President of Vía Célere, Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado, Resigns

2 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner

Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, the Chairman and CEO of Vía Célere, announced his resignation from the company.  The decision came shortly after the firm completed its merger with Aelca. The current CFO of the group, Ignacio Morales, will take his place as CEO, while Värde Partners’ point man for the European real estate market, Francisco Milone, will assume the presidency.

Vía Célere is a benchmark for the sector, with a gross asset value of €2.2 billion, with a land bank of more than 24,000 units and more than 2,500 homes delivered. It has a presence throughout much of Spain, including Madrid (38%), Malaga (22%), Barcelona (10%), Seville (8%), and Valencia (6%), among others.

Original Story: El Confidencial – Ruth Ugalde

 

Locare Buys a Rental Home Development from Vía Célere

15 May 2019 – El Economista

In just one year, Locare Real Estate has become one of the main drivers of affordable rental housing in Spain, with a portfolio of more than 700 homes at different stages of completion. To this end, the firm has just signed an agreement with the property developer Vía Célere to acquire one of its developments in the Madrilenian town of Valdemoro.

Locare is already working on another development in the same town and together the two estates will contain 180 homes and will involve an investment of €23 million. The homes will be adapted to Locare’s style, which means that they will be suitable for rental.

This operation represents the first step by the property developer led by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado into the rental market and sees the firm follow in the footsteps of Aedas Homes and Metrovacesa.

In its first year of life, Locare has already disbursed €90 million of the €120 million in funding that it raised and has launched five other developments in Móstoles, Torrelodones, Collado Villalba and Alcalá de Henares, containing almost 1,000 units in total. The firm is already working on the launch of a second fund to continue its work in this field.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Industrialised Construction: Vía Célere Follows in Aedas’s Footsteps

13 March 2019 – Merca2

Vía Célere is going to be the first property developer to build an industrialised development of multi-family homes. Aedas has already paved the way with the model, but in its case, the properties were single-family homes.

The company led by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado is going to launch its first project of this kind in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) and expects to finish the work within seven months. That would represent a time saving of one year compared to the normal construction period for such a development, thanks to the employment of industrialised systems.

Specifically, whilst the underground work is going on at the site of the new development (which is expected to take three or four months), the 50 modules that will comprise the first 17-home building will be manufactured off-site, in parallel. It will take just three weeks to install those modules and the last two months will be spent joining the facilities and the façades so that the homes are ready for delivery at the end of month seven.

Moreover, the firm is planning to build a 26-home development using the same industrialised system, also in Boadilla. In the future, Vía Célere aims to industrialise 30% of its future developments.

Original story: Merca2 (by Carlos Lospitao)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Vía Célere Completes its Merger with Aelca to Create a Giant Firm with Land for 25,000 Homes

16 January 2019 – El Confidencial

Vía Célere has completed the integration of the real estate assets (land and property developments) of Aelca, to become one of the largest property developers in Spain with a gross asset volume (GAV) of €2.2 billion and a land bank for the construction of 25,000 homes. From today, the company has the capacity to deliver an estimated 2,000 homes in 2019 and 5,000 homes in 2021.

To put that into context, Metrovacesa owns land for the construction of 38,000 homes, has a GAV of €2.6 billion, and so it is still the largest property developer in Spain. Meanwhile, Aedas has land for 14,521 homes and a GAV of €1.6 billion, whilst Neinor, with a GAV of €1.7 billion, has land for another 13,500 units.

Following the operation, Värde is now the owner of 75% of the shares in Vía Célere, whilst the other minority shareholders (Marathon, Attestor, BAML, Barclays, DB and JPM) own the remaining 25% stake. The company is also strengthening the diversification of its asset portfolio with 38% in Madrid, 20% in Málaga, 11% in Barcelona, 9% in Sevilla, 5% in Valencia and 17% in other provinces across the rest of Spain.

The purchase of Aelca by Vía Célere was made with one clear objective in mind: to grow the company so as to be able to list it on the stock market, given that the transaction has allowed the company chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above) to incorporate assets worth €1.3 billion (…).

Future stock market debut?

Since then, the rumours regarding the possible stock market debut of Vía Célere have been constant (…). In fact, it was initially scheduled for the spring of 2018, but it was always known that the property developer needed to be larger to be able to compete in the market with Neinor, Metrovacesa and Aedas (…).

Original story: El Confidencial 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ibosa Offers €33.5M to Acquire Most Sought-After Plot in Madrid

20 November 2018 – El Confidencial

The cooperative managed by Grupo Ibosa, Residencial Shaula Sociedad Cooperativa, has fought off competition from 16 other contenders in the auction for the most sought-after plot of land in Madrid. On the table: €33,510,000, an amount that almost doubles the minimum price of €17 million that the Treasury had set for it.

The cooperative has fought off competition in a tight bid from Desarrollos Los Astros, constituted at the beginning of November, and backed by Grupo Nozar, which placed €32 million on the table, and Arcano, which bid €31.2 million. Nevertheless, those two high offers were unable to compete with Grupo Ibosa, which has a lot of experience in this type of auction.

Expectations were high at Calle Guzmán el Bueno 139, the headquarters of the Special Delegation of the Economy and Finance in Madrid, where the auction was held. At 10am, in a room full with more than 100 people, 17 envelopes were opened containing 17 bids for the most sought-after plot of the year in Madrid. The land was owned by the National Currency and Stamp Factory (Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre), which entrusted its sale to the Heritage Service. The cooperative members will have to make the first disbursement within the next few days, equivalent to 25% of the amount offered, in other words, almost €8.4 million, and then pay the remaining 75% over the coming months, after deducting the deposit paid in order to be able to bid, which amounts to €850,000.

Vía Célere also submitted an offer (€23.7 million), exactly two years after submitting the only offer for another plot of land owned by the Treasury, in the same place, on Avenida Santo Ángel de la Guarda. The company chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado is a familiar face in this type of action. In fact, just a few days after that auction, it was awarded the Adif and Repsol plots in Méndez Álvaro. On that occasion, its bid was also the only one.

In terms of the other names called out in the room, they included traditional property developers such as Ebrosa (€20.53 million), which submitted the most conservative bid; Grupo Premier, which put €25.16 million on the table through the company Cajandral; and Grupo Lar, which bid €30.13 million through Desarrollos Residenciales Madrid Norte. Pryconsa, another of the real estate firms that typically participates in these types of procedures, offered €23.1 million through Cogein, and Renta Corporación, with €22.15 million.

The surprise bidders included Inmo Frieria, a company backed by Manuel Jove, the former President of Fadesa, with a bid amounting to €24.7 million. And the listed company Aedas Homes, which offered €25 million through the company SPV Reoco 1, in its first major auction in Madrid. The long list of interested parties was completed by Global Nostromo (€28.5 million), Golego ITG (€22.12 million), Taz Real Estate (owned by Alza Real Estate, €24 million), Misodi Rent (owned by the Huguet family, with €23.2 million), Torre Rioja Madrid (€25.1 million) and Denoti Investment, a company owned by Irvine Alan Stewart Laidlaw, a British businessman and one of the richest people in the United Kingdom, whose bid amounted to €31 million.

A cooperative wins again

Like happened exactly four years ago, in November 2014, with the auctions of the plots on Raimundo Fernández Villaverde (owned by the Ministry of Defence) and the former metro depots in Cuatro Caminos (owned by Metro de Madrid), it is a cooperative – which saves on the property developer margin – that has managed to put the most competitive offer on the table, to fight off seasoned property developers such as Premier, Pryconsa, Ebrosa and Aedas Homes in a bid that the experts are describing as the auction of the year in Madrid. Not because of its size or its features, but because of its location, just 500m from the Retiro Park, this was one of the most sought-after plots in the capital, and its new owner may build up to 100 homes on its 4,500 m2 – 9,000 m2 of buildable space (…).

The cooperative managed by Grupo Ibosa currently comprises 60 cooperative members and its plans involve the construction of 94 homes. The 4 bedroom homes with two parking spaces and a storeroom will cost between €806,000 and €1,175,000, whilst the 3-bedroom homes will cost between €670,000 and €688,000 (…). The 2-bedroom homes will cost between €490,000 and €498,000, and the 1-bedroom homes will cost between €309,000 and €354,000. The complex will also have a swimming pool, a padel court, a gastroteque, a mini-crossfit studio, a sports pitch, a gym, changing rooms, a spa, a sauna and a jacuzzi.

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde Merges Vía Célere & Aelca to Create one of Spain’s Largest RE Firms

1 October 2018 – El Español

The US fund Värde has created and will control one of the largest residential property developers in the country after merging the two companies in the sector in which it holds a stake, Vía Célere and Aelca, according to a statement issued by the entity.

The resulting company, which will retain the name Vía Célere, will have the capacity to deliver 2,000 homes in 2019 and 5,000 homes in 2021.

Värde will control 75% of the share capital of the new Vía Célere. Nevertheless, the firm will continue to be led by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above), who also chairs the real estate trade association.

This is the US fund’s second merger operation in the Spanish real estate sector, after it integrated Dos Puntos, the real estate firm that it constituted with assets left over from the San José group, and Vía Célere in April 2017.

With its latest operation, Värde says that it is “reaffirming its commitment to the Spanish market”, which it considers is still highly “fragmented” and “needs greater consolidation by the operators to provide a rate of deliveries that reflects the budgets prepared”.

Värde, together with Lone Star, Castlelake, Blackstone and Cerberus, is one of the overseas funds that arrived in Spain during the peak of the crisis to buy up real estate assets, above all those that the banks had been left with after foreclosing debts.

Possible resizing of the workforce

According to Värde’s data, the property developer that it has created owns assets worth €2.2 billion, located all over the country, although the firm did not provide details about the new entity’s landbank in square metres or the number of homes under construction.

According to information provided by the new Vía Célere, 38% of its assets are located in Madrid, 20% in Málaga, 11% in Barcelona, 9% in Sevilla, 5% in Valencia and the remaining 17% in other provinces.

25% of the share capital of the new Vía Célere, which is controlled by Värde (75%), is distributed between other shareholders, all of them are foreign investors, such as Barclays.

At the operational level, the new real estate giant says that, in theory, it will hold onto the 300 employees that make up the workforce, although it does not rule out “resizing its structure” over the coming months, depending on its needs.

Original story: El Español

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde Will Integrate Aelca into Vía Célere to Strengthen the Latter’s IPO

21 July 2018 – El Economista

A new merger operation is on the horizon in the real estate sector, and it is going to star Vía Célere and Aelca. According to confirmation from several sources in the sector speaking to this newspaper, the two entities’ common shareholder, the fund Värde, is working in an active way to integrate the two companies with the aim of strengthening the structure of Vía Célere ahead of its upcoming stock market debut.

The fund and its partners in the real estate company (Marathon, Attestor, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and Barclays) are currently holding conversations with the founders of Aelca to carry out an operation in which the assets of the property developer would be integrated into Vía Célere’s portfolio. According to the same sources, Värde, which owns around 80% of each real estate company, wants to close a preliminary agreement within the next two weeks, although the operation may not actually be executed until October and November.

The objective of the fund is to close the integration before the end of the year, in such a way that the company will be ready to carry out its debut on the stock market when the next sales opportunity presents itself. Following the debuts of Neinor, Aedas and Metrovacesa, the market has almost exhausted its appetite for the real estate sector, plus there has been some high volatility on the stock market due to political instability.

These circumstances have meant that the fund has not been able to liquidate its investment in Vía Célere so far this year, as it had planned, although, sources at the company say that no specific date had ever been set for the IPO. In the case of Aelca, its founders and shareholders, Javier Gómez and José Juan Martín, have been aiming (to list their firm) in 2019, a step that may now be taken under the umbrella of the Vía Célere brand.

With this move, once listed on the stock market, the firm launched and presided by Juan Antonio Gómez Pintado will be positioned as the property developer with the largest market capitalisation, amounting to €2.3 billion. Similarly, according to the same sources, the target for the delivery of homes by the new company would increase to around 5,000 units per year, thus reaching the figures planned by its competitor Metrovacesa, which also forecasts such volumes for 2021.

Before designing the integration process for the two property developers, Värde has also studied the possible merger of Vía Célere with one of the other large listed companies, although, that formula was giving rise to a giant with a volume of business that was not seen in the property development sector even in the boom years.

With the merger of the two property companies now on the cards, the new Vía Célere will have a land bank with capacity for the development of around 23,000 homes. To this figure, the plots that Sareb will inject into Aelca will have to be added, with an approximate value of €800 million, in the event that the property developer ends up reaching an agreement with the bad bank.

The American fund reached an agreement with the Avintia group in the summer of 2016 to acquire Aelca for around €50 million. Almost simultaneously, Värde launched Dospuntos from the leftovers of the former Parquesol, the real estate subsidiary of the Sanjose Group.

Six months later, it closed the purchase of the property developer led by Gómez Pintado for around €90 million to integrate it with Dospuntos and create a new giant in the sector, retaining the Vía Célere brand, which has become the fund’s new darling.

Created shortly before the real estate bubble burst, the real estate company is one of the few that managed to survive the crisis and if Värde’s plans do crystallise, it could position itself as the largest listed property developer in the country.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Vía Célere Launches in Girona with a 139-Home Development

29 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Vía Célere is expanding its homes across Spain. The residential property developer has started marketing Célere Domeny, its first project in Girona, comprising 139 homes. The urbanisation is going to be built in the capital of the province located in the north of Cataluña. In that autonomous region, the company is already working on projects in Barcelona.

Vía Célere’s new development comprises two-, three- and four-bedroom homes, which are going to be built on a plot of land that will also have common areas with a swimming pool, a padel court, a gym and even a study room, amongst other services.

The residential development is located in the northwest of the city of Girona, in Pla Baix de Domeny between Calles Roberto Bolaño Avalos, Damià Escuder i Lladó and Carrer Font de la Teula. The developer is going to open an experiential office on the site, a project unveiled recently by Vía Célere, which allows visitors to tour different spaces and experience emotions and sensations.

The province of Girona is the tenth in which the real estate company chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado has a presence. The firm is controlled by the international investment fund Värde Partners. In addition, the company owns plots of land in neighbouring Portugal, in Lisbon and Porto, which it inherited from its merger with Dospuntos in 2017.

Currently, Vía Célere has a land bank spanning 1.4 million m2 of buildable space, equivalent to a production capacity of 12,200 homes. The property developer invested €227 million last year to expand and diversify its land portfolio, with operations in Madrid, Sevilla, Valladolid, Barcelona, La Coruña, Girona and the Balearic Islands, amongst other provinces. Since 2007, the company’s management team has delivered 2,300 homes.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Via Célere Expands in Portugal Building 60 Homes in Porto

27 February 2018 – Eje Prime

The developer began operations Portugal last September with the launch of its first venture in Lisbon, where it is building a development of 276 homes.

Vía Célere now intends to expand its footprint in the Portuguese real estate market. This time the developer headed to the north of mainland Portugal, setting its sights on the city of Porto. The Spanish real estate company will build 60 homes on land that it had previously acquired through a merger.

The company, chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above), will launch the development on a 6,144-square-meter site that was incorporated into Vía Célere after its merger with Dospuntos. The project will be implemented in Lordelo do Ouro, a neighbourhood that is four kilometres from the city centre, according to El Economista.

The Vía Célere development in Porto reinforces the commitment, not only of Gómez-Pintado’s real estate firm but also of Spanish real estate developers in Portugal. “It is the right time to move forward with the development of new projects in Portugal. Because of its sustained economic growth and the growing confidence and purchasing power of its consumers, in an environment of greater access to finance and low-interest rates, the Portuguese market is an excellent opportunity for real estate investment,” via Célere’s chief executive stated during a presentation of the project in Lisbon.

The Lisbon development will begin construction during the second semester of this year and will be divided into four phases. In the first phase, a residential area encompassing 15,800 buildable square meters will be built, together with up to 120 multi-family homes. The land for this project also originated with Via Célere’s merger with Dospuntos.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Richard Turner

Property Developers & Banks Forecast Bullish RE Cycle Until 2022

8 February 2018 – Cinco Días

The official results just keep on giving to the property developer sector and, therefore, to the banks as well. Sales are growing, the cranes are multiplying and credit is flowing; and best of all, according to the experts, all of these things are happening in an increasingly more homogeneous way, in other words, in more places around the country.

Since we are dealing with a market in which the laws of supply and demand apply, house prices are also moving upwards, but in a much more moderate way than in the past. Moreover, there are no signs whatsoever of a slow down. So much so that the property developers and banking experts agree that, unless we are hit by an economic catastrophe, the current cycle may continue for another five years, until 2022.

Currently, the most worrying thing is that this rally in prices may come to an end and lead to a situation involving the reemergence of the ghosts of the past. According to the Executive Director of Companies at CaixaBank, Luis Cabanas, speaking yesterday in Madrid, “We cannot allow another bubble to occur in the real estate sector”.

Cabanas made that reflection on Thursday in the context of the third edition of the Meeting of Real Estate Financing in Madrid (Efimad), organised by the property developers of Madrid’s trade association (Asprima) and CaixaBank. In addition, the President of that business organisation, Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, regretted that during the years of crisis, the legislator did not take advantage of the opportunity to reform the legislation in order to avoid the problems inherited from the former boom.

Above all, he highlighted the slowness of the process to develop land, the inefficient management of licences and the excessive “judicialisation” that exists in the sector, which increases legal insecurity in an alarming way. Carlos Casanovas, Corporate Director of Real Estate at CaixaBank, insisted that the fundamentals of the economy are solid and expressed his desire for players to continue being cautious “even though things are now going better”.

In terms of the challenges ahead, the property developers Aedas and Aelca agreed that the professionalization of the sector is now a reality, as is the industrialisation of the construction process. The risks include making the same mistakes again, such as buying very expensive land because of expectations of future house price rises.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Raquel Díaz Guijarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake