MAB’s 31 Socimis Must Prove Their S/H Liquidity By Friday

8 March 2017 – Invertia

The deadline that the Alternative Investment Market set for Socimis to demonstrate greater liquidity in terms of their share capital, is looming. By Friday, at least €2 million of the respective share capital of those entities must be held by minority shareholders in each case. Any Socimi that fails to comply with this requirement will be expelled from the alternative stock market.

Last year, the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) produced a circular, which, amongst other things, sought to increase the liquidity of the shares of its Listed Real Estate Investment Companies (Socimis). The Socimis represent a very important segment in this small MAB market, but the negotiation of their shares stands out for all the wrong reasons – due to its absence. Having said that, it should be noted that the large Socimis, which are listed on the continuous stock market – including the one company that trades on the exclusive Ibex, namely Merlin – do have more than acceptable movements in their shares.

In this way, a significant difference is being established between the 31 Socimis whose shares are traded on the MAB and the four whose stocks are listed on the continuous market. In addition to Merlin, the group of Socimis whose shares are actively traded comprises: Axiare, Lar and Hispania.

Friday represents the deadline for all of the Socimis to comply with the minimum capital distribution requirements, whose aim is to generate more liquidity (…).

Article 3.2 of the MAB’s circular states that: “In the case of Socimis, for the shares of such a company to be traded on the MAB, a minimum number of those shares must be owned by shareholders that hold less than 5% of the company’s share capital, and that minimum number must comply with either one of the following magnitudes:

– An estimated market value of €2 million.

– 25% of the shares issued by the company.

The calculation above will include shares placed at the disposal of the liquidity provider to perform this function. The effective diffusion of those shares should happen within a maximum period of one year following their incorporation onto the MAB”.

The MAB established a period of one year for the Socimis to adapt to this shareholder composition requirement. In other words, Socimis that were operational on 9 March 2016 and before, must comply now (by Friday) and those that have joined since that date will have one year to comply following their incorporation onto the market.

The Socimi Paradox

Socimis first emerged in 2013, boosted by a very favourable tax treatment of 0% in terms of Corporation Tax. The reason, according to the experts, was to revive the real estate market that attracted so many overseas investors to Spain in search of bargains that the real estate crisis had left behind.

In this way, the Government was trying to strengthen the real estate investments of large families with a very advantageous tax vehicle. (…).

Nevertheless, most of the Socimis are owned by wealthy families and companies owned by very few people, which are achieving remarkable savings in terms of Corporation Tax. This means that in many cases, it does not make sense to sell shares in these Socimis given that their founding owners do not want to offload those shares. Nevertheless, the entities are required to be publicly listed with the aim of ensuring that company information is generally available. The act of listing forces these companies to be more transparent in terms of information.

However, Friday’s deadline for the MAB’s circular could force some of the Socimis out on the street and therefore, losing their tax benefits. (…).

Original story: Invertia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Paralysis In Trading Amongst The MAB’s Socimis

17 January 2017 – Idealista

The Alternative Investment Market (MAB) has become the catapult for many small Socimis – the real estate investment vehicles that are obliged to debut on the stock market to maintain the tax benefits that they enjoy.

Currently, this platform is home to 28 such companies, of which 17 debuted during 2016, however, not all of them are attracting the attention of investors. What’s more, one in five is trading today at the same price per share at which they debuted and some of them haven’t registered any movements in their share prices at all, which means that they are not being traded.

Examples include some of the most recent companies to debut. One of them is Inmofam 99, a Socimi that has 10 commercial and residential assets in its portfolio, which is owned by the Hinojosa family, the founder of the Cortefiel textile group. It debuted on the MAB on 21 December 2016 at a price of €17.60 per share and it is still trading at that price almost one month later, according to data from BME, the company that manages the Spanish stock market.

The same is happening with RREF II Al Breck, which debuted on the MAB on 30 November 2016, at a price of €5.40 per share, the same price at which it is currently trading. This Socimi, controlled by a company headquartered in Luxembourg, is the owner of almost 700 assets, mainly homes located in Madrid, although it also owns retail premises, one office and several storerooms, garages and basements.

Another Socimi that finds itself in the same situation is Euro Cervantes, a company that holds two investment stakes in its portfolio: one 30% stake in GMP, the owner of homes, offices and land, and one 49% stake in La Maquinista shopping centre, the largest in Barcelona. This vehicle is owned by the Government of Singapore and has been trading at €31 per share since 22 September 2016.

Corona Patrimonial and Heref Habaneras are also experiencing very similar situations. (…).

These five Socimis together have a combined market value of €353.8 million, a figure that increases to more than €900 million in we include Zambal Spain, which has also been having a tough time. This vehicle, which owns several offices and retail premises, whose tenants are giant businesses operating in Spain, has been trading for almost 14 months (it debuted on the MAB on 1 December 2015…). It is currently trading at €1.24 per share, the same level at which it debuted, although its shares have been traded significantly. During its first month on the market, the company moved 10,000 shares and €13,000, whilst during 2016 as a whole, it moved half a million in both shares and cash. (…).

Trading plummets during first fortnight of 2017

A certain degree of apathy is being observed amongst the Socimis on the MAB in these early stages of the year. Some other vehicles should be added to the list above, including Corpfin Capital Prime Retail, Fidere Patrimonio, GMP Property, Hadley Investments, Inversiones Doalca and Mercal Inmuebles. In fact, of the 28 Socimis trading on this platform, only five have been traded, to a greater or lesser extent, during the first fortnight of January.

The most liquid of all of them is Entrecampos Cuatro, the first Socimi to debut on the stock market (back in November 2013) and whose portfolio mainly contains homes, premises, offices and land. In two weeks, this vehicle has seen 188,000 shares traded for €350,000.

The second most liquid has been Trajano Iberia…with 9,000 shares traded for €91,000. It is followed by the office specialist Autonomy Spain Real Estate (3,000 shares traded for €51,000); Vbare Iberian Properties (2,000 shares traded for €32,000); and Optimum RE (€3,000 traded). The latter two hold homes in their portfolios.

As such, and despite the fact that investors do not normally back Socimis on the MAB (because they are smaller entities with less liquidity…), it is true that we have found some companies that have managed to increase their value by double digits since they debuted on the platform, such as Entrecampos and Optimum, which are amongst the few that have seen movement in their shares during the first two weeks of the year.

Original story: Idealista (by Ana. P. Alarcos)

Translation: Carmel Drake

International Funds Reactivate Residential Development Market

7 July 2016 – El Economista

After several years away, cranes are appearing on Spain’s landscape once again. Their return has come thanks to several large international funds, which have managed to reactivate the property developer market in record time and just at the right moment. Thanks to their presence, property developer activity in Spain grew by 30% last year, with 50,000 new construction permits; and the experts are certain that the residential business is now unstoppable.

The financial capacity of the new players is overwhelming in some cases. They have liquidity surpluses that the historical property developers would have envied, but, nevertheless, they do not know the ‘ins and outs’ of the local market, and their experience in terms of land is practically non-existent. For this reason, their entry into the Spanish market has been undertaken through the purchase of property developer platforms and through partnerships with local companies (…).

In light of the high profile partnerships that have been signed in the last two years, involving players such as Lone Star, Värde and Kennedy Wilson, the experts predict that the high level of activity will continue this year with the purchase of plots of land. In fact, they confirm that sales of non-developable land are starting to accelerate and that demand for land purchases will increase, especially those in the final stages of development, due to the high level of competition that has been generated between the key players in the sector – property developers, investment funds and cooperatives.

All of these players have realised that the opportunities that the residential development business is now offering “have yields that are considerably higher than those of other investments”, according to Solvia’s Market View report, which states that transactions have grown by 8.6% and prices have risen by around 4.5%. With these positive indicators, the development figures being talked about now include 150,000 new homes and 50,000 secondary residences per year until 2020.

Most of these homes will come onto the market thanks to Neinor Homes, which is looking to become the largest property developer in Spain. This company will be one of the most active over the next few years, given that according to its own forecasts, it expects to build between 2,500 and 3,000 homes per year. The firm, led by Juan Velayos – the former CEO of Renta Corporación – is the largest residential real estate company created in Spain following seven years of recession.

Its potential was proven last year, since between its creation, in May 2015, and the end of the year, it invested own funds amounting to €800 million on the purchase of land, on which it plans to construct 10,000 homes over the next few years, bringing together the largest bank of high-quality developable land in Spain (…).

But Lone Star is not the only fund that has made a long-term commitment to the Spanish residential market. The US fund has had a major competitor for several weeks now, in the form of Värde, which after acquiring 25% of the real estate arm of San José from Banco Popular, has now created a new property developer.

The company is called dospuntos and its Business Plan for 2016-2012 forecasts an investment of almost €2,000 million in the Spanish real estate market over the next six years, to complete the construction of 2,000 homes per year on average from 2019 onwards. For the time being, the group already owns a sizeable bank of land for the construction of more than 7,000 homes across Spain.

Inmobiliaria Habitat is another company with history in the sector, which in 2015, after finding itself in a very delicate financial situation and incapable of paying its debt, ended up in the hands of a group of funds – Bank of America Merril Lynch, SP101 Finance Ireland, Capstone and Goldman Sachs, amongst others. In this case, although the commitment by the funds has been key, it is nonetheless a temporary measure, given that they plan to exit the group within two or three years.

The latest residential report from the consultancy firm CBRE highlights other partnerships between international funds and domestic developers such as: Grupo Lar and Pimco; Renta Corporación and Kennedy Wilson; Momentum Real Estate and HMC; Aquila Capital and Inmoglaciar; Mina Inmobiliaria and Eurostone; Aelca and Värde; and Q21 Real Estate and Baupost. (…).

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Brexit Will Hit Spain’s Coastal Housing Market

27 June 2016 – El Mundo

The tremors of the international earthquake caused by Brexit, i.e. the victory of the “Yes” campaign in the United Kingdom’s referendum to leave the European Union (EU), will also be felt in the Spanish housing market. Especially in coastal areas, which are so dependent on British demand. The effects are yet to be measured, but all signs are that the UK Goodbye will overshadow the domestic property sector, at least in the short term.

Until now, the consequences of the possible Brexit, now a harsh reality, had been limited to a slowdown in the number of transactions and the signing of SPA contracts with annulment clauses to be invoked in the event that the United Kingdom left the EU, according to Santiago Sánchez, managing Partner at Engel & Völkers (E&V) in Torrevieja and Orihuela. (…).

“In addition, the new international environment may cause Brits to sell the homes that they already own in exchange for euros. And as we know: more supply and the same or less demand, decreases prices”, warns Sánchez, who acknowledges that the market had assumed the opposite outcome from the vote. “We were expecting a boost in activity following a “No” Brexit vote and for all of the built-up demand to be able to go ahead and make purchases, however…”, he laments.

For Sánchez, nevertheless, the problem that will penalise the housing market the most will be the bureaucractic aspects. “If the United Kingdom leaves the EU, it will become much harder for British citizens to settle down in Spain. They will have to request residence and work permits, take out private health insurance, and they don’t know what will happen in terms of inheritance and gifts, etc”, he said. In any case, the head of E&V believes that Brits will continue to weigh up the appeal of living in Spain. “I think that they will keep buying homes because they want to retire here”, he said.

On the other hand, most economists and real estate experts consulted agree that Brexit is bad news for the recovery of the (housing) sector in Spain, which had been started to gain strength, including along the coast. And it is precisely in the coastal regions where the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU will cause the most negative effects, given that Brits account for 21.3% of house purchases by foreigners, and the vast majority of those purchases are made by the sea. The experts are certain that the devaluation of the pound and the on-going uncertainty will weigh down on this buoyant purchasing activity, both at home and overseas. (…).

Meanwhile, Gonzalo Bernardos, Economist and Director of the Real Estate Masters at the University of Barcelona, is much more positive than his colleagues, and offers a Brexit analysis with a broader outlook. “In light of this emergency situation and to avoid a catastrophe on the markets, I think that the European Central Bank (ECB) will inject a lot of liquidity into the market, which means the banks will have more credit and that will drive the Spanish economy and, therefore, the housing market”, he said. “The current neoliberal EU will be completely redesigned and there will be a major reorganisation of the union to prevent any other country from leaving. We will say goodbye to the strict deficit demands for individual countries. In the case of Spain, the fine that was going to be levied on us, will become worthless”, he said. (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Jorge Salido Cobo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CaixaBank Places €1,500M 7-Year Mortgage Bond Issue

2 February 2016 – Cinco Días

The bank chaired by Isidro Fainé…has placed a 7-year mortgage bond issue amounting to €1,500 million. The entity has been helped by Barclays, Goldman Sachs, Société Générale and UBS.

CaixaBank has placed the debt issue at a price of 78 basis points above the 7-year midswap rate (the risk free interest rate corresponding to that term), slightly below the reference rate of 80 basis points sought at the beginning of the placement. The coupon has therefore been left untouched at 1%.

Demand for the issue has amounted to more than €2,500 million, with more than 125 investors expressing interest in it, of which a significant number were foreigners. This has allowed the entity to reduce the price of the issue. CaixaBank’s last debt issue, which was placed on 4 November 2015, amounted to €1,000 million. It had a five-year term and a coupon of 0.625%. The entity is strengthening its surplus liquidity, which amounted to more than €54,000 million at the end of last year.

Spanish banks are rushing to raise funds on the capital markets. In January, BBVA placed a 5-year senior debt issue amounting to €1,000 million; meanwhile, Bankia placed mortgage debt amounting to €1,000 million; Santander issued 10-year bonds for the same value; and Deutsche Bank issued bonds amounting to €500 million with a 7-year term.

Santander achieved a price of 65 basis points over the midswap rate – the reference index for this kind of debt issue – on its placement. It will pay a coupon of 1.5%. Mediobanca, Natixis and Nomura accompanied the Santander group in the management of the operation.

Javier González, Head of Debt Issues by Financial Entities at BNP Paribas, which participated in the placements of BBVA, Bankia and the Treasury, confirmed that the money invested in these operations has been coming from end investors, such as investment and pension funds.

Banco Santander and Bankia have chosen to issue mortgage bonds because the volatile environment makes this type of asset very popular with conservative investors.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Pablo Martín Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake

BFA-Bankia Sells €645M Loan Portfolio

4 January 2016 – Expansión

As a result of this operation, the entity has reduced its doubtful debt balance by €414.3 million (€410.5 million relates to Bankia and €3.8 million relates to BFA).

BFA-Bankia has sold a loan portfolio amounting to €645.1 million. All of the loans had been granted to the business sector and some had been secured by real estate collateral, according to a statement issued by the group on Tuesday 22 December 2015.

Through this operation, BFA-Bankia was seeking to achieve two objectives, namely: to increase liquidity and free up resources to grant new loans; and to reduce its default rate by selling off doubtful debts.

In fact, with the sale of this portfolio, the group has reduced its doubtful loan balance by €414.3 million, of which €410.5 million relates to Bankia and €3.8 million to BFA.

Of the total loan portfolio sold, €564.3 million came from Bankia’s balance sheet and another €80.8 million from BFA’s.

The group explained that this operation will have a “minimal (positive) impact” in terms of capital and that, to maximise the price obtained, the sale has been conducted as a competitive process between “first tier” institutional investors and financial entities.

“The entity is continuing to move forward with its commitment to divest all of its non-strategic assets”, the group said.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tinsa: Most Homes Bought In 2015 Cost Between €50k & €100k

31 December 2015 – El País

(…) Most of the homes bought this year cost between €50,000 and €100,000. That has been the most popular price range in the provinces of Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Málaga and the Canary Islands. Homes were more expensive in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, where they typically cost between €100,000 and €150,000. Those are the findings of Tinsa’s IMIE Local Markets Index for Q4, published yesterday, which concludes that the average price of finished homes (new and second-hand properties) rose by 1% in Spain in 2015.

This data, which represents the first YoY increase since the beginning of 2008, reflects the changing trend in the evolution of prices. Just a year ago, in the last quarter of 2014, the same index reflected a YoY decrease of 4.5%. (…).

During 2015, average prices increased the most in YoY terms in the Catalan provinces of Girona (10.7%), Barcelona (5.8%) and Lleida (5.3%), as well as in Albacete (4.5%) and Madrid (3.3%). In terms of provincial capitals, Barcelona led the ranking with a YoY increase of 8.5%, followed by Badajoz (5.7%), Ávila (4.3%) and Madrid (3.8%). Prices are expected to increase at rates of less than 5% during 2016. Nevertheless, the evolution of the market will be determined by the political panorama in Spain, as well as by the high level of debt that the economy and families still hold, and the quality of new jobs. The creation or otherwise of new solvent demand will be the main driver, to the extent that the pent-up demand, which is currently boosting the market, loses power.

“We should not forget that the market is extremely heterogeneous and is moving at different speeds depending on the area. If we compare average prices in Q4 2015 with those from the same period last year, then average prices have increased in 21 provinces and 15 provincial capitals, but at the same time, they have decreased by more than 5% in nine provinces and ten provincial capitals”, say sources at Tinsa. (…).

How long does it take to sell a property on average? 

On average, it takes 10.2 months to sell a home in Spain, compared with 10.6 months as at June 2015. Cantabria is the province where sales take the longest: 18.6 months. Sales periods significantly above the national average are also reported in the provinces of Álava, Segovia, Ávila, A Coruña, Salamanca and Vizcaya, where it takes more than 14 months on average to sell a home. The provinces where buyers are found most quickly include: Ceuta (3.7 months), Melilla (5.3 months), Soria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, both with an average of seven months.

Barcelona stands out as the provincial capital that requires the greatest financial effort to buy a home, with 23% of gross annual household incomes being used to finance the first year of mortgages. Meanwhile, Madrid is the major provincial capital with the most liquidity when it comes to selling a home, since it takes less than six months (5.8 months) on average to sell a home, compared with 6.1 months in Barcelona and 13.5 months in Valencia.

Original story: El País (by Sandra López Léton)

Translation: Carmel Drake

ACI: RE Inv’t Will Exceed €13,000M In 2015

12 November 2015 – Expansión

The Association of Real Estate Consultants (‘Asociación de Consulturas Inmobiliarias’ or ACI) forecasts that total investment in 2015 will fall below the maximum levels achieved in 2007.

The real estate sector will close 2015 with investment amounting to almost €13,000 million, which represents an increase of around 6-7% with respect to 2014, but still falls short of the maximums recorded in 2007, according to forecasts from the Association of Real Estate Consultants.

In fact, ACI expects that real estate investment will increase again in 2016, as a result of the continuing capital flows. According to the President of ACI, Ricardo Martí-Fluxá, investment in the sector during the first nine months of the year amounted to €10,800 million, which exceeds the total amount spent in 2014 as a whole.

In this sense, ACI considers that the real estate sector is going through a period of boom and consolidation, supported by, amongst other factors: the increase in business confidence, the creation of jobs, financing, low rates of interest and liquidity in the market, mainly thanks to foreign investors.

House prices in Madrid will increase by 3%

In this context, the association forecasts that house prices in the municipality of Madrid will grow by almost 3% by the end of 2015, an estimate that Martí-Fluxá acknowledges “falls short”, given that prices are likely to rise again between 2015 and 2016.

ACI also predicts an increase in the number of transactions in 2016, given the scarce supply of quality properties and an improvement in project financing in the future.

Within the residential segment, 128 property developments (7,000 m2) have been sold in the city of Madrid and prices have varied the most in the districts of Retiro and Tetuán since 2014, with increases of more than 4%. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Moncloa and Chamartín have recorded decreases of 3% and 2%, respectively.

When asked about the situation in Cataluña, the association says that international investors are not really worried about the political uncertainty and although some hotel projects in Barcelona have been put on hold, the ACI members (which include Aguirre Newman, CBRE, JLL, Knight Frank, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Cushman & Wakefield and Savills) are not overly concerned.

Offices and shopping centres

By segment, ACI expects average office rental costs in prime locations to increase by 6.5% between 2015 and 2019. It also expects the shortage of prime products to continue next year and for demand to increase, driven by growth in PIB and employment. In fact, the quarterly volume of new office rentals has exceeded 111,500 m2 in Madrid for the first time since 2008 and 315,000 m2 in Barcelona.

In terms of shopping centres, supply remains very limited and ACI expects 630,000 m2 of new gross leasable space to come onto the market between 2015 and 2016. In 2016, investors’ interest in the shopping centre market will remain high and institutional investors will continue to participate. Socimis and new investment funds are expected to be very active, as are “family offices”, with the notable presence of Brazilian and Venezuelan families. (…).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Kutxabank Stirs Up The Mortgage War With A 2.5% Fixed Rate Product

12 March 2015 – Expansión

Kutxabank launches one of the best offers in the market / The Basque entity enters the battle started by Sabadell and CaixaBank and seeks to foster loyalty from its customers.

Kutxabank continues to embroil itself in the mortgage war that has been unleashed in the Spanish financial sector, which is showing the first signs of economic recovery. Two months after the launch of mortgages offering rates of Euribor + 1%, the bank comprising the former Basque savings banks BBK, Kutxa and Vital, has now launched one of the most attractive fixed rate offers in the market: a 30-year 2.50% fixed rate product.

According to the entity, its proposal is the “most attractive” in the market because, not only is it offering a reduced interest rate, also this rate will remain unchanged throughout the life of the loan. The nominal interest rate (‘tasa nominal’ or TIN) of 2.50% represents an annual percentage rate (APR, ‘tipo annual equivalente’ or TAE) of 3.28%, according to the new calculation rules, which include various expenses.

Currently, several institutions are embroiled in the fixed-rate mortgage war. Sabadell is offering a nominal fixed rate mortgage at 3.25% (4.18% APR) over thirty years and at 2.90% over twenty years, and CaixaBank has loans at nominal rates of between 2.50% and 3%, depending on the other products held by the customer, and with no set-up fees. Other banks, such as Bankinter, Bankia and BMN are also offering fixed rate mortgages with interest rates of between 3.4% and 4.6%.

Just like with its variable rate mortgages, Kutxabank is looking to foster loyalty from its customers and achieve maximum links (with them) through this aggressive offer . As such, the entity requires them to have their salaries, which must amount to at least €3,000/month, paid directly into their accounts; make payments with the bank’s cards amounting to more than €3,600/year; make contributions to pension plans or social welfare institutions of more than €2,000/year, and take out life assurance contracts with Kutxabank. The set-up fees for the mortgage will be 0.25%, with a minimum charge of €400.

According to the Basque entity, fixed rate mortgages “provide greater security and stability” for customers, as they allow them to know what their instalments will be, at all times, regardless of (variations in) interest rates (in the wider market).

Kutxabank has a 35% share of the mortgage market in the País Vasco and almost 70% of its total loan book is concentrated there, amounting to €31,000 million. The bank is working on the assumption that the mortgage market is in full recovery, after increasing its home loans by 24% in 2014.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Á. F.)

Translation: Carmel Drake