Tag: loan

UBS Finalises Its Purchase Of The Zielo Shopping Centre

20 March 2015 – Expansión

The Swiss bank’s real estate fund is offering €73 million for the Madrilenian shopping centre, exceeding the expectations of its current owner, Hines, which has invested more than €100 million in its construction.

Another shopping centre is expected to change hands soon. After the French company Klépierre closed its purchase of the Plenilunio shopping centre in Madrid this week, another Madrilenian property will soon have a new owner.

The property in question is the Zielo shopping centre, located in the town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, in Madrid. The building was designed by the real estate company Hines, which took out a loan of €50 million to construct the property. Conceived at the height of the boom (it was opened in October 2009), Hines invested more than €100 million in its development.

The centre, designed by the architect Alberto Martín Caballero, has a surface area of 50,000 square metres, of which 15,537 m2 is dedicated to retail over three floors. It also has more than a thousand parking spaces, the majority of which are indoors.

Five years later, Hines put the “for sale” sign up on its Madrilenian shopping centre in January. The initial asking price was set at €65 million. The Houston-based real estate company decided to sell the property through a restricted (tender) process rather than open it up to all of the interested investors in the Spanish market. Thus, its advisors reached out to the large Spanish Socimis (Merlin Properties, Axia Real Estate and Lar España), as well as the more institutional investment funds such as Deka Inmobilien and the (fund) manager Tiaa Henderson. In the end, the real estate fund owned by the Swiss bank UBS made the best offer and is now negotiating the finer details of the transaction in an exclusive process with Hines.

According to sources close to the process, UBS is offering €73 million. A price that means that the yield on the transaction amounts to less than 5%, a very low figure compared with the figure of 10% that was achieved on the first deals involving the sale and purchase of shopping centres following the burst of the bubble, in 2013.

Zielo Shopping is not the only commercial property that is currently on the market in Spain. According to Deloitte Real Estate, around 80 shopping centres will come onto the market over the next 12 months. Some transactions, such as the purchase of Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza and Plenilunio in Madrid have already been closed. In total, €3,500 million could change hands in this market alone.

Possible buyers include the British real estate company Intu Properties, which is finalising a call option on a real estate project in Málaga, as part of its €2,500 million investment program, and the fund manager CBRE Global Investors, which plans to invest €600 million in shopping centres and retail outlets in the Spanish market.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Merlin Properties Takes Out A Mortgage On Marineda City

19 February 2015 – La Voz de Galicia

Merlin Properties has taken out a ten-year loan with a fixed interest rate of 2.66%.

Merlin Properties, the listed real estate investment company (Socimi), which acquired the Marineda City shopping centre from its developers (the businessmen Manuel Jove, José Collazo and José Souto) last July, has just signed a loan for €133.6 million and has secured it with the A Corunian retail complex. The loan, signed with Allianz Real Estate, has been taken out for a ten-year term, at the end of which all of the principal will be repaid, at a fixed interest rate of 2.66%, according to a statement sent by the company to the National Securities Market Commission (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores or CNMV).

With this loan, which sources at the company assure will not be used to finance the purchase of Marineda, on which it spent €260 million, Merlin increases its gross financial debt to €1,144 million, which is equivalent to 39% of the value of the company’s assets. Sources at the Socimi say that they are continuing to work on the financing of other real estate assets in their portfolio, whilst ensuring that they do not exceed their leverage limit of 50%.

Marineda City is the largest shopping centre in Galicia and the second largest in Spain by surface area. It was opened in 2011 and has a buildable surface area of more than half a million square metres, of which 196,000 sqm are leasable. The retail complex received 15.1 million visitors in 2014, i.e. 15% more than in the previous year.

Original story: La Voz de Galicia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Car Parks: Isolux Joins Forces With Oak Hill

28 January 2015 – Expansión

Cash inflow of €100 million / The group, which is in the middle of an IPO, has granted its new partner the option to buy its car park business from 2019.

Isolux has strengthened its car park subsidiary, one of the outstanding loose ends in its business, which will become more attractive through this transaction, as the company continues with its plans to go public in mid-February. Specifically, the Spanish group has signed an agreement with the fund Oak Hill Capital Partners to jointly develop the business.

The investment firm has injected €100 million into the company in the form of a loan, which is fully intended to increase the company’s portfolio of assets. In return, Isolux has granted Oak Hill an option to take ownership of the car park subsidiary from 2019.

The agreement transforms Isolux Infrastructure into one of the most active competitors in the Spanish parking sector. The car park business map has undergone a profound transformation in the last year, due to: the divestment processes that are underway (the sale of the market leader, Empark); the merger of companies (Mutua Madrileña and EQT have created a joint venture); and the award of large public concessions (Saba has acquired car parks from the Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, as well as some of those previously owned by Aena).

Currently, Isolux is one of the largest operators in the sector, with almost 24,000 parking spaces; it generated revenues of €14 million to September last year and a gross operating profit (EBITDA) of €8 million during the same period.

The agreement with Oak Hill, signed last year, ends a period of uncertainty for this branch of Isolux’s activity, which it had put up for sale after other attempts to form strategic alliances had fallen through. At the beginning of 2013, the Spanish group signed a preliminary agreement with the French fund Edifice Capital for the investment of €150 million between 2013 and 2014. The resources were going to be used to purchase new car parks with the aim of reaching 50,000 spaces in total. Surprisingly, the French firm did not keep to its word and withdrew from the project.

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Original story: Expansión (by C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deutsche Bank Offers Market’s Best Mortgage

15/12/2014 – ExpansionPro

Deutsche Bank has improved the conditions of its mortgages for first-time buyers and subrogations.

Intended for the first group of borrowers, Hipote-Casa, sets the interest rate at 2.25% during the first year and a 1.59% differential plus the Euribor for the rest of the credit’s lifetime.

Also, the entity reduced the interest rate for loan subrogation in its Hipote-Cambio mortgage, switching to a fixed rate of 2.25% for the first year and of the Euribor+1.55% for the rest of the term.

Other banks trade their mortgages at interests varying from 1.70% and 2% over the Euribor.

In order to be eligible for the attractive conditions, the borrower must accept all loyalty products: home and life insurances, salary and at least 3 bills deposit, credit and debit cards requiring spending minimum 3.000 euros annually. Moreover, the customer shall take out a payment protection insurance or a 2.75% rate for the first year.

Deutsche Bank offers an up to 80% financing for the first-time buyers and a term of up to 30 years.

 

Original story: ExpansiónPro (Jueves 11 diciembre, pp 19)

Translation: AURA REE