted to €85 million, with a gross value of €57 million.

The company is currently finalising the sale of one of its properties. Specifically, the building located at number 166 Calle Balmes in Barcelona. It is an eight-storey residential property, with commercial premises on the ground floor, constructed in 1930 in the rationalist style. Both this property and the one at number 45 on the same street are being used as residences for students.

Quonia, whose average investments range between €10 million and €13 million, is on the lookout for opportunities in Spain to continue growing its portfolio. With Barcelona and Madrid always in its sights, the company is branching out to new destinations for its new investments in cities such as Málaga and Sevilla, as well as País Vasco, where it is analysing several operations. Palma is another city where it is considering investing (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by P. Riaño and J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Town Hall of Barcelona Buys a Building in the City Centre for Social Housing Use

7 June 2018 – Eje Prime

Ada Colau is continuing with her plan to increase the portfolio of residential property owned by the Town Hall of Barcelona for social housing purposes. In this case, the Town Hall is going to invest €2 million in the purchase and renovation of a building in the centre of the Catalan capital.

The property, located in El Eixample, at number 317 Calle Aragó, has been acquired through a right of first refusal arrangement, a preferential purchase that the Town Hall of Barcelona is allowed to exercise by law. The building contains eleven homes, four of which are empty. Moreover, the asset has a commercial premise on the ground floor, which will be allocated for “residents’ use”, according to comments from municipal sources.

The councillor for El Eixample and spokesman for the Town Hall, Gerardo Pisarello, explained that the goal of the purchase is, in addition to increasing the stock of social housing rental properties as Colau promised during her election campaign, “to avoid residents from ending up in the hands of financial institutions and vulture funds that want to acquire properties for speculative purposes”. Since becoming the mayor of Barcelona, Colau has purchased 500 flats that have been subsequently destined to rent.

At the beginning of 2018, the municipal government announced that it would invest up to €36 million in the purchase of seven private plots for the construction of public housing developments, primarily for social housing purposes, which are in constant demand in light of the rising rental prices in Barcelona, which increased by 18% in 2017.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ardian Places Indigo Sale On Hold after Raising €700M in Debt

4 May 2018 – Expansión

Ardian and its partner Predica (Credit Agricole) have decided to put on hold the sale of their parking lot subsidiary Indigo, one of the giants in the European sector with significant interests in Spain. The shareholders, which have been looking at various options for their investment over the last year, have opted to re-leverage the company in the end, with a €700 million bond issue, which will be used to refinance some of the debt that expires in 2020, and also, to distribute an extraordinary dividend to shareholders.

With this move, the possible sale of the former VinciPark has been put on hold, after Ardian went off the idea of divestment in 2017 when it did not obtain satisfactory offers for the asset. According to sources close to the operation, Indigo’s shareholders were left with three options: put the “for sale” sign back up; re-leverage the company and distribute an extraordinary dividend to the shareholders; or encourage a merger agreement with other parking lot groups.

Until a few weeks ago, all three options were on the table. One of the possibilities involved exploring an alliance with the Spanish firm Saba. The parking lot group controlled by Criteria (La Caixa) is also undergoing a process of transformation after the decision was taken by its minority shareholders, which together hold a 49% stake, to exit the company. That round of contact did not prosper and Indigo decided to begin the procedure to launch a macro debt issue, which took place on 12 April.

Sources in the sector believe that a merger between Saba and Indigo would have business logic given the minimal overlap and their capacity to form a group with sufficient critical mass to explore a stock market listing. Trading on the stock market has always been the ultimate dream of Saba’s founding partners. By contrast, Ardian avoids investments in listed groups (…).

Indigo is, together with Qpark and Apcoa, the largest parking lot group in Europe. According to the latest available figures, the company recorded turnover of €897 million in 2017, with an EBITDA of €310 million. The company’s net financial debt amounts to €1.666 billion. Saba and Empark also feature in Europe’s Top 8 ranking of the largest parking lot groups, but their turnover figures are significantly lower than those of Indigo and QPark.

According to experts, another factor that would contribute to accelerating the corporate movements in the sector is the ownership structure. The giants in the sector are owned by investment funds and private equity firms with a relative dearth of long-term investors. QPark is controlled by KKR, whilst the German firm Apcoa is owned by Centerbridge. Ardian controls Indigo and Macquarie is the new owner of Empark. Saba is the only company with an industrial shareholder – Criteria – and a long-term interest (…).

Although not its largest market, Indigo conducts significant business in Spain. Revenues amounted to €41 million in 2017, with an EBITDA of almost €20 million. It is Indigo’s third largest market in Europe, after France and the United Kingdom. The outlook for Spain is positive. According to the consultancy firm DBK, revenues from the rental of parking spaces (…) in Spain and Portugal amounted to €1.145 billion in 2017, which represented an increase of 3.8% with respect to the previous year. In 2016, that figure grew by 4.5%.

Original story: Expansión (by C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar España Excites the Market with its Logistics Portfolio

23 April 2018 – Expansión

The Socimi, which owns five complexes in Guadalajara and Valencia, has received a dozen offers for its assets, all of them for a price of more than €75 million.

Some of the players that have bid for Lar España’s logistics portfolio include the US fund Blackstone, P3 Logistic Parks – a platform controlled by the Singapore sovereign fund -, Palm Capital, CBRE Global Investors, Ares Management and Nuveen, according to market sources speaking to Expansión.

In the logistics sector, the Socimi in which the fund manager Pimco holds a stake, owns four complexes in the municipality of Alovera (Guadalajara), in the heart of the Corredor del Henares.

Together, that site comprises ten logistics warehouses with a total constructed surface area of 142,630 m2 occupied by tenants such as Saint Gobain Isover Ibérica, Tech Data, Carrefour and Factor 5. In addition, the Socimi owns a logistics complex in Almussafes (Valencia) containing a logistics warehouse with a constructed surface area of 19,211 m2. That warehouse is occupied by Valautomoción, the supplier of car parts and accessories to Ford, which was acquired by Ferrostaal in 2015.

According to the latest figures published by the Socimi, its portfolio of logistics assets has a valuation of almost €90 million. Moreover, Lar owns around 200,000 m2 of space for a new logistics development in Cheste (Valencia), which it is not planning to sell until it has finished construction there, to make the investment profitable, according to information reported by the company at the time.

According to Lar’s accounts, the land, which it purchased less than a year ago from Bertolín, has doubled in value since the investment was made. The Socimi paid €2.2 million for the 112,813 m2 plot in Cheste in May 2017 and, at the end of last year, it had a market value of €5.2 million.

Other divestments

Lar España has launched an asset rotation plan to raise cash and undertake new investments in shopping centres After selling two office buildings to Colonial, both in Madrid, for €112 million, the company now has three office buildings in Madrid and Barcelona worth around €85 million.

Moreover, it expects to raise €110 million from the sale of its stake in the luxury residential development Lagasca 99 (Madrid), which it owns jointly with Pimco.

In parallel, the company is going to maintain its investment plan. It expects to allocate €220 million to new acquisitions in retail centres and parks and will invest €247 million in developments, especially commercial ones, and another €49 million on improving its assets.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Corpfin Begins its Divestment Period by Placing Assets Worth €160M Up For Sale

23 March 2018 – Eje Prime

Corpfin Real Estate is rotating its asset portfolio. According to sources familiar with proceedings, the company has started to divest some of its assets, and to this end, has placed on the market commercial premises and out-of-town retail parks worth €160 million. Currently, Corpfin Real Estate manages four investment vehicles in the Spanish market.

“The investment strategy of Corpfin Capital Real Estate Partners includes the rotation of assets once they have reached their maturity period”, explain sources at the group. “Specifically, the two vehicles that Corpfin Capital Real Estate Partners is managing at the moment, Corpfin Capital Prime Retail Assets and Corpfin Capital Retail Parks, are nearing the end of their investment periods, and so the group has not ruled out divesting some of the assets owned by those vehicles”, they said.

Corpfin Retail Parks, a vehicle with an investment capacity of €150 million, specialises in retail products “with a high management component”. Meanwhile, Corpfin Capital Prime Retail Assets was created in 2011 and completed its investment phase in 2016.

In parallel, the company has been fattening up its portfolio with the investment vehicles that remain active. Through its vehicles Corpfin Capital Prime Retail II Socimi and Corpfin Capital Prime Retail III Socimi, the company purchased two commercial premises last year, in Madrid and Vitoria (…).

In addition, with Corpfin Capital Retail Parks, the company has also been purchasing assets until recently, although it still has a small percentage of its funds left to invest before it finalises that vehicle’s purchasing process. Corpfin’s most recent operations with CPRP include the purchase of a plot of land measuring 4,345 m2 from the General Foundation of Madrid’s University of Complutense.

For now, Corpfin has signed a contract to set up an Aldi supermarket on that plot, which will occupy a surface area of more than 1,200 m2 and which will be the chain’s first store in the municipality. The rest of the land is still being marketed.

Other operations undertaken by the fund include the Las Moruchas Shopping Centre in Ávila, inaugurated in June 2016, and the construction of a new shopping complex in Alcorcón (Madrid), which is currently under development.

New director general

In addition, this year, the group is also shaking up its management team and has appointed a new CEO for the Socimi. Ana Granado has served as the most senior executive of the company since February (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Medcap Diversifies & Allocates €50M to Alternative Investments & Portugal

19 March 2018 – Eje Prime

Medcap is starting 2018 by making new investments and entering new markets. Diversification and alternative assets are going to be the focus of the group over the coming months, which has just invested €50 million on its entry into Portugal and the launch of a healthcare assets investment division, according to explanations provided by Dimas de Andres, the group’s CEO to Eje Prime.

One of the main operations that Medcap is going to carry out this year, as well as continuing “to keep an eye on opportunities in the prime retail sector, which is one of the fund’s main activities” is going to be the launch of two out-of-town retail parks in the Portuguese market, specifically, in Lisbon and Porto.

The company has invested €30 million in the purchase of 2 plots of land, one spanning 19,000 m2 and the other measuring 27,000 m2, for the complete development of two commercial areas, which are going to be leased in their majority to a supermarket group, according to explanations from Medcap.

Medcap Real Estate, a company owned by the De Andrés Puyol family, has also explained that it is going to back alternative investments this year. The company is currently involved in a healthcare project in the Community of Valencia. With an investment of between €15 million and €20 million, Medcap is going to construct the building with all of the needs that a healthcare operator may have, in order to put it on the market and lease it or resell it.

With these types of assets, the company is going to focus its efforts on Valencia and Cataluña. “We are not afraid to continue buying in Spain: our investments in Madrid and Barcelona are still intact”, explains the CEO of the company. “We are long-termists and we are not afraid of the political situation”, he says.

In addition to its investments, the group is also starting a divestment phase in 2018. The company has already sold the NH Murcia Hotel, located in Cartagena, and a supermarket, also located in Cartagena, for €12.5 million. “At the end of the day, divestment forms part of our business too”, say sources at the company.

MedCap, ten prime assets

At the beginning of 2015, the De Andrés Puyol family constituted Medcap Real Estate to manage its portfolio of assets, formed as a result of the contribution by Inversora del Reino de Valencia of one of its branches of activity, which included all of the urban assets leased or offered as rental properties, as well as all of the shares of the subsidiary specialising in managing operations relating to prime retail.

Medcap’s shareholders have a long history in the real estate business, with extensive experience in the search for, development of and letting of assets. Medcap focuses its activity mainly on the prime segment given the greater stability of that sector. Nevertheless, it also has a portfolio of rental properties for operation such as supermarkets in more secondary areas.

Medcap has a pipeline of assets in different stages of development or study in Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. Its most noteworthy properties include the building at number 80 Paseo de Gracia, where the luxury firm Louis Vuitton has its flagship store in the Catalan capital, as well as the Desigual megastore on Plaza Cataluña and the Apple store on Paseo de Gracia, according to the firm’s annual accounts.

In Madrid, until January, the group was the owner of the Adidas flagship store at number 21 Gran Vía (pictured above), which it sold to Triuvua; and the Louis Vuitton flagship store at number 66 Calle Serrano in Madrid, amongst others. The valuation of Medcap’s prime retail assets exceeds €475 million, according to the most recent valuation performed by the company.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Mapfre Sold Non-Strategic Properties for €130M in 2017

1 March 2018 – Expansión

In 2017, Mapfre focused the management of its properties on the sale of non-strategic assets for a total of €130 million, of which €124.5 million corresponded to assets located mainly in Spain. That activity generated a profit of €65 million for the insurance company.

The entity sold the building it had occupied on the Madrilenian street Calle Luchana (pictured above) for €72 million, plus two plots of land in Palma de Mallorca for €22.5 million and other smaller assets for €30 million in total.

At the end of 2017, the market value of Mapfre’s real estate investments amounted to €2.9 billion, with latent gains of €750 million. That figure would offset a decrease in the price of its properties amounting to approximately 26.28% of the market value of the portfolio.

Of that total, €1.0 billion relates to properties that the insurance company uses in its normal activity, whilst the remainder, €1.3 billion comprise group investments.

Mapfre’s real estate portfolio accounts for 4.4% of the insurance company’s total investments, which amount to €49.6 billion.

Its government-backed fixed-income securities account for most of its portfolio (55%) at €27.4 billion, although they have reduced their weighting by 2.3 percentage points, given that previously they accounted for 57.3%. Corporate fixed-income securities accounted for 19% of the total, at €9.6 billion, compared to 20.2% a year earlier.

Insurance companies are natural investors in these types of assets, but in light of the decrease in interest rates, most entities are reducing the weight of their investments in those portfolios and increasing their presence in others that may offer higher returns, although also higher risk.

Equities are the caption that is growing the most within Mapfre’s portfolio, up by 44.2% in one year to reach €2.4 billion. Their weight amounted to 4.8% at the end of 2017, compared with 3.4% a year earlier.

Spanish fixed-income assets, both public and corporate, amounted to €18.2 billion at the end of last year, almost half the total amount, which reached €37.0 billion. The United States of America, with €3.7 billion and Brazil, with €3.4 billion, were placed in second and third position in that ranking.

Original story: Expansión (by E. del Pozo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

APG to Inject €250M of Additional Funding into its Socimi with Renta

1 March 2018 – Expansión

Vivenio, the Socimi managed by Renta Corporación, is planning to carry out a second round of fundraising whereby the fund APG will inject €250 million; with leverage, that will result in an investment of €400 million in real estate assets in total. This represents the second capital injection for the Socimi that was created in April last year with a share capital of €130 million and an investment budget of €250 million.

The CEO of Renta Corporación, David Vila, said that the operation must first be approved by the General Shareholders’ Meeting and that the budget will be spent in its entirety in the residential segment. Of the budget for last year, €100 million has already been invested and around €115 million more has already been committed in operations pending completion.

Results

Last year, Renta Corporación generated a net profit of €12.5 million, up by 210% compared to the previous year. During 2017, Renta’s share price rose by 59%. Yesterday, it rose by 3%, to €3.70 per share.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Vbare Doubled its Rental Income & Recorded Profits of €2.2M in 2017

26 February 2018 – Eje Prime

Vbare is making profits from its investment in rental assets. Taking advantage of the boom in that market, the Socimi listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) recorded a profit of €2.2 million in 2017, compared to €4.3 million in 2016. Almost half of the amount the company earned last year came from rental income, which amounted to €1 million, up by 122% with respect to 2016.

Vbare’s portfolio, comprising 197 assets, has an occupancy rate of 88.82% and last year saw an average capital appreciation of 61% and returns of more than 6%. At the end of 2017, the valuation of the management company’s portfolio amounted to €28.5 million.

In 2018, the Socimi plans to start investing the money raised over the last few months. After increasing its capital by €7 million in August, the company has started the year by signing a loan for almost €1 million with Sabadell for new acquisitions, as well as a mortgage amounting to €685,000 secured by fifteen of its real estate assets in Madrid.

In this sense, Vbare is finalising the acquisition of an asset worth between €1 million and €1.5 million, a purchase that will be included in the process to identify opportunities in which the Socimi is immersed. The list of potential investments amounts to more than €75 million.

Moreover, the manager wants to branch out of Madrid, with the purchase of assets in other Spanish cities that have “the potential for rental increases in the short and medium term”, according to a statement issued by the Socimi.

Fabrizio Agrimi is the person who will lead roadmap of Vbare, which made its debut on the MAB in December 2016. The executive has headed up the Socimi since last November, following the departure of David Calzada in June. Formerly at Aguirre Newman and a partner at Altan Capital, Agrimi has extensive experience in the business of real estate investments both in the Spanish market as well as in the United Kingdom and Italy.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake