Tag: Juan Miguel Villar Mir

Three New Tenants Move into Torre Espacio

25 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Torre Espacio is almost completely full. The Spanish group Villar Mir has added three new tenants to its property on Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid. The companies have leased 3,019 m2 in the property.

Thanks to this operation, the Spanish group led by Juan Miguel Villar Mir has leased 94% of the total surface area of Torre Espacio, the fourth tallest skyscraper in all of Spain. The supermarket cooperative Coviran, the application design firm Mobetia and the fibre optic operator Ufinet are the three companies that will now carry out their activity in the building.

The property is distributed over 57 floors and is currently owned by the Philippine group Emperador. Its tenants include several embassies, such as those of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as the Spanish Banking Association (AEB) and firms such as Red Bull and Equifax.

The arrival of the new companies in Torre Espacio comes in the middle of the divestment plan in which Villar Mir is immersed. A few months ago, it sold 12.2% of its shareholding in OHL, reducing its stake to 38.2%. The main reason for that move was to decrease the group’s debt.

In August, Villar Mir sold the 32.5% stake that it held in the share capital of Project Canalejas to OHL, the construction firm owned by the holding company, for €50 million, according to a statement filed by the company with Spain’s National Securities and Market Commission (CNMV).

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

OHL Pre-Sells Half of the Luxury Apartments in Canalejas

28 December 2017 – El Independiente

The pre-sales of luxury apartments in the Madrilenian Canalejas complex, the only one in Spain – and one of just a few in Europe – to be serviced by the hotel chain Four Seasons, is going from strength to strength. Knight Frank and Colliers, the two firms that have been exclusively appointed to manage their sale, have already placed almost half of the homes with their contacts and clients during the private launch, in other words, before the For Sale sign has been officially put up, according to sources speaking to El Independiente.

Even the penthouse, the jewel in the crown of the building promoted by Juan Miguel Villar Mir, together with his construction firm OHL, has an owner: a European millionaire, who is going to pay more than €9 million for a 500 m2  home in one of the most iconic areas of Madrid.

To date, most of the homes on this block of prime Madrilenian real estate in Canalejas – next to the Puerta del Sol – have been sold to wealthy Spanish families even though, initially, they were expected to attract interest from foreign millionaires, specifically, Latin Americans. “Wealthy families from Latin America prefer the traditional and exclusive Salamanca neighbourhood, whilst Spaniards are more interested this concept, which is going to revolutionise the centre of Madrid”, explain sources in the real estate sector.

The 22 most expensive new build homes currently available in Madrid have a minimum surface area of 130 m2 and a minimum asking price of €2.5 million, which means that buyers paying more than €13,000/m2. The combined value of all of the homes amounts to around €90 million.

The apartments are located on the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th floors of the Canalejas Complex, have between one and three bedrooms each, have independent access (as well as through the Four Seasons hotel) and will be handed over completely finished and equipped, with the exception of furniture.

The homes form part of a complex that comprises seven historical buildings, which in recent decades housed the former headquarters of Banesto, Central Hispano and Zaragozano.

For the time being, most of the homes have been reserved by Spanish millionaires.

The complex spans a surface area of 50,000 m2 in total and in addition to the twenty homes, is going to house a five-star Four Seasons hotel with 200 rooms, an underground parking lot with 400 spaces, a retail outlet for bank use and a 15,000 m2 shopping arcade.

Original story: El Independiente (by Ana Antón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grupo Villar Mir Sells Final 1.51% Stake In Colonial

10 July 2017 – El Mundo

Grupo Villar Mir has definitively exited the share capital of the real estate company Colonial by selling the 1.51% stake that it still owned in the Socimi. The shareholding that has been sold is worth around €40 million on the basis of current market prices.

The corporation owned by Juan Miguel Villar Mir has thereby brought to an end its phase as a shareholder of the real estate company, which began in January 2014 – at its height, the Group was the largest shareholder, with a 24% stake. Villar Mir first invested in the real estate company Colonial when that firm was in the middle of its restructuring and clean up process, and it has exited it days after the firm returned to the Ibex 35 and became a Socimi.

Specifically, the corporation has sold the 5.42 million shares that it still owned directly in the real estate firm, through Espacio Activos Financieros, a package equivalent to a 1.51% stake of its share capital, according to the registers of Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV).

Grupo Villar Mir also owned another 3.21% of Colonial indirectly, through various financial instruments. Those shares have been “loaned to hedge a financial operation”, according to the supervisor’s register.

In this way, the corporation concludes just over three years as a shareholder of Colonial, after leaving the Board of Directors in December 2016, when it decreased its stake in the company to just 3.3%.

Subsequently, in January 2017, it decreased its percentage to 1.5%, which is the stake that it is now selling.

Finaccess, current largest shareholder

Currently, the Mexican group Finaccess is the largest shareholder of Colonial; following its recent share purchase, it now owns 13.76% of the share capital. The Qatar sovereign fund is the second largest shareholder of the company chaired by Juan José Brugera, with a stake of 11.7%. The next largest shareholders are the Colombian firm Santo Domingo (6.1%) and the Puig family, which recently acquired a 5.10% stake.

On 19 June 2017, Colonial returned to the Madrid Stock Exchange’s Ibex 35, nine years after leaving the exclusive group. The firm owns a portfolio of office buildings for rent in the centre of Madrid, Barcelona and Paris, with a combined surface area of 866,000 m2 and a value of around €8,000 million.

With its return to the Ibex, Colonial completed the restructuring and clean-up process that it began in 2015. After that, it undertook a growth strategy through which it has now made investments amounting to €1,760 million through various operations, ranging from the purchase of assets to increasing its stake in its French subsidiary Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL), and acquiring capital in another Socimi, Axiare.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Poker Stars’ Founder Pays OHL €225M For 50% Of Canalejas

11 April 2017 – Expansión

Grupo Villar Mir has completed the sale of 50% of Project Canalejas, the luxury home, hotel and shopping complex that it is developing in a set of historic buildings in the centre of Madrid, to the Israelí businessman Mark Scheinberg, founder of the online poker firm Poker Stars, for €225 million, according to a statement filed yesterday by OHL with Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV).

The corporation owned by Juan Miguel Villar Mir is developing this project in conjunction with its listed construction company OHL. Both entities have sold part of their respective stakes in accordance with the percentage that they control and as part of the asset sales plan that they have in place to cut their debt. Specifically, Grupo Villar Mir has sold 32.5%, and has whereby reduced its stake in the project from 65% to 32.5%. Meanwhile, OHL has sold another 17.5%, which has reduced its shareholding from 35% to 17.5%.

OHL reported yesterday that it will record revenues of €78.75 million from the sale of its stake in the complex, and that it has already received €73.5 million, leaving an outstanding balance due of €5.25 million. The company explained that the outstanding balance will be paid in two instalments: one in December this year, amounting to €1.75 million, and the other (€3.5 million) will be received when the project is commissioned.

Grupo Villar Mir and OHL, which have recorded a combined gain of €82.85 million from this operation, will retain control over the management of the project until it is commissioned, scheduled for the beginning of 2019. Canalejas is developing a group of seven historic buildings, which comprise an entire block in the centre of Madrid, next to La Puerta del Sol, which Villar Mir bought from Santander in December 2012 and which have a combined surface area of 50,000 m2.

The project involves the refurbishment of the properties, whilst retaining their architectural and artistic features, to house 22 luxury homes and a five-star hotel, which the chain Four Seasons has already committed to operating, in what will be its debut in Spain. The complex will also have a 16,000 m2 shopping arcade and underground car park.

Original story: Expansión (by E. M.)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Corestate Buys Old Hall Of Residence In Madrid For €14M

16 November 2016 – Expansión

A new investor has made its debut in the Spanish real estate market. The investor is Corestate Capital Holding, a large investment fund headquartered in Luxembourg, which owns a broad portfolio of assets, mainly located in Germany and Austria. Corteste has combined forces with an investment partner to acquire a former halls of residence, located at number 42 on Calle Juan XXIII, in the Moncloa district, the heart of Madrid’s university area.

Corestate arrived in Spain last year when it teamed up with Inmobiliaria Espacio – part of the Villar Mir group – to launch a jointly owned company called Iberian Corestate Capital Advisors. In September 2015, that company announced that it is going to construct a fifth tower in the Cuatro Torres office complex in Madrid, on Paseo de la Castellana.

The owner of OHL was awarded the plot that runs alongside the four Madrilenian skyscrapers back in April, after the city’s Town Hall decided against building a Conference Centre on the site. The company controlled by Juan Miguel Villar Mir was awarded the concession, which gives it the right to operate on the land for 75 years, after it submitted the highest offer. Specifically, OHL agreed to pay an annual fee of €4 million, outbidding the second-best bid, led by Hispania and Ferrovial, who offered around €2.6 million. The Town Hall had asked candidates to submit bids for an annual fee of at least €1.9 million.

In September last year, Corestate announced that it was going to join the project through the company Iberian Corestate.

It is expected that Iberian Corestate will invest €240 million in the fifth tower project, which will involve the construction of a skyscraper that will house an IE Business School campus and a Quiron group medical centre. Corestate declined to comment on the plans for the Castellana project, but did confirm that it has purchased the Madrilenian hall of residence. According to sources in the sector, Corestate paid around €14 million for the property.

Until now, the asset acquired has housed a Spanish-Mexican secondary school – Santiago Galas de Arce. The building, which has been operating for almost half a century (44 years), will undergo a profound transformation with its new owner, given that Corestate is preparing an ambitious plan to restore the property and renovate the 4,022 m2 space, which will house 260 rooms and 302 beds.

Corestate’s idea is to demolish the existing complex and construct a new building that seeks to be one of the best equipped halls of residence in Madrid. The project will include several services such as a reception and concierge, common areas, such as a restaurant, gym and laundry facilities, as well as recreation areas in the form of patios and terraces.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Negotiates Partial Sale Of Fifth Tower To Hispania

29 September 2016 – Expansión

According to the businessman Juan Miguel Villar Mir, the Villar Mir Group has begun negotiations with the Socimi Hispania to join forces for the development of the fifth tower, the new skyscraper in the north of Madrid, next to the Cuatro Torres Business Area complex.

It is one of the most important buildings in the capital in terms of investment, given that the developers will need around €500 million to cover the construction and rental costs – an initial lease has been granted for a period of 75 years.

Sources at the family holding company have confirmed that preliminary conversations have begun, aimed at Hispania’s entry into the project “as a minority shareholder”. Other sources state that the Socimi, managed by the Azora group and in which George Soros holds a stake, may be interested in acquiring 100% of the building, which will be leased in its entirety. Nevertheless, the Villar Mir Group assures that it will maintain the majority stake.

The fifth tower project, which Villar Mir won at the end of 2014 in a tender organised by the Town Hall of Madrid, has already selected its tenants. Earlier this year, the IE Business School agreed to lease 50,000 sqm of the building for its campus. The bottom part of the complex, measuring 12,000 sqm, will house leisure areas, a shopping arcade and a health centre, which will, in theory, be operated by the Quirón Group. The project, promoted by the Villar Mir family, still needs to obtain the definitive permits from the mayoress of Madrid, Manuela Carmena.

Partners

In September 2015, the Swiss investment fund Corestate announced that it had agreed to form a joint venture with the Villar Mir Group to jointly develop the fifth tower. Six months later, in March 2016, Juan Miguel Villar Mir qualified that announcement by stating that the agreement with Corestate had not been signed yet. With or without Corestate, the negotiations with Hispania are happening at a time of peak activity for Spain’s listed Socimis. Hispania reached the final round of the tender to acquire the building, after it partnered up with Ferrovial, but Villar Mir won the 75-year lease by offering to pay an annual fee of €4 million, equivalent to twice the bid price. (…).

Divestments

The search for partners forms part of the strategy being pursued by the Villar Mir’s holding company to finance its multi-million investment commitments through Espacio and OHL, without increasing its debt, which amounts to €14,000 million. The other source of extraordinary income comes from the sale of its assets. (…).

The group needs funds to tackle its three major real estate projects (the fifth tower, the Canalejas Complex and the War Office in London), as well as several toll roads in Latin America.

Original story: Expansión (by C. Morán and R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Sells Another 5% Stake In Colonial For €114M

10 June 2016 – Expansión

Grupo Villar Mir has sold off another 5% stake in Colonial for €114 million. Together with that stake, another 1.23% of the shares, which had been owned by the President of OHL and which are currently held by Société Général, have also been placed on the stock market.

Following this operation, the company owned by Juan Miguel Villar Mir has lost its status as the majority shareholder of Colonial; Qatar Investment Authority takes over that mantle, with its 13.13% stake.

It is the second time that Villar Mir has decided to sell shares in Colonial in less than a year, after it sold a stake representing 10% of the share capital, worth €178 million, in September last year.

Whilst that divestment was undertaken in order to finance OHL’s capital increase; this time around, the objective is to reduce the gearing ratio of Grupo Villar Mir, given the current climate of volatility on the stock markets, said sources close to the company yesterday. On the other hand, with this sale, the group will generate significant capital gains.

Willingness to continue as a shareholder

The same sources said that Grupo Villar Mir continues to be “very satisfied” with its shareholding in Colonial – it still has a great deal of confidence in the company’s future and does not expect to sell any more of its shares in the group in the coming months.

In May 2014, Villar Mir participated in Colonial’s capital increase, subscribing in full to the amount that corresponded to it on the basis of its shareholding in the company. In order to finance that operation, Grupo Villar Mir negotiated a financing contract with Deutsche Bank amounting to €300 million. The contract was divided into two tranches. The first, amounting to €100 million, had to be repaid within a period of less than a year, whilst the second, amounting to €200 million has to be repaid within a period of five years.

Last September, Villar Mir also sold a 2.9% stake in Abertis, which, like in the case of this sale of its shares in Colonial, it justified by the need to finance OHL’s capital increase. The businessman’s stake in Abertis was reduced to 16%.

The Catalan real estate company Colonial earned €11 million during the three months to March 2016, which represents a 131% increase compared to the same period last year, when its profits amounted to €5 million. Last May, Colonial announced that it was going to carry out a non-monetary capital increase, amounting to €265 million, so as to continue to acquire office buildings. In parallel to this operation, the group is preparing to make investments worth €400 million. Colonial’s shares closed trading yesterday at €0.709 per share, having increased by 1.14%.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Anglés and C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Receives Approval To Resume Work At Canalejas

24 May 2016 – Cinco Días

The Canalejas Complex has returned to cruising speed after overcoming one of the obstacles that stood in its path. In April 2015, the Local Heritage Committee (comprising the Town Hall of Madrid and the regional Government) opened an investigation into the construction work that the Villar Mir Group was carrying out, after it detected that damage had been caused in the first bay (the space between load-bearing walls). After months of work, it completed its investigation in January 2016 – confirm sources at the company – and so Villar Mir was allowed to continue with the building work at the site, which will house a Four Seasons Hotel, luxury homes and a shopping arcade right in the centre of the capital.

“The investigation into the first bay was resolved and the suspension (of the building work) was lifted”, explain sources at OHL, the listed company that forms part of the Grupo Villar Mir and which is responsible for developing this complex. The Committee’s investigation was opened by municipal technicians when Ana Botella (PP) was still the mayoress. Sources at Estudio Lamela Aquitectos, which was appointed to design Canalejas, confirm that the construction work has continued as normal since then.

The problem arose when part of the bay, located in a small area, threatened to break off, say sources at the company chaired by Juan Miguel Villar Mir. For the time being, although the investigation has been closed, they do not know whether the listed company will face any financial penalties in the future.

The team led by the Government of Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) has also granted OHL a structural licence to raise the frame of the building, and so construction work has continued apace during the first few months of the year. “We received the structural licence in January”, say sources at Estudio Lamela. “That licence has allowed us to carry out the work that is visible from the outside”, say sources at OHL. Now the only licence pending is the one relating to the completion of the refurbishment.

The project was unblocked at the end of last year by political and legal means. On the one hand, a trial judge dismissed the application to suspend the building works, which had been filed by a company that alleged that it had signed a previous sale and purchase contract with Santander. Villar Mir ended up acquiring this central block for €215 million and whereby took ownership of the properties in the Canalejas area, next to Puerta del Sol.

On the political side, after Carmena took over the reins of the city, the Town Hall decided to review the project and it opened a negotiation table with the company and the regional Government. In October, the parties agreed to reduce the volume of the block at its highest point so as to reduce the visual impact. The agreement meant that the listed company had to relinquish its plans for the height of the building in order to unblock the construction work and accept a lower return on the project.

The last remaining stumbling block now is the public prosecutor, which is continuing its investigation, following a claim by the Madrid, Ciudadanía y Patrimonio Association that an alleged crime has been committed against the historical heritage of the city during this refurbishment.

The renovation involves seven adjoining properties located between Calles de Alcalá, Sevilla, Plaza de Canalejas and Carrera de San Jerónimo. For the last few decades, those historical buildings have housed the headquarters of financial institutions such as Banesto, Central Hispano and Zaragozano.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ipic Finalises Sale Of Torre Cepsa For €500M+

3 May 2016 – Expansión

Ipic, the Abu Dhabi state fund behind the oil company Cepsa, is trying the sell the so-called Torre Foster for a price that could range between €500 million and €600 million.

Ipic is negotiating with a small group of foreign funds, including, some investors from the Middle East. The operation will mark a milestone in the new boom that the real estate sector in Spain is currently experiencing and will serve to boost other projects currently on the horizon, such as the so-called fifth tower, which the businessman Juan Miguel Villar Mir wants to construct in the Cuatro Torres complex, where the Foster skyscraper is located.

That price is significantly higher than the figure of between €400 million and €450 million that the Torre Foster, now renamed Torre Cepsa, given that it houses the headquarters of the oil company, was valued at when Ipic signed a call option to purchase the building from Bankia back in 2013.

That option has not been exercised yet. It will be exercisable after the summer. Hence, Ipic has accelerated the negotiations to acquire the building and, almost immediately, sell it on to a third party. Technically, the property is still owned by Bankia.

Gain for Abu Dhabi

The additional value that Ipic obtains for the building, if it manages to sell it to a third party for more than the price established in the call option, will represent a gain for the fund, in other words, for the Government of the Arab Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Ipic (International Petroleum Investment Company) operates as a sovereign fund for channelling investments in energy and other similar sectors by the Government of Abu Dhabi. The group owns assets amounting to USD 68,000 million and holds investments in around twenty companies, of which Cepsa is the largest.

Bankia’s agreement with Ipic seemed like a great deal for the bank at the time. Back then, in the midst of the hangover from the real estate crisis, the price established for the option to sell the building was very attractive. In addition, Ipic rented out the whole building to house Cepsa’s headquarters, although the oil company did not end up occupying all of the floors.

The tower has a surface area of more than 100,000 m2, of which around 72,312 m2 relates to above ground offices and a further 37,500 m2 corresponds to five underground floors.

The agreement between Bankia and Ipic included a lease contract for an extendable eight-year term. This long-term contract is another of the elements that will increase the value of the building in the event that Ipic ends up selling it to a third party. At the moment, Bankia charges Ipic a monthly rent of €1.6 million, through the company Torre Norte S.A.. Ipic pays for the rent through the company Muscari Development, B.V., which is domiciled in The Netherlands. That price includes discounts that end in June 2016. The lease contract includes the call option to buy the entire building. (…). The Ipic group began to evaluate options for selling the building at the end of last summer, following the collapse of the global oil prices. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by M.Á.Patiño and R.Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Torre Espacio’s Suitors Must Submit Bids Before 21 Oct

16 October 2015 – Expansión

The group has invited interested investors, insurance companies and funds to submit their bids by next week.

Grupo Villar Mir is pushing ahead with the process to sell its Madrilenian skyscraper Torre Espacio. The company, led by Juan Miguel Villar Mir, put the office building located in the Cuatro Torres complex, on the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, up for sale in June this year.

Villar Mir, which owns the property through his subsidiary Espacio, wanted to sell the building before the end of the summer, but decided to delay the sale after failing to receive any convincing offers. Pontegadea, the real estate company owned by Amancio Ortega, and Corporación Financiera Alba, controlled by the March family, expressed their interest in the building, for which Villar Mir is hoping to receive around €600 million.

After failing to receive any firm proposal, Espacio and the property consultant Aguirre Newman, responsible for the sale, decided to invite a wider range of investors to participate in the process.

Interested parties must submit their bids before 21 October, when the owner will begin to analyse the offers. According to real estate sources, there is a lot of interest in the market for the property, for which Villar Mir may receive between €500 million and €600 million. Potential buyers include institutional investment funds, such as Invesco, and insurance companies such as Axa and the March family.

Torre Espacio was inaugurated in 2007 after the Villar Mir group invested €400 million constructing it. The skyscraper contains office space with a surface area of 60,140 m2, 85% of which is occupied by tenants belonging to the Villar Mir group itself; the Dutch, Canadian, Australian and British embassies are also tenants of the property.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake