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

Amro Buys Sevillan Development in Iberian Roll-out

25 January 2019 – EGI

London-based investor Amro Real Estate Partners has bought a site in Sevilla, marking its second acquisition within its student housing platform in Spain and Portugal.

The deal forms part of the company’s strategy to create a 5,000-bed investment platform in the region.

Last year, Amro appointed CBRE to search for a student housing joint venture partner to undertake a €300m (£261m) capital investment in its Iberian expansion.

At the same time, it invested in a 360-bed student housing development site in Granada, which will launch in early 2020.

The site in Sevilla measures around 100,000 square metres (…).

Original story: EGI (by Pui-Guan Man)

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Azora Acquires HQ of the Former Cortefiel Group for €28.3M

24 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Another operation has been closed in the office market in Madrid. The Socimi GMP, controlled by the Montoro family and the sovereign fund of Singapore, has sold the building located at number 51 Calle Llano Castellano to Azora. The price of the operation amounted to €28.3 million.

The property now controlled by Azora, the real estate manager founded by Concha Osácar and Fernando Gumuzio, is occupied in its entirety by Tendam, previously known as the Cortefiel Group and owner of the fashion chains Cortefiel, Women’secret, Springfield and Pedro del Hierro.

The rental contract for the building, which has a gross leasable area of 23,108 m2 and 145 parking spaces, is due to expire in 2023.

The building was constructed in 1990 and had been controlled 100% by GMP since 2015. Until then, the property was in the hands of the real estate division of General Electric through the company Renta Gestión Fuencarral.

Its new owner, Azora, specialises in the investment and management of real estate assets for third parties and has a portfolio comprising more than €4.5 billion in assets. The company was the promoter of Hispania, the first Socimi to be constituted, which made its debut on the stock market in Spain in 2014.

Azora was considering its own stock market debut, but in the end, it suspended that process last year. Azora and Hispania ended their agreement last year, after Blackstone’s successful takeover of the Socimi.

Since then, the company has focused on the residential rental market through the creation of a joint venture with CBRE Global Investment and Madison to reach a portfolio of 10,000 homes over the coming years.

Azora manages the real estate portfolios of funds and wealthy investors, such as George Soros, CBRE Global Investors, Goldman Sachs, Axa Investment Management and Bank of Montreal, amongst others (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by P. Riaño and I. P. Gestal)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Considers Buying Neinver from the Losantos Family for €500M

23 January 2019 – El Confidencial

Neinver, a property developer and operator of shopping centres, specialising in outlets – focused on offering discounted products – is up for sale and the US fund Blackstone is one of the buyers that is evaluating the operation. The Losantos family is asking around €500 million for the company, which has become one of the major operators in the shopping centre sector in Europe, and which would fit well into Blackstone’s portfolio given the stable rents generated by its properties and land, according to explanations provided by sources in the real estate sector.

Spokespersons from Neinver consulted about the negotiations indicated that “they decline to comment on rumours” regarding the sale operation, one of the largest underway in the sector in Spain this year from a corporate perspective.

Nevertheless, other financial sources have assured that the Losantos family has entrusted the sale of the company to Credit Suisse, which has drawn up a sales book that it has been promoting since the end of the year and which is being considered by several funds.

Blackstone is the favourite because it has already acquired assets from Neinver. In November last year, the property developer placed a package of industrial warehouses and logistics assets with Blackstone for €290 million. Therefore, this fund, the largest overseas investor in the Spanish real estate sector, is an old acquaintance of the Losantos family.

Neinver is chaired by José María Losantos del Campo. It is the largest operator of outlet centres in Spain and Poland, where it operates under two own brands: The Style Outlets and Factory. It has developed some of its assets in association with the fund TH Real Estate. In total, it has promoted and managed 16 outlet centres, and six shopping centres and retail parks (…). It has a presence in seven countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Portugal and the Czech Republic.

Neinver in numbers

Neinver recorded revenues of €93.6 million in 2017, according to the consolidated accounts filed with the Mercantile Registry. That figure represented an increase of 27% compared with the previous year.

Nevertheless, the strong performance in terms of sales was not reflected in its profits. Neinver is selling more but earning less. In 2017, its net consolidated profit amounted to €4.7 million, a third of the €16.1 million that it earned in 2016. The decrease in profitability was due in large part to the projects underway and its indebtedness.

According to the group’s consolidated accounts, the gross debt at the end of last year amounted to €466.3 million, €30 million more than during the previous year, “due to debts stemming from the new companies incorporated into the Neptune joint venture”. Neptune is the joint venture owned by Neinver and TH Real Estate.

Valuations

The €500 million asking price is without the debt. The book value of the company’s assets amounts to €913 million, according to Neinver’s own accounts. The main appeal of the company is the revenue stream stemming from the rental of its assets (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Marcos Lamelas)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Azora Launches a Vehicle to Invest €250M in Last Mile Logistics Hubs

9 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Azora is launching itself into the last mile logistics sector. The real estate manager has launched a vehicle to invest €250 million in premises located in the centre of cities with the aim of facilitating urban distribution and responding to the boom in e-commerce.

According to the company’s plans, the first investments will take place during the first quarter of this year. Azora will be responsible for the vehicle and will hold a minority stake in it. Meanwhile, the consultancy firm CBRE will be responsible for designing it and for supplying the real estate services, according to Expansión.

Until now, Azora and CBRE have identified almost thirty assets that fit their investment objectives until 2021. Currently, both companies are holding negotiations to purchase those properties, which include disused furniture stores, parking lots, dealerships, workshops and shopping centres inside the M-30 in Madrid and within Las Rondas in Barcelona. The properties must also have a surface area of more than 800 m2.

The assets will subsequently be leased to major logistics operators and to other transport companies, as well as to merchants and distribution companies under long-term lease contracts.

With more than €4.5 billion in assets under management, Azora is continuing to back the real estate sector after breaking its alliance with Hispania. Since then, the company has taken advantage of its experience in the sector to back the residential rental segment through the creation of a joint venture with CBRE Global Investment and Madison to achieve a portfolio of 10,000 homes within the next few years.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Grifols Family Joins Forces with Corp Promotor to Create the Largest Rental Home Group

8 January 2019 – El Confidencial

After two small ventures in the sector, the Grifols family is entering the real estate sector in a big way. And it is doing so to create the largest rental home developer in Spain. Through the company Scranton, which is controlled by the Grifols family and a group of former directors from the pharmaceutical company, they are joining forces with the Catalan property developer Corp Promotors to constitute a group that is going to build 2,500 rental homes in the Barcelona area over three years, according to sources in the real estate sector familiar with the group’s plans, which are expected to involve an investment of €230 million in total.

This corporate alliance is being carried out by the company Scranton and does not involve the Grifols as a company, which has been left out of the operation. But the success of Grifols has been impacting its shareholders for a long time now. The Dutch firm Scranton, owner of 8.67% of Grifols, is mobilising investments in other sectors using the profits obtained by the company that bears the family name.

Spokespeople from Corp declined to comment on the matter. But other financial sources familiar with the project explain that Scranton and Corp are going to create a joint venture company, in which Scranton will hold 66% and Corp will own 34%. Corp will provide land, including assets such as plots on Rambla Guipúzcoa, Bonaplata and Can Batlló II, next to Gran Vía, all in the Catalan capital. And the Grifols will provide the funds to build on that land. Sources in the real estate sector indicate that half of those 2,500 homes will be constructed in the city of Barcelona and the remainder will be built in nearby cities such as on the Torreblanca plots in Sant Just Desvern and in towns such as L’Hospitalet, Badalona and Terrassa, for example.

Corp Promotors was created by two partners who left a nightclub business in Mataró to enter the real estate sector a decade ago, at the height of the real estate crisis, when almost all of the property developers in Barcelona had abandoned their activity after running out of bank credit. Those two partners are Pedro Molina Porras and Pau Castro Sáez. According to the consolidated accounts of the group deposited at the Mercantile Registry, Corp Promotors recorded revenues of €99.8 million in 2017 and profits of more than €7 million. The book value of the group’s plots are worth €209 million but not all of them will be involved in the operation with the Grifols.

The Grifols and its partners have detected a housing emergency in Barcelona, with an alarming lack of developments and they have entered the market in search of profitability at a time when investors have surplus funds, but there are insufficient assets (…).

New player

Through its alliance with Corp, the Grifols are aspiring to become one of the major players in the Spanish real estate sector. According to the business plan prepared by the partners, once the new company is operating at full capacity, in three years time, it could be worth €1 billion and with rental assets that will convert it into a kind of high yield bond for investors.

That will be possible because Corp is one of the largest owners of land at the moment in the Barcelona area. But with so many projects underway, the group is very indebted. Its accounts reflected debts of €142 million at the end of 2017, twice the figure of a year earlier. Corp’s shareholders have been trying to sell the property developer, in whole or in part, for a year, according to sources in the real estate sector. Now, with the new partner, they can forget those plans and enter another phase of their corporate life (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Marcos Lamelas)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Losantos Family Puts Neinver Up for Sale for €500M+

26 December 2018 – Cinco Días

One of the historical names of Spanish real estate, the Losantos family, is putting its real estate firm Neinver up for sale for more than €500 million. Neinver specialises in building and managing retail outlets and is the company that manages shopping centres such as The Style Outlets and the Factory. It has a presence in several countries.

The company, chaired by José María Losantos del Campo, has engaged the bank Credit Suisse to search for interested parties in this multi-national firm that started life in La Rioja, according to four financial and real estate sources familiar with the operation. The financial entity and the company declined to comment about this operation.

The founder of the company, born in 1936, started out in the sale and purchase of tinplate, together with his brother Mario, and later founded Neinver in 1969. Mario would go on to found Riofisa, one of the large real estate empires in Spain (…).

José María Losantos grew Neinver, which is now headquartered in Alcobendas (Madrid), specialising in turnkey projects, for example, in several wineries, and which has opted for shopping centres over the last two decades. His son, Daniel Losantos, serves as the firm’s CEO. The real estate company has, in turn, been controlled by the company Teckel Gestora since 2016, which also owns rural estates in Ciudad Real and which is owned by the patriarch of the family.

Neinver manages 600,000 m2 of commercial spaces, across almost 2,000 stores and in 15 outlet centres under the brand The Style Outlets and Factory, which span a commercial surface area of 300,000 m2.

The company has a joint venture to share ownership of some of these assets with TH Real Estate, the real estate arm of TIAA, the US teachers’ pension fund. Neinver controls a lot of these properties through 23 companies, according to reports from Insight View based on property registry data.

In addition to the centres in Spain, it owns assets together with TH Real Estate and other partners in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

In Spain, it owns The Style Outlets – which are dedicated to the off-season sale of well-known brands – in Las Rozas, San Sebastián de los Reyes and Getafe (all three in Madrid), A Coruña and Viladecans (Barcelona), as well as the Madrilenian shopping centres Alegra and Nassica.

This search for buyers entrusted to Credit Suisse comes at a critical moment for investment in the Spanish real estate market, which is featuring many international funds and Socimis. So far this year, until the middle of December, a record investment figure of €18.719 billion has been registered, according to CBRE, up by 45% compared to 2017, boosted above all by the acquisition of companies. In the case of retail, €4.279 billion has been invested to date this year.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruis & Pablo Martín Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

2018: The Year that Blackstone was Crowned the King of the Spanish Real Estate Sector

17 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Blackstone wants it all and it wants it now. That is the sensation that the US investment fund, the new king of the Spanish real estate market, is transmitting throughout the real estate sector. Its portfolio is worth more than €20 billion after an accelerated period of purchases during 2018.

One of the objectives of the US fund manager has been, precisely, to expand its network in the Spanish real estate sector by entering markets such as the logistics segment. At the beginning of December, the company closed its latest operation in the country with the purchase of a logistics portfolio from Neinver for €300 million.

Nevertheless, the deal involving the giant Neinver is by no means the most significant operation that Blackstone has undertaken this year. Over the last twelve months, the group has taken control of Hispania, to grow in the hotel sector; it has acquired 80% of Testa, to manage thousands of rental homes, and in the logistics sector, it has accumulated 1 million m2 of space with the 55 assets from Neinver and the purchase of an industrial portfolio from Lar España.

Blackstone has disbursed almost €4 billion in the Spanish real estate sector this year, a figure that far exceeds the €127.5 million that it spent on its first investment in the domestic market in 2013. Moreover, that debut was not free from controversy, given that the group purchased 18 residential developments, containing 1,860 social housing units, which the Town Hall of Madrid sold the fund through the Municipal Housing and Land Company of Madrid (Emvsa).

Five years later, Blackstone is one of the largest owners of residential assets in Spain and the leader of the hotel sector. It leapt to first position in the hotel market ranking this year following its successful takeover of the Socimi Hispania. The company paid €1.99 billion for that vehicle, managed by Azora. With that operation, the fund added 46 assets and almost 13,150 rooms in Spain to a portfolio that it started to grow in 2017 with the purchase of HI Partners, the hotel arm of Banco Sabadell, for €630 million. In total, the manager owns 63 assets and almost 18,000 hotel rooms across Spain.

Hispania also provided Blackstone with residential assets worth €230 million, as well as 25 office buildings whose market value exceeds €600 million. Also in that segment, the company added the iconic Planeta office building in Barcelona to its portfolio during 2018, which it purchased from the Lara family in July for €210 million.

Spain, 20% of its global portfolio

Today, Spain accounts for 20% of Blackstone’s global investment. In total, the US firm owns property worth almost USD 120,000 million (€105,387 million) around the world. This real estate giant has become the largest unlisted real estate company in Spain (…).

The superiority of Blackstone’s portfolio in Spain with respect to those of the large domestic real estate firms is clear. The two largest players, Merlin and Colonial, are ranked within the top 15 Socimis in Europe and, yet, their portfolios are worth just half of that of the fund, at €11.785 billion and €11.19 billion, respectively.

Santander’s best friend

As well as mixing with other real estate players, Blackstone has made friends with some of the Spanish financial institutions. The banks, big losers in the previous real estate cycle, have worked hard over the last two years to place their property with the highest bidder, taking advantage of the new boom in the residential market.

In this way, in 2017, Banco Santander agreed with Blackstone the largest operation involving the sale of toxic assets from the real estate sector in the country. The fund manager purchased 51% of Popular’s property, a portfolio with €30,000 million in assets.

The relationship with the bank owned by the Botín family has been strengthened in 2018 with Project Quasar, the real estate firm created by the financial institution and the fund. The joint venture received a capital injection amounting to €300 million in May. Through this vehicle, the transfer of Popular’s assets is being carried out.

In order to place this property into circulation, as part of the operation in 2017, Blackstone also acquired the bank’s servicer, Aliseda, led by Eduard Mendiluce (…), who also manages the Socimi Albirana.

Albirana Properties is one of four residential Socimis that Blackstone currently has listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB). The others are Fidere Patrimonio, Corona Patrimonial and Torbel Investments.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sonae Sierra & JT Purchase 3 Shopping Centres in Spain for €485M

19 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Sonae Sierra and the Slovak fund JT have closed the purchase of three Spanish shopping centres that had been put on the market by the Portuguese group itself and CBRE GI. The two companies have created a joint venture to acquire Gran Casa (Zaragoza), Max Center (Vizcaya) and Valle Real (Cantabria) for €485 million, as Eje Prime revealed in August.

Boosted by the property developer Peter Korbačka, JT Real Estate is going to control 87% of the joint venture, and Sonae will be the owner of the remaining 12%, as well as the manager of the three centres. To date, the assets had been owned 50/50 by the Portuguese group and CBRE GI.

The three commercial complexes are currently immersed in projects to renovate and improve their commercial mixes “to provide experiences to our visitors and generate value for our stakeholders” explained sources at Sonae Sierra.

The operation that has been signed is in line with the Portuguese group’s current strategy of “reaching agreements with large international investors who are looking for an operating partner with the aim of increasing the value of the assets acquired and generating value for investors”, say sources at the company.

Pedro Caupers, Investment Director at Sonae Sierra, believes that this agreement with JT “will be the start of a long-term relationship that may extend to include new projects, both in Spain and in other European countries”. Meanwhile, Peter Korbačka has said that “Spain is one of the most robust markets within the real estate sector in Europe”.

With its headquarters in Bratislava, JT Real Estate is one of the main real estate groups in Slovakia. The company, which started life in 1996, currently employs around 300 people and operates in various segments. This will be its first transaction in the Spanish market.

Meanwhile, Sonae Sierra administers and controls 46 shopping centres in Europe and Latin America, with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 1.9 million m2 and a market value of €7 billion. The company operates in twelve countries around the world and, in 2017, 438 million people visited its complexes.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Neinor Wants Sabadell’s Land & so is Competing with the Large Funds to Buy SDIN Desarrollo Inmobiliario

17 December 2018 – Voz Pópuli

The bidding for the land owned by Sabadell’s property developer, SDIN Desarrollo Inmobiliario, is going to start in a matter of days and none of the funds wants to miss the party. Everyone has their own interest, but there are some who may bid more strongly than others due to their close relationship with the bank. But this time, they will not be alone.

Neinor Homes wants to take a seat at the negotiating table, according to sources familiar with the operation speaking to Voz Pópuli. The property developer led by Juan Velayos is interested in obtaining the land that Sabadell owns in Madrid and Barcelona. The market classifies the plots as very good. Neinor has not made any comments in this regard.

Oaktree is also going to join the bidding – it has been a familiar face in Sabadell’s recent operations. The fund is very interested in acquiring SDIN Desarrollo Inmobiliario’s land. The plots have been valued at €1.3 billion, according to reports by El Confidencial, which have been confirmed by this newspaper.

Sources familiar with the operation have explained that the fund has a lot of interest after the joint venture that it formed with the group this summer to buy land from Iberdrola.

Cerberus

The third candidate in discord is another old hand: Cerberus. The giant also wants its share of the pie. The acquisition of the property developer Inmoglacier could be related. If it is successful with this operation, the fund could create a new “giant”, which would fulfil all of the requirements to debut on the stock market.

The bidding is expected to begin before the end of the year. It could even start this week but could also be delayed due to technical reasons (…). The intention is for this operation to be closed by the end of the first quarter of 2019 or the beginning of the second.

This operation will begin after Sabadell sold its servicer for €300 million to Intrum on Friday. Solvia has more than €30 billion in assets under management and has sold more than 94,000 properties in recent years.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by David Cabrera)

Translation: Carmel Drake