Tag: Juan Miguel Villar Mir

Villar Mir: Canalejas Homes Will Cost c. €12,000/m2

15 October 2015 – Expansión

Juan Miguel Villar Mir says that “although the prices of the homes have not yet been determined”, “they are set to be the most expensive in Madrid” and amount to around €12,000/m2.

The luxury homes that the Villar Mir Group will construct as part of Project Canalejas, the commercial, hotel and residential complex that it is developing in some of the historical buildings in the centre of Madrid, will be the “most expensive” in the capital, since they will cost around €12,000/m2. At least, that is according to Juan Miguel Villar Mir, the President and owner of the business corporation that bears his name. (…).

“Currently, the most expensive apartments in the capital are being sold for more than €6,000/m2, but in Canalejas, we will be talking about figures close to double that amount”, said the businessman in comments made to the Cadena Cope radio station.

By virtue of Project Canalejas, Villar Mir is developing a large residential, commercial and hotel complex in a group of seven century-old buildings that it acquired from Santander, a stones throw away from Puerta del Sol in the capital. The project will involve an estimated investment of around €400 million. (…).

The plans for the project involve carrying out construction work inside the buildings and whereby preserving their designs and century-old structures. Features will include a luxury hotel, to be operated by the American chain Four Seasons, a shopping arcade and around twenty luxury apartments, occupants of which will have access to the hotel’s services.

These apartments will be the most expensive in the capital, according to Villar Mir. The price per square metre mentioned by the businessman would result in a final price of €1.2 million for a home with an average surface area of 100 m2.

Similar project in London

Villar Mir added that his company is currently carrying out a similar project in London, in a former Ministry of Defence building, and he said that the future homes in the British capital will be much more expensive.

He said that apartments located near to that project “are being sold for €100,000/m2”. “We are not going to reach those levels in Madrid, but Canalejas will be the most expensive development in the city”.

The businessman’s company is also working on another major project in the capital, namely, the construction of a fifth tower on the plot of land next to the four skyscrapers at the northern end of the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid. Villar Mir currently owns one of those towers, but has now put it up for sale.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Carmena Makes Deal With Villar Mir Re Canalejas Complex

13 October 2015 – Cinco Días

The mayoress of Madrid, Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) has reached an agreement with the Villar Mir group to resume the construction of the Canalejas complex, a centre containing a hotel, shops and luxury homes next to the Puerta del Sol, which is currently on hold. That was the statement made by the Town Hall on Friday, which called a press conference for today (Tuesday), where it will reveal the terms of the deal.

OHL is building a five star (Four Seasons) hotel, a large shopping centre and luxury homes in this complex. In September, the company, the Town Hall and the Community of Madrid established a permanent negotiating table, which has now reached an agreement.

The project will modify the volume of the building, which will now be smaller, thanks to a reduction in the height, since the Town Hall wanted to limit the visual impact, above all in the area next to “kilometre zero”. Moreover, the revised plans exclude the planned underground transport hub, and so buses will arrive at Puerta del Sol.

The building work was suspended in part by the Heritage Commission, for the alleged destruction of protected sections, and needs a building licence to continue.

The company owned by Juan Miguel Villar Mir plans to invest €285 million in the operation, which will affect the block between Calles Alcalá, Sevilla, Carrera de San Jerónimo and the Puerta del Sol. Historically, this is where the headquarters of several banks, such as Banesto and Banco Hispano Americano, have been located. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Joins Forces With Corestate To Fund Fifth Tower

24 September 2015 – Expansión

The company led by Juan Miguel Villar Mir has signed an agreement with the Swiss fund Iberian Corestate to jointly develop the plot of land next to the Cuatro Torres complex, on the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, following the problems he encountered trying to finance the project by himself.

Grupo Villar Mir decided to look for a partner to reactivate the project to construct a new building on the plot of land located behind the Cuatro Torres complex, following the difficulties it faced tackling the construction alone, due to the need to inject €500 million into OHL. To this end, Villar Mir has signed an agreement with the Swiss fund Corestate, a real estate investment specialist, to invest €240 million in the project through its company Iberian Corestate Capital Advisors. (…).

Last year, Villar Mir was awarded the concession to operate the plot of land, which is owned by the Town Hall of Madrid, after it agreed to pay a fee of almost €4 million per year for the next 75 years. Villar Mir’s company, Espacio, had planned to construct a tower on the site, of a similar height to the other four skyscrapers (the tallest one measures 250m), which would require an investment of around €450 million.

That is not the only asset that Villar Mir owns in the complex. The company invested €400 million in Torre Espacio, an office building that was inaugurated in 2007, of which €187 million was used to purchase the land.

Tenant

(…). Following the failed negotiations with the Mount Sinai hospital group…Villar Mir is now studying other options, including the option of signing a deal with a tenant form the world of academia or changing the structure of the building to make it more suitable for the operations of a hospital company.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz and Carlos Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pontegadea, Deka & CPPIB Submit Bids For ‘Torre Espacio’

8 July 2015 – Expansión

Amancio Ortega’s investment company Pontegadea, the German investor Deka and the Canadian pension fund CPPIB have all submitted bids to acquire the Madrilenian skyscraper from Villar Mir.

The sales process for Torre Espacio, the skyscraper owned by Villar Mir in the Madrilenian Cuatro Torres complex, is progressing according to plan. Yesterday, one month after the property was first listed on the market, Villar Mir received offers from some of the companies it had selected to participate in the process.

Villar Mir, which owns the building through its real estate company Espacio, worked together with the real estate consultancy Aguirre Newman to select and invite around a dozen investors to participate in the sales process, rather than opting for a mass tender, in order to close the deal as soon as possible. Those selected included the German funds Deka, Reef and Patrizia, the Abu Dhabi fund Asia, the Socimi Merlin Properties, the real estate company Colonial, Amancio Ortega’s investment company Pontegadea, the sovereign fund Singapur GIC (which invests in Spain jointly with the real estate company GMP) and the Canadian pension fund CPPIB.

Of those, Deka, Canada Pension Plan and Pontegadea all submitted proposals yesterday. Indeed, the investment arm of Amancio Ortega has been one of the favourites to take ownership of the property since the process was launched, on the basis that the company has access to immediate liquidity and the building would be a perfect fit with its existing portfolio, which includes other large office and commercial buildings in major European capitals, such as London and Madrid, as well as in the USA.

The aim of the group controlled by Juan Miguel Villar Mir was to sell the property for between €650 million and €700 million, and whereby benefit from the investor boom that is taking place in the Spanish real estate market. The company invested €400 million on the construction of the building, including the amount it paid to Real Madrid for the land (€187 million). Nevertheless, according to sources close to the process, the offers received range between €500 million and €600 million. (…).

Tenants

Torre Espacio opened in 2007 and has office space of c. 60,000 m2, distributed over 57 floors. The tower is 236 metres high and its tenants include large international corporations, such as British American Tobacco and Red Bull. It has an occupancy rate of 85% (84.3% at the end of 2014). Other tenants include the embassies of Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK.

Furthermore, 55.1% of the building is occupied by the Villar Mir Group. OHL occupies around ten floors.

To make the purchase more attractive, the owner of OHL has offered to continue as a tenant and guarantee the new landlord rental income of €34/m2/month. However, the market does not believe that such a rental price can be maintained considering that the maximum rent in the best buildings on the Castellana barely exceeds €30/m2/month. (…).

Following the receipt of the bids, one or two candidates will be chosen to participate in exclusive negotiations, with a view to closing the transaction in October. Nevertheless, the proposed structured of the transaction, as well as the difference in terms of price expectations between the vendor and the buyers, may hamper the completion of the transaction. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz and D. Badía)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hotel Villa Magna On The Market For €180M

2 June 2015 – Expansión

Madrid/ Sodim, the holding company owned by the Portuguese family Queiroz Pereira, is looking for a buyer for the five star hotel it acquired for €80 million in 2001.

Following the sales of the InterContinental and Ritz hotels to the Qatari sovereign fund and the alliance formed by Mandarin and the Saudi firm Olayan, respectively, it is the turn of Villa Magna. Sodim, the holding company owned by the Portuguese family Queiroz Pereira, has put the hotel, which it purchased from the Japanese company Shirayama in 2001 for €80 million, up for sale.

Sodim is asking €180 million for the five star property, located on Paseo de la Castellana. If it achieves its goal, it will become the largest operation to be signed in Madrid, ahead of the Ritz – €130 million – and the InterContinental – €70 million – but behind the €200 million paid by the Qatari Diar fund for Hotel Vela in Barcelona in 2013.

The operation, which is in its initial phases, may attract interest from foreign investors and international hotel groups wanting to improve their location or enter Madrid’s market, such as Hyatt, Hilton, Shangri-La, Kempinski and Jumeirah, amongst others.

Hyatt managed the Hotel Villa Magna for almost two decades until 2009, when following the complete renovation of the hotel, the owners decided to take over the management themselves. Sodim also owns the Hotel Ritz in Lisbon, which is operated by Four Seasons, which is itself finalising its entry into the Spanish market, at the Canalejas complex in Madrid, together with Juan Miguel Villar Mir.

Hyatt no longer has a presence in Spain after it exited the Villa Magna and La Manga (Murcia). Its name has also appeared on the list of candidates to take over the management of the Hotel Miguel Angel, whose future is still not clear. Its owner, the British investor of Iraqi origin Nadhmi Auchi, is operating the property following Occidental’s exit last year.

(…)

The Hotel Villa Magna underwent a major refurbishment several years ago. It closed its doors on 1 August 2007 and reopened again at the beginning of 2009…€50 million was invested in total…the result was a hotel with fewer, but more luxurious rooms. The property retained its distinctive pink granite façade and the number of rooms decreased from 182 to 150. In exchange, the number of suites increased from 18 to 50. It also expanded its gastronomic and leisure offer, with new restaurants and a spa. Since 2009, it has offered rooms measuring between 30m2 and 290m2 – the Royal Suite.

The average room rate at the Villa Magna starts from €310 per night for a standard room. The Royal Suite costs €16,000 per night.

(….) The luxury hotel sector has been hit by the crisis, although the Villa Magna has not suffered as much as some. In 2013, it generated turnover of €19.29 million, up 4.8%…and the net profit was €3.68 million, compared with losses of €14.89 million in the previous year.

Nevertheless, the hotel closed 2013 with negative equity of €33.8 million, due to financial charges and impairment losses. Its financial debt exceeded €70 million. Even though it has the backing of Sodim through equity loans, the auditor PwC warned of significant uncertainty in terms of the hotel’s capacity to continue as a going concern.

Original story: Expansión (by Yovanna Blanco)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sacyr Invites Alternative Offers For Testa

8 May 2015 – Expansión

The construction group has engaged Lazard to coordinate offers for its real estate subsidiary Testa. It was initially planning to place 30% of the shares on the stock exchange (but is now open to alternative proposals).

Sacyr was going to place 30% of Testa‘s shares on the stock exchange, but the widespread interest expressed in the market has caused the construction group to change its strategy. The company, which had proposed a public offering (IPO) of 30% of Testa’s shares to the CNMV, is currently evaluating several alternatives: to continue with the plan to place some shares in the market with qualified investors; to join forces with an institutional partner such as a Socimi or international fund; and in the meantime, it does not rule out the sale of 100% of its subsidiary. Moreover, it is also considering a fourth option, which would have a much greater strategic significance, namely the integration of Testa with a large group in the sector, in this case, Colonial, to create the largest Spanish real estate company and one of the largest in Europe.

Sacyr has engaged Lazard to carry out this process. The investment bank has instructed the various investors that are interested in Testa to make a non-binding offer for the company.

Proposals will be welcomed both for the 30% stake that Sacyr had initially planned to place on the stock exchange, as well as for the entire share capital. Lazard has given interested parties until today to present offers, say sources close to the process. One player that is interested in acquiring the real estate company is Merlin Properties. The largest Socimi by market capitalisation has acknowledged its interest in participating in Testa’s capital. Now, Merlin would be willing to acquire Testa in partnership with other investors and purchase 100% of the company, according to sources in the sector.

Corporate movement

Sacyr is also studying a possible integration of Colonial and Testa. For the time being, the conversations are very preliminary between Sacyr and the real estate company whose primary shareholder is Juan Miguel Villar Mir.

The merger of both companies would create a giant with more than two million square metres of leasable surface area in prime areas of Madrid, Barcelona and Paris and a combined turnover of €400 million. Testa’s market capitalisation amounts to €2,098 million and Colonial’s is €1,977 million.

Sources involved in the process confirm the interest shown by Colonial. The final decision will depend on the other options that Sacyr has on the table. The placement of a percentage of new shares in Testa on the stock market (a maximum of 30%) forms part of the action plan designed by Sacyr to regularise the finances of its subsidiary and provide it with greater liquidity. The shareholders of the real estate company, controlled by Sacyr (99.2%), approved an ‘accordion operation’ in February, involving a €1,197 million contribution to shareholders, comprising a €527 million ordinary dividend and a €669 million reduction in share capital.

This transaction is, in turn, subject to a simultaneous capital increase that would enable Testa to reconstruct its balance sheet through the inflow of around €500 million. It is during this phase that Colonial may enter the fray.

The real estate company chaired by Juan José Brugera is exploring growth opportunities in Spain after cleaning up its balance sheet in 2014 with a capital increase of €1,263 million, which involved the entry of Juan Miguel Villar Mir, along with Mora Banc and Qatar Investment into the share capital of the real estate company. Villar Mir is currently the owner of 24.5% of Colonial, after buying a new block of 1.46 million shares (in recent weeks).

According to experts, the potential merger of Colonial and Testa makes sense in business terms, since both companies specialise in the rental of buildings; exclusively office buildings in the case of Colonial and shopping centres and homes in the case of Testa.

Nevertheless, the change in ownership may have an impact on the financial structure of the companies, with guarantees linked to new investments and changes of control. At the end of 2014, Colonial’s net debt amounted to €2,545 million and Testa’s amounted to €1,688 million.

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

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Will Build A New Skyscraper On La Castellana

30 April 2015 – Expansión

Through his real estate subsidiary Espacio, the businessman Juan Miguel Villar Mir has been awarded the plot of land behind the Cuatro Torres complex in Madrid, where he will build a private hospital and a shopping area.

There will soon been a fifth skyscraper in the complex known, until now, as the Cuatro Torres Business Area, on the Paseo de la Castellana, in Madrid. Yesterday, the Town Hall of Madrid announced that it was awarding the plot of land located behind the complex, to the real estate company Espacio, owned by the businessman Juan Miguel Villar Mir.

Espacio will construct a private hospital with a shopping area on this land. The businessman, who also owns the construction company OHL and who is the primary shareholder of Colonial, has won the award process for this plot of land, where the Town Hall of Madrid was originally going to build the International Convention Centre, before it was forced to suspend its plans in 2010, due to a lack of funding.

At the end of 2014, Ana Botella’s Government decided to seek an alternative plan for this plot of land and it organised a bid in which it asked for participants to offer an annual fee of €1.935 million for the right to use the plot of land. Four bids were submitted but only two were admitted since one did not exceed the (minimum) required fee and the other was ruled out for formal reasons.

One of the two projects that made the cut was led by the property company Hispania, which presented its bid jointly with Ferrovial, and committed itself to paying €2.6 million (per year). Villar Mir, meanwhile, offered to pay €4 million per year for the next 75 years.

The land situated just behind the existing Cuatro Torres has a surface area of 33,325 square metres and a buildable area of 70,000 square metres. In this space, to which a green area measuring 33,647 square metres will be added, the winning bidder will have to allocate 53,500 square metres for public use; the remaining 16,500 square metres may be destined for commercial use.

Villar Mir’s proposal is to construct a skyscraper, which will be similar to the other towers in terms of height and which will house a hospital. “The building will be as tall as the neighbouring towers and will house health services, and the top floors will be occupied by scientific companies linked to the health sector”.

Moreover, next to the skyscrapers, Espacio will create another, low-level building, which will be used to provide recreational and commercial services for the new skyscraper and the four existing ones, which mainly house offices. “Most of the construction will be horizontal, built in a north-south direction, over the entire floor of the structure that has already been constructed and designed based on landscaped terraces, which will descend from the high public square down to the pedestrian access, which is reached from the plot classified as a green area”, said (a representative from) the project.

In addition, the new skyscraper will be connected to the four that have already been constructed – which all have direct access from the Castellana – through a landscaped pedestrian zone.

In total, Villar Mir will invest €500 million in the project, including both the full (canon) payment and the construction work. Of this amount, €134.06 million will be spent on the building and development of the plot.

This project comes in addition to the plan to lengthen the Paseo de la Castellana by 3.7km to the north on land that Renfe and Adif own in the area.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Continues To Strengthen Its Stake In Colonial

28 April 2015 – El Mundo

Villar Mir consolidates its 24.4% stake through the acquisition of 1.1 million shares.

Obtains a block of shares at a price that ranged between €0.603 and €0.607.

Grupo Villar Mir has purchased a block of 1.1 million shares in Colonial, representing 0.03% of the real estate company’s share capital, for €665,700.

The corporation controlled and chaired by Juan Miguel Villar Mir has hereby consolidated its 24.4% stake and (position as) the company’s primary shareholder.

Grupo Villar Mir has acquired the new block of shares in Colonial for a price of between €0.603 and €0.607 per share, in transactions closed on the stock exchange on 20 April and 21 April, according to the register of the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

The group is strengthening its stake in Colonial at a time when the asset company is entering a new phase of investment, in which it plans to allocate funds of €300 million in 2015.

The other key shareholders of Colonial are the Qatar Sovereign Wealth Fund, which is the second largest shareholder with a 13.1% stake; MoraBank and the Santo Domingo group, which hold 7% each; plus three international investment funds that own 3% each.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake