Tag: KKR

The Socimi Owned by KKR and Altamar Increased its Losses by 56% in 2019

The Socimi obtained revenues of €1.3 million in 2019 compared to the €571,100 it invoiced the previous year.

Elix VRS closed 2019 with losses of €2.5 million, up by 56% compared to those registered in 2018, as reported by the firm to the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The Socimi, which is owned by Altamar and KKR, obtained a turnover of €1.3 million in 2019 compared to the €571,100 it invoiced the previous year. The company explains that this is due to the “expansionary cycle that the group is in and its value creation strategy.”

Elix Vintage Acquires Two Buildings in Madrid

14 October 2019 – Elix Vintage, a socimi controlled by the investment firms KKR and Altamar, has acquired two residential buildings, both currently leased, located on the Fomento and Ave María streets in Madrid.

Elix Vintage paid 8.425 million euros for the two assets and will invest more in renovations.

Original Story: Expansión – Rocío Ruiz/ Marisa Anglés

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Investment Funds Eye Thomas Cook’s Assets in Spain

30 September 2019 – International investment funds are already circling over Thomas Cook’s assets in Spain after its bankruptcy last week. Investor interest is focusing on the Balearic Islands, where Cook operates about 20 units.

Blackstone has recently been the most active buyer in the Balearic Islands through its hotel division, HI Partners. The groups Atom Hotels, Portobello Capital, Covivio, CBRE Global Investors, Corum AM, Elaia Investment, Apple Leisure Group, KKR and Hispania are also active in the region.

Beyond the failure of Thomas Cook, a recent fall in tourist arrivals from Germany has also put pressure on some small and medium-sized operators, providing more fodder for the mill.

Original Story: Preferente

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

 

Platinum Buys the Park Hyatt Site Near Sotogrande to Open its Own Hotel

25 April 2019 – El Confidencial

Platinum Estates has just completed the purchase of Finca Doña Julia, a plot spanning 40,000 m2 located in Casares, between Marbella and Sotogrande, where the Hong-Kong based fund is planning to open a 4-star hotel.

The future establishment is going to be built on the structure that the property developer Evemarina designed for Park Hyatt. Work was suspended on that project after the company filed for bankruptcy when the economic crisis hit.

The debt ended up in the hands of seven banks, which have now sold their stakes to Platinum for an undisclosed amount. The fund led in Spain by Juan Luis Segalerva has been advised by Garrigues.

The same financial institutions have also transferred another plot to Platinum next to Finca Doña Julia, measuring 11,000 m2.

All of these assets are located next to Finca Cosentín, where KKR, together with Altamar and Single Hom are going to invest €450 million in the development of exclusive villas and apartments.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Telefónica Finalises the Sale of 25 Data Centres for €600M

15 April 2019 – Expansión

The telecommunications giant Telefónica is expected to complete the sale of a portfolio of 25 data centres located in the USA, Europe and Latin America after Easter, as it continues its efforts to reduce its debt.

One of the best-positioned candidates in the bid to acquire the assets is Asterion Industrial Partners, a fund founded by Jesús Olmos, former Director of KKR, in November, which has already fought off competition from the infrastructure fund Brookfield, amongst others.

Two other investment vehicles have also reportedly expressed significant interest in acquiring the portfolio, namely, EQT and I-Squared Capital, as have two companies in the sector, the US firms Digital Realty and Equinix.

Of the portfolio of assets, eight centres are located in Spain, three in Brazil, three in Colombia, three in Ecuador, two in Peru, two in Chile, two in Argentina, one in Miami and one in Mexico.

With this new divestment, which is expected to generate proceeds of around €600 million, Telefónica will succeed in reducing its debt below €40 billion.

Original story: Expansión (by D.B., M.Á.P., I.C. and R.C.)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Elix Vintage Rents Buys a Residential Building in Barcelona for €6M

4 April 2019 – Idealista

Elix Vintage Rents, the Socimi owned by KKR and Elix, has completed the purchase of a residential building in Barcelona for €6 million. The property is located at number 161 Calle Ausias March and its purchase has been partially financed by a loan (€3.2 million) from CaixaBank.

Elix Vintage Rents is a real estate investment vehicle specialising in the acquisition and renovation of residential properties in the centre of Madrid and Barcelona and the rental of homes. It currently owns more than 20 buildings.

Original story: Idealista 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

TPG, Round Capital & Ares Enter Final Round of Bidding for Témpore

12 March 2019 – El Independiente

Sareb has reactivated the sale of its Socimi Témpore Properties and the funds TPG, Round Capital and Ares are some of the candidates in the final round of bidding.

The bad bank was close to signing the transaction last year but called it off due to a lack of transparency. Then, it was the US investment fund TPG, shareholder of companies such as Spotify, Airbnb and Burger King, who was the likely buyer of Témpore, which manages 2,249 residential homes worth €338 million.

Now, TPG is back in the final round of the new process, this time against two opponents. The real estate fund Round Hill already has a presence in Spain – just a few weeks ago it launched a joint venture with the fund KKR and the logistics firm Pulsar Properties to buy logistics platforms. Meanwhile, the US fund Ares has also starred in several transactions in Spain, particularly in conjunction with the Dutch real estate firm Redevco.

Témpore closed 2018 with a loss of €384,394, but is forecast to generate profits from 2020. Its portfolio of residential assets, which is managed by Azora, generated rental income of €7.3 million last year. Moreover, 80% of its assets are located in the metropolitan areas of major capitals and the rest are in areas with significant rental demand, such as Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Málaga and Almería.

Original story: El Independiente (by Ana Antón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

El Corte Inglés Negotitates the Sale of its Logistics Assets to KKR

1 February 2019 – Expansión

The US investment fund KKR, together with the British firm Round Hill, has launched a bid for the logistics portfolio of El Corte Inglés, which includes around thirty assets distributed all over Spain, with a surface area of more than 500,000 m2.

According to explanations provided by market sources speaking to Expansión, although there are other interested funds, KKR and Round Hill have now taken the lead in the bid for the assets, with an offer of between €150 million and €170 million. Other players that have expressed interest in this portfolio so far include the US giant Blackstone, and even the Socimi Merlin, which confirmed very preliminary conversations.

In terms of the most attractive assets in the batch for sale, there is a package of six warehouses in Móstoles (Madrid), with a total surface area of 88,000 m2, as well as a plot in La Bisbal del Penedès (Tarragona), with a gross surface area of almost 41,000 m2, which serves to support its large centre in Cataluña, located in Montornès del Vallès and which provides services to the rest of the Mediterranean arc.

Batch of warehouses

In addition, the portfolio includes warehouses, storerooms and distribution centres in logistics nuclei in Sevilla, Málaga, Valencia, Valladolid, Alicante, Murcia, La Coruña, Vigo, Palma de Mallorca, Murcia, Teruel, Cáceres and Zaragoza. On the other hand, the batch for sale does not include any of the group’s logistics gems, such as the logistics centre in Valdemoro or the platform in Montornès del Vallès (Barcelona), both of which are strategic for the company (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo & Víctor M. Osorio)

Translation: Carmel Drake

KKR, Round Hill Capital & Pulsar Properties Create a JV to Purchase 4 Logistics Warehouses

29 January 2019 – Eje Prime

A trio of funds are taking a piece of the Spanish real estate pie. The investment fund KKR, the investment group and real estate manager Round Hill Capital and the logistics company Pulsar Properties have created a joint venture to purchase four platforms in the Spanish market. The objective over the medium term is to acquire logistics spaces in Spain spanning up to 400,000 m2.

The joint venture, called Pulsar Iberia Logistics, has already signed the acquisition of three logistics development projects in Madrid and another one in Barcelona. KKR has formalised the investment through its fund Real Estate Partners Europe.

The four logistics assets are going to be developed by Pulsar Properties, a Spanish company specialising in the promotion of industrial, logistics and inter-modal surfaces. The four properties are the first investments undertaken by the new joint venture in Spain, “a country that is showing very positive signs for logistics investment, with high demand and, at the same time, a scarce supply of logistics assets, as well as an economy with a solid track record”, said the company in a statement.

One of the developments is located in Ontígola, in the third logistics ring of Madrid, and has a gross surface area of 21,145 m2. In Barcelona, the asset is located in Parets del Vallès and has a surface area of 19,907 m2. Finally, the company has also acquired two logistics warehouses measuring 33,091 m2 and 20,280 m2, respectively, in Torija, also in the third logistics ring of Madrid.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Apple Leisure Group Debuts in Spain with its Purchase of a Majority Stake in Alua Hotels

23 January 2019 – Revista 80 Días

The US group is one of the largest managers of accommodation in the Caribbean. This purchase allows it to enter the vacation segment and the European market.

Apple Leisure Group (ALG), one of the largest hotel investors in the USA, has acquired a majority stake in the share capital of Alua Hotels and Resorts, the hotel group founded in 2015 by its main executives and the private equity fund Alchemy Partners. The amount of the purchase has not been revealed, although the joint operating result of the chain’s main hotels amounted to €6 million in 2017. Given that the properties are located in areas with high tourist demand and good forecasts, the amount of the operation could have exceeded €40 million, based on the multiples that are typically used for this type of transaction.

With this acquisition, ALG is entering the European market through the sun and beach holiday segment. And it is doing so in a country such as Spain, which receives more than 80 million tourists per year in search of that kind of offer. Alua Hotels has 11 hotels located in Mallorca, Ibiza, Fuerteventura and Tenerife, together with an apartment building in Ibiza.

In total, ALG will manage more than 3,000 4-star hotel rooms, focused on the type of tourist who wants a superior service to that usually found in the average accommodation establishments in beach areas. The US company is planning to undertake more acquisitions in the European market and has announced that it wants to become a reference player in the main destinations in the Mediterranean (…).

Apple Leisure Group is one of the most important investment conglomerates in tourism in the USA. It used to be owned by the investment fund Bain Capital (…), which sold it in 2017 to the funds KSL Capital Partners and KKR for an undisclosed sum. (…). According to data from the conglomerate, it manages 14 brands and handles more than 3.2 million passengers per year (…). Its turnover exceeds USD 3 billion per year (…).

Original story: Revista 80 Días 

Translation: Carmel Drake