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14 December 2017 – Expansión
More than fifteen of the listed Socimis have residential properties in their portfolios. Alternative assets are also sneaking into the portfolios of many of the companies that trade on the MAB.
Homes, offices, hotels, shops, warehouses, land under development, health centres, student halls and even gas stations. The 44 Socimis that are currently listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) are involved in the rental of all kind of assets, but housing is the star for these listed vehicles, which currently hold more than €12.22 billion in their portfolios and capitalise €6.835 million.
In this way, in contrast to the scarce presence of rental housing owned by the vehicles listed on the main stock exchange, housing accounts for 21.9% of the portfolios of the Socimis on the MAB. Specifically, of the firms specialising in residential, a few stand out: Fidere – the Socimi owned by Blackstone which made its stock market debut in 2015 with 2,688 social housing properties purchased during the crisis – and Colón – and rental housing Socimi controlled by Azora, which debuts on the stock market in June. Altogether, 16 companies have residential assets in their portfolios, according to data from Armabex.
After housing, offices account for 20.4% of the assets in the Socimis’ portfolios, followed by shopping centres (14.2%), shops (13.9%), industrial warehouses (6.3%) and hotels (5.7%).
In terms of geographical distribution, Madrid leads the investment by Socimis, with €5.684 billion – 46.5% of the total -, whilst Barcelona accounts for 11.2%, with €1.364 billion. The other assets – €4.34 billion – are located across the rest of Spain.
In terms of the investor profile, the main stars on the MAB are non-resident, accounting for 55.1% of the assets incorporated. In 2017, seven Socimis owned by non-resident investors joined the MAB, with assets worth €1.388 billion.
Trends
For Antonio Fernández, President of Armabex, the trend over the next few months will be characterised by fragmentation and specialisation. For example, of the 17 new companies listed in 2017, two specialise in hotels –Bay Hotels & Leisure (the Socimi owned by Hispania and Barceló, which made its debut in the summer) and Elaia Investment Spain (previously Eurosic Investment Spain, which debuted in November)-, one owns gas stations – Kingbook Inversiones –, and more recently, one specialises in industrial warehouses – P3 Spain Logistic –.
The latter is a Socimi of Socimis, in other words, a Socimi that controls 100% of another company of the same kind, which is not listed but which has the same obligations and tax benefits as a regular Socimi. “46% of all Socimis own other non-listed Socimis. It is a structure that is used a lot when it comes to constituting asset portfolios. It allows companies to be sold and new shareholders to enter individually”.
In this company structure context, we are also starting to see investors crossing between Socimis. In this way, for example, the Singapore fund features in the share capital of P3 Spain Logistic and GMP. Similarly, the financial institutions have bet on this vehicle for their real estate assets. In this way, Banca March will debut a Socimi that owns the ABC Serrano shopping centre, which it acquired from CBRE Global Investors in June, and Sareb is preparing for the debut of Témpore Properties.
Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)
Translation: Carmel Drake
