Tag: La Maquinista

Unibail Will Invest at Least €800M in Spain Over 6 Years

26 January 2018 – Expansión

Unibail-Rodamco, the largest European real estate group, has committed investments for projects in its portfolio in Spain amounting to, at least, €800 million between now and 2024; it has already disbursed €120 million of that figure.

The Director of Development and Investments at Unibail-Rodamco in España, Javier Solís (pictured above, left), explained yesterday at a meeting organised by IESE, Tinsa and Savills Aguirre Newman, that the company has projects in its portfolio spanning a new gross leasable area (including extensions) of 187,000 m2 and a total committed investment of more than €800 million, reports Efe.

Of the projects underway, the director highlighted the shopping centre in Benidorm (Alicante), whose construction has already commenced and which is expected to open in 2020. In his opinion, the increase in visitor numbers and sales at shopping centres suggests “that returns have the potential to rise”.

The director explained that some of the investment planned for the coming years will be spent on improving its assets so that “they are more than just a place to shop”. In this sense, Solía advocates transforming them into centres for meeting up, having fun and being entertained, for enjoying new gastronomic experiences and with higher standards in terms of energy efficiency and sustainability.

In terms of future possible purchases, Solís said that the company’s intention is to incorporate new assets that are already operational, although, for the time being, it does not have any operations on the table.

In Spain, Unibail-Rodamco owns a dozen shopping centres and has two more under development. Its most high profile assets include Parquesur and La Vaguada (in Madrid) and Les Glòries and La Maquinista (in Barcelona), worth around €3.7 billion.

Westfield

Unibail-Rodamco, which has a presence in 11 European countries, reached an agreement at the end of 2017 to purchase its Australian rival Westfield for $24.7 billion (€19.8 billion).

The operation will result in the creation of a colossus with a gross asset value of €61.1 billion and a presence in 13 countries. Following the integration, Unibail-Rodamco will extend its competitive distance over its main European rivals, Klépierre and Hammerson. Indeed, one month ago, the latter announced an agreement to purchase Intu and grow in the shopping centre segment.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Political Uncertainty and Populism Threaten RE Recovery

1 June 2015 – El Economista

The electoral success of Manuela Carmena (Ahora Madrid) in Madrid and Ada Colau (Barcelona En Comú) in Barcelona has started to take its first victims in the real estate sector. Barely a week has passed since the elections and “some investors have already suspended deals to purchase property in Spain”, warn certain sources close to the negotiations.

The uncertainty regarding the possible political agreements has hit the property sector hard, “just when it was starting to recover”. In Madrid and Barcelona alone, large urban projects amounting to €14,000 million have already been called into question.

Major construction companies, financial institutions and large international funds are involved in these developments, including the Chinese magnate Wang Jianlin, who came to Spain with plans to invest around €4,000 million and who now see his real estate plans for the country being endangered.

“Right now, the sector is beginning a process of paralysis in certain segments. All of the investors are waiting for the possible political agreements to be settled so that they can carry out transactions”, explain sources in the sector.

“The is a great deal of uncertainty and considerable ungovernability in many cases, as well as expected increases in taxes and public spending, coupled with the suspension of forecast investments, which may result in the withdrawal of foreign capital”, they warn.

This situation may result in “an important step backwards for the emerging recovery”, given that it comes at a time when the real estate sector was really beginning to take off; record levels of investment were recorded last year. Before the elections, experts predicted that the level of transactions was going to continue (this year), but following recent events, “it is now very difficult to make forecasts”. These warnings coincide with others made this week by several important businessmen, such as the Chairman of OHL, Juan Miguel Villar Mir, who said that (political) groups such as Podemos put Spain’s economic recovery in danger. In a similar way, the markets have penalised the election results and the Ibex 35 recorded a loss of 2.91% last week.

(…)

The urban plans proposed by Carmena and Colau leave most of the major projects, both those already underway as well as those still to be awarded, up in the air. In Madrid, they endanger million-euro developments such as Operación Chamartín, the Madrid Río shopping centre, Operación Mahou-Calderón, the Canalejas complex, Operación Edificio España, la Ciudad de Justicia and even Operación Campamento.

Whilst in Barcelona, projects such as La Maquinista and Heron City shopping centres, the refurbishment of the Nou Camp and urban developments in the surrounding area, the ski slope in the free trade zone of Barcelona SnowWorld and the conversion into hotels of iconic buildings such as Torre Agbar, the Deutsche Bank building on Passeig de Gracia or Project Núñez i Navarro are also at risk.

(…)

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla and Javier Mesones)

Translation: Carmel Drake