Tag: Linea Directa

Allianz Real Estate Opens Branch In Spain

22 September 2016 – El Economista

The real estate arm of Allianz has arrived in Spain, attracted by the investment opportunities on offer here. Allianz Real Estate has just opened a branch in Madrid to track its operations in the Iberian Peninsula and take responsibility for the management of the properties owned by the group.

To lead the project, the firm has hired Miguel Torres, ex-Arthur Andersen, who has been linked with GE Capital Real Estate since 1995, according to the Commercial Registry. “After the recovery of the real estate markets, Spain and Portgual are once again in the focus of international real estate investors”, explained the CEO of Allianz Real Estate, François Traush, who highlighted that the incorporation of Torres into the team aimed “to identify attractive investment opportunities to allow us to continue constructing a diversified portfolio”, for our shareholders.

With more than 20 years of experience in the real estate and structured financing sectors, Torres joins the company from GE Capital in Mexico, where he served as Director General, leading a team of 50 specialists and an unit with almost €3,500 million in real estate financing. Prior to that, he held various management positions at GE entities in Madrid, New York and Stamford.

Allianz Real Estate’s portfolio contains €41,700 million in assets under management: €29,300 million in direct and indirect investments, plus loans amounting to €12,400 million, based on figures at 2015 year end, when it closed operations amounting to €7,400 million. Its goal is to reach the €60,000 million threshold “within the next few years”.

The company, which has subsidiaries in Germany, France, Italy – into which the operations in Spain will report -, Switzerland and the USA, includes the office in Madrid as part of its regional expansion.

Its investment aspirations cover almost the entire sector: from taking stakes in debt, to investing in listed companies, direct and indirect positions in financing and building a significant property portfolio.

It debuted as a lender in Spain a year and a half ago, with a loan for €133 million that allowed the Socimi Merlin to acquire the Marineda Shopping Centre, which, at the time, was the largest investment in this type of complex since 2008.

The strategic logic is two-fold. The low interest rate environment is causing insurance companies to dust off old commitments to property in light of the meagre returns being offered by public debt and the high capital consumption involved with other investments. Companies such as Mapfre, Mutua Madrileña, Santalucía, Reale and Línea Directa have acquired properties recently and are looking for opportunities, although their involvement as financiers is residual or non-existent, unlike the role performed by multi-national firms such as Axa and Allianz.

The sector hopes that Brussels will smooth the path, easing the burden of callable capital, given that the Juncker Plan itself wants to involve infrastructure projects that Europe needs.

In addition, the real estate sector is presenting itself as an alternative that offers higher returns, especially given the security of their operations. The high expectations of growth in terms of office rents and a notable increase in the number of small operations, is converting this segment of the market into one of the most attractive options. In the case of the most cutting-edge buildings and those located in prime areas, rents may increase by up to 22% over the next three years. For the other more modest assets, the annual yield amounts to around 7%. Similarly, yields of commercial premises amount to around 7.5%,and rents are expected to increase by an average of 2.4% p.a. in Madrid over the next two years.

Original story: El Economista (by Eva Contrerar and Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Madrid Earns €360M From The Sale Of Public Properties

25 March 2015 – El Confidencial

The Community of Madrid sold around thirty real estate assets between 2012 and 2014, including an entire housing development and a number of buildings on Gran Via.

The sale of public properties generated income of more than €360 million between 2012 and 2014. In total, during this period, around thirty real estate assets of all types were sold, ranging from an entire housing development, to a number of buildings in the heart of Gran Via, as well as flats, plots of land and commercial premises.

The starting gun for “property” sell-off began in the summer of 2012, with the sale of a plot of land for tertiary use in Pozuelo de Alarcón for €5 million. In the same year – when Spain was on the black list of all investors – Metro de Madrid sold another plot of land that it owned on Calle Cardenal Cisneros for €2.1 million.

However, the largest transaction signed to date by the Community of Madrid did not take place until July 2013. Then, it sold a 32 home development, owned by Ivima, to Azora and Goldman Sachs for €200 million, whereby the buyers paid almost 20% more than the initial asking price (€168.9 million).

At the end of 2013, two further transactions were signed that “fattened up” the public coffers by more than €26.5 million. These involved the sale of Gran Via 18 for €18.6 million to Iberia Project Management, although the Texas Pacific Group (TPG) was actually behind the bid – that fund purchased 51% of Servihabitat Gestión Inmobiliaria from CaixaBank in September of the same year. The second sale was of Gran Via 3, which the Community sold for €8 million to Baech Bienes Inmuebles.

Then in 2014, when real estate investment in Spain really took off, more than a dozen transactions were signed; the most noteworthy was the sale of a building measuring more than 9,000 square metres for €40.2 million to Línea Directa, the insurance arm of Bankinter. Last year, Gran Via 20 was also sold to the real estate company of Caja Rural de Almendralejo, which paid almost €20 million for the property.

The final two transactions last year were closed in December: a building on the Carretera de San Jerónimo, measuring 4,500 square metres for €14.1 million and another measuring almost 3,000 square metres on Los Madrazo for €3 million; both were owned by Arproma.

The plans to sell off public assets are on-going. The Community of Madrid has placed a “for sale” sign above another 22 assets that is owns. Office buildings, residential properties, commercial premises, plots of lands, flats and individual buildings. Through these, it hopes to “fatten up” the public coffers by around €56 million, taking advantage of investors’ renewed appetite for Spain.

Nevertheless, the jewels in the real estate crown have been sold already. By price, the following assets are up for sale: an office building on General Díaz Porlier, which has been on the market since October 2013 and for which the Community of Madrid is asking €11.1 million. In terms of land, there is a plot for sale in Tres Cantos for €5.8 million and there is also a flat for sale measuring 170 square metres on Calle Fernando el Católico for €467,000.

The Community is organising public auctions to sell these assets as well as direct sales. To give more visibility to its properties, like in the past, the Community has is making use of specialist websites, such as addmeet.com, which lists the assets sold to date, as well as the buildings for sale and the real estate auctions that are underway.

The sale of the building next to Puerta del Sol is on standby for the moment; the Community of Madrid is asking €10.7 million for that property.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Elena Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Linea Directa (Bankinter) Acquires a Building From Madrid´s Community For €40 Mn

23/07/2014 – El Confidencial

The Community of Madrid has just closed the sale of a 12.000 square meter property hosting the General Council of Financial Politics, Treasury and Patrimony, a division of the Treasury and Economy Council, situated at 8 Plaza Chamberi square in the capital.

Linea Directa Activos, an arm of insurer Linea Directa owned by Bankinter, has submitted the highest bid of €40. 226.000. The amount positions as the most impressive one since the local authority´s decision to shed a part of its property portfolio. To contrast, at the end of 2013, a building at 18 Gran Via street was sold for €18.6 million.

The first bidding round for the 10-floor office building (subject to today´s transaction) located in the Almargo neighborhood and adjacently to the Paseo de la Castellana street organized in December was unattended, as the authority admitted, due to an elevated price established at €42 million.

The Community of Madrid is going to rent the property for the next 10 years. In addition, the building disposes of a nearly 4.500 square meter basement and 177 parking spaces. Apart from a 5.64% return, the unit offers to Linea Directa various classes of use: office, hotel, administrative, healthcare and nursery, cultural, entertainment / recreation and residential.

 

Original article: El Confidencial (by Elena Sanz)

Translation: AURA REE