Tag: Juan José Brugera

Qatari Sovereign Fund Becomes Colonial’s Largest Shareholder

8 November 2018 – Europa Press

Colonial has approved a capital increase at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting, whereby enabling the Qatari Sovereign Fund to become the Socimi’s largest shareholder since it will see its stake in the company double to 20%.

Qatar is becoming the largest shareholder of the second largest Socimi in Spain, a firm that owns office buildings in Madrid, Barcelona and Paris worth €11 billion, through an agreement reached with Colonial to exchange the shares of its French subsidiary Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL).

Specifically, Colonial is going to give Qatar the own shares that it issues during the capital increase and, in exchange, the fund is going to hand over the 22% stake that it holds in SFL.

In this way, Qatar will double its presence in Colonial from its current position of 10% to the aforementioned figure of 20% and will become its largest shareholder. Meanwhile, the real estate firm will increase the controlling stake that it holds in SFL from 59% to 80.74%.

It is an operation worth €718 million, which Colonial is framing in the context of simplifying the group’s shareholder structure and of strengthening its position in SFL and in France, a company and market that it considers to be “strategic”.

The real estate company is tackling this transaction after completing the merger of the Socimi Axiare and at a time when it is immersed in a full growth strategy through investments in purchases and the new build developments.

In the case of Qatar, it is strengthening its position as the largest shareholder of the second largest listed real estate firm in the country, in line with the commitment that many large international funds are making to the Spanish real estate sector. Moreover, it will retain an indirect stake in SFL.

No changes on the board

These shareholder exchanges will not have any impact on the Board of Directors of Colonial, given that the Qatari fund will retain the two seats that it has had on the management board for a while, when it had a larger stake, according to a statement made by the President of the Socimi, Juan José Brugera, after the meeting.

Brugera said that the operation was approved unanimously by all of the shareholders, whereby ruling out any bad feeling on the part of Colonial’s largest shareholder until now, the Mexican group Finaccess, not only for losing its status (as the largest shareholder), but also for seeing its stake diluted from 18% to 16% as a result of the capital increase.

Original story: Europa Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colonial Plans To Increase Its Share Capital By €265M

26 May 2016 – Expansión

Colonial will undertake a capital increase amounting to €265 million to allow it to continue adding office buildings to its portfolio. In parallel, the Group is preparing to make investments amounting to €400 million, including the purchase of a 4.4% stake in its French subsidiary SFL (Société Fonciere Lyonnaise) and several buildings in Madrid and Barcelona.

The capital increase should be approved at the General Shareholders’ Meeting on 28 June and will serve to finance some of the asset acquisitions by allowing Colonial to make some payments in shares. Following this operation, the Group’s market capitalisation will exceed €2,300 million.

The expansion of its stake in SFL, where it will end up controlling 57.5% of the share capital, will be performed through the acquisition of a share package from the Reig Capital Group. Part of the payment will be realised in cash (€51 million) and the remainder, through the delivery of 90.8 million new shares in the real estate company. The Holding company owned by the Andorran businesswoman María Reig will thereby control 2.5% of Colonial’s share capital.

The share capital will also serve to pay for the purchase of two office buildings in Madrid, currently owned by the Mexican group Finaccess and valued at €202 million. The buildings in question are IBM’s headquarters in Madrid, located on Calle Santa Hortensia and the building located at number 73 on Calle Serrano. The former has a total surface area covering 47,000 sqm and is one of the seven largest office buildings in the capital, whilst the second, with a surface area of 4,200 sqm, has been highly valued due to its location and the quality of its facilities.

In return for integrating these two properties into its portfolio, Colonial will grant Finaccess 288.6 million new shares in the real estate company, which means that the group will control an 8% stake in Colonial.

In parallel to these operations, the real estate group chaired by Juan José Brugera (pictured above, centre) has completed the purchase of another office building in Madrid. It is located on José Abascal, 45 and has a surface area of 5,300 sqm. In this case, the consideration paid was €35 million.

The group has also purchased land in the 22@ district in Barcelona from the British fund Benson Elliott for more than €40 million. Colonial plans to construct a 17-storey office building with a surface area of 24,000 sqm on this land, which has not started to be marketed yet. The total investment of this project is budgeted to amount to €77 million.

The CEO of Colonial, Pere Viñolas, said yesterday that with this operation, the group will incorporate a surface area of 80,000 sqm and will be “20% larger than it is today”. The company expects that its revenues from rental income will also increase by 20% as a result.

Colonial’s indebtedness will increase by €111 million to €1,300 million. The Group’s consolidated debt, including SFL, amounts to €3,000 million and the company’s indebtedness ratio over asset value will amount to 41%.

Its market capitalisation increased by 1.5% yesterday to €0.677 per share.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake