Manuel Jove, the Founder of Fadesa and Inveravante, Dies

The Galician businessman Manuel Jove, founder of the real estate companies Fadesa and Inveravante, has died in A Coruña after a year-long battle against an illness.

The businessman Manuel Jove Capellán (A Coruña, 1941) has died at his home in A Coruña, after a year-long battle against an illness, according to his holding company Inveravante.

Married, with two children (his eldest daughter, María José, died in 2002), Jove was one of the symbols of Spain’s last real estate boom. He turned his company Fadesa into one of the largest in the property development sector, and it went on to star in one of the most famous operations of the time: the purchase of Fadesa by Fernando Martín to create the giant Martinsa Fadesa.

Inveravante’s Subsidiary Avantespacia is Building More than 2,800 Homes

19 March 2019 – Eje Prime

Avantespacia, the real estate subsidiary of Inveravante, the company chaired by the businessman Manuel Jove, is going to build more than 2,800 homes over the next few years across 19 developments in Spain and Morocco.

In Spain, the company already has 17 projects underway comprising more than 1,700 homes. The developments are located in six autonomous regions: Madrid, Andalucía, Cataluña, Galicia, Navarra and the Canary Islands.

In Morocco, the A Coruña-based company is marketing two tourist complexes in Casablanca and Tánger comprising 1,144 apartments in total.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Roger Arnau)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Avantespacia Buys Land in Pamplona to Build 164 Homes

11 March 2019 – Europa Press

Avantespacia, the property developer owned by Manuel Jove’s company Inveravante, has purchased two plots in Pamplona for the construction of 146 new homes, whereby expanding into Navarra for the first time.

The plots are located in the city centre, close to Plaza de los Fueras, where it will build 18 luxury homes and next to the Glorieta de Cuatro Vientos, where it will construct 128 luxury homes.

These developments will be added to projects that the company is already working in premium areas of Madrid, Andalucía, the Canary Islands, Asturias, Aragón, the Balearic Islands and Galicia.

Original story: Europa Press

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

BBVA Sells its Stake in Avantespacia to Manuel Jove’s RE Company

8 January 2019 – El Economista

BBVA is continuing to divest property. This time with the sale of its stake in Avantespacia Inmobiliaria, the company that it constituted in 2016 to undertake real estate projects in Spain.

The entity has sold its remaining 30% stake in the firm to Inveravante, the holding company owned by the businessman Manuel Jove, the founding partner of the real estate company, who now owns the entire firm.

With this operation, Avantespacia “is strengthening its commitment to the residential real estate sector in Spain, with housing developments in the prime areas of the main provincial capitals of our country”, said the company in a note.

This operation forms part of a company restructuring process of the real estate division of Inveravante with the aim of “charting a global strategy, in accordance with the challenges that the sector poses for the future in both the domestic and international spheres”.

Jove’s company, founded in 2007 in A Coruña, divides its activity into different business areas, since in addition to real estate, it also works in the hotel segment, in selected agri-food products, and in the energy sector. Currently, the company has an international presence and operates in Morocco, Mexico, Brazil, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Canada, Germany and Romania.

BBVA has been one of the most active entities in the sale of loan portfolios, signing its most recent operation on 26 December with the sale of Project Ánfora to an entity managed by the Canadian pension fund CPPIB. Specifically, it sold a portfolio of loans comprising mainly doubtful and non-performing mortgage loans, with a live balance of approximately €1.49 billion (…).

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Fadesa’s Former Owner Returns to Real Estate

24 August 2018 – Eje Prime

Manuel Jove has returned to the Spanish real estate sector. The Spanish businessman, once the owner of the ill-fated real estate giant Fadesa, is determined to generate a profit from the land worth €540 million that he owns through his holding company Inveravante.

The executive from A Coruña, one of the 15 wealthiest people in Spain, is starting to move away from his businesses relating to renewable energy to return to the fold of real estate development, according to reports in El País.

Jove has worked in this vein for the last five years and in 2017, he managed to sell the vast majority of the 264 homes that he brought onto the market. So far in 2018, the businessman has already started work on new urbanisations in Madrid, Andalucía, the Canary Islands and his native Galicia. Jove still has a lot of work to do, thanks to the plots of land that he owns all over the country.

In addition to the residential market, the executive has a considerable presence in the hotel sector. His chain, Attica 21, improved its turnover last year, whilst the residential complex that Jove owns in Tánger (Morocco) comprising 800 homes has recently incorporated the operation of a five star Hilton hotel. As a result, the real estate arm of Inveravante is growing at a rate of 35% and now accounts for 34% of sales.

In 2017, boosted by the wind farms, which accounted for 57% of turnover, as well as a small wine and food products division, Inveravante recorded revenues of €184 million, up by 22% compared to the previous year.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Azora Postpones the Liquidation of its European RE Investment Fund

6 March 2018 – Expansión

Strategy / The manager is asking the shareholders of Azora Europa 1, including Sabadell, Bankia, Abanca, Manuel Jove and the President of Ebro Foods, Antonio Hernández Callejas, to extend the divestment period.

With renowned shareholders, the firm Azora Europa 1 has convened an Extraordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting on 21 March, where it is going to address a change of strategy. The company was created by the heads of Azora in 2005 with the aim of looking for real estate investment opportunities. Two years later, when the real estate bubble burst in Spain, the firm started its journey with investments from Sabadell, Bankia, Kutxabank and Abanca, the businessman Manuel Jove – President of the holding company Inveravante and founder of the real estate company Fadesa –, and the President of the listed company Ebro Foods, Antonio Hernández Callejas.

Azora Europa 1 chose Eastern Europe as its primary investment destination and rental properties as its main asset. Thus, between 2008 and 2015, Azora Europa undertook 10 real estate projects in Poland and another one in the Czech Republic. During that period, Azora’s fund closed its investor period with a total volume of €410 million, of which €140 million corresponded to own funds.

Ten years after its launch, its directors terminated the fund’s journey and requested authorisation from its shareholders to initiate the divestment process. Nevertheless, one year on, the company has taken a step back from that initial plan and is going to ask its investors to postpone its complete liquidation. The fund, which at its height accumulated a dozen properties, two for residential use and the rest for office use in Poland and the Czech Republic, has decided to divest the residential complexes and the Galerías Louvre in Prague, and exclusively hold onto its office portfolio in Poland. The reason given is the high returns offered by those assets, say sources at Azora. It is a portfolio leased almost in its entirety and which includes, amongst others, the headquarters of BNP Paribas Fortis in Krakow and the Harmony Office Centre in Warsaw, whose main tenant is Millennium Bank.

Now, the heads of Azora (the company that also manages the Socimi Hispania) are going to have to obtain approval from their shareholders, on 21 March, to extend the initial divestment period. At the meeting, the subject of a capital reduction will also be addressed, for a maximum amount of €6.16 million.

Valuation

According to the latest published accounts, Azora Europa 1’s real estate investments were worth €260.7 million as at December 2016, compared with €269.5 million a year earlier. In 2016, the fund recorded revenues of €30.6 million, of which €12.8 million proceeded from the sale of properties (compared with €1.8 million generated from the same concept a year earlier). In that year, Azora Europa 1 recorded losses of €3.73 million, primarily due to provisions recorded for the impairment of tax credits.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Värde Will Start Building c.900 New Homes In Q1

11 January 2017 – Cinco Días

The new real estate company Dospuntos, which wants to become one of Spain’s major property developers, will start the year by marketing a significant number of new build properties in a sector that has started to wake up slowly, without any star players. “We are going to start 18 developments containing around 900 homes during the first quarter of the year”, confirmed Javier Eguidazu (pictured above), CEO at Dospuntos, a company controlled by Värde Partners.

These homes will be located in Madrid, Galicia, Andalucía, Castilla y León and Cataluña, primarily in large cities and metropolitan areas. In La Coruña, the real estate company already announced last month that it was beginning its first project there, known as Casa Vega, in the centre of the city. The company will also debut soon in Sevilla, Málaga, Valladolid, Barcelona, Leganés (Madrid) and Oleiros (La Coruña).

“The market has finally woken up. There is pent-up demand because hardly any new homes have been constructed over the last decade. Every property that comes onto the market is sold”, said Eguidazu regarding the recovery in the property development sector.

His company is looking to become one of the largest property developers in the country. After the real estate crisis, almost all of the major players disappeared – went bankrupt – or took time out whilst they waited for better times. Just a handful of companies such as Pryconsa, Vía Célere, local developers, cooperative managers such as Domo and new platforms linked to the banks (Aliseda, Altamira, Solvia…) continued to build at a slow pace. Other listed companies, such as Realia – controlled by the magnate Carlos Slim – and Quabit, are only resuming their business now. Anida, owned by BBVA, also strengthened its business at the hand of Manuel Jove, founder of the now bankrupt company Fadesa.

Dospuntos emerged in June 2016, after Värde purchased the damaged real estate business from the San José Group. It was created to construct around 7,000 homes on land coming from several sources: purchases by the US fund, inherited from San José and even some new acquisitions. “The company has financial muscle. In 2016, we spent €150 million on land”, said Eguidazu.

Along with Neinor Homes, owned by the Texan fund Lone Star, Dospuntos leads this new type of property developer, owned by overseas funds and interested in investing in the real estate recovery in Spain, now that the traditional players have disappeared (…).

The real estate company’s main shareholder is Värde, which holds more than 50% of its share capital. The fund from Minneapolis manages assets amounting to more than €10,000 million all over the world. It has been particularly active in Spain, with the acquisition of Popular’s credit card business, as well as half of that bank’s real estate arm, Aliseda, in an operation for which it teamed up with the fund Kennedy Wilson. Moreover, it has entered the office business of Procisa, the owner of the La Finca business park in Pozuelo de Alcorcón (Madrid).

As a shareholder of Dospuntos, Värde (which means “value” in Swedish) is accompanied by the funds Marathon and Attestor, as well as by banks such as Bank of America and Barclays.

From 2019, the company wants to reach a cruising speed of 2,000 new homes per year on average, according to comments made by Eguidazu at a presentation last June. By then, the company forecasts that it will be generating revenues of between €500 million and €600 million per year.

The shareholders plan to invest €2,000 million between 2016 and 2021, at an average rate of €400 million per year, of which €800 million will be allocated to buying more land on which to build homes. Over the long term, between 30% and 40% of the company’s resources will come from bank financing. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Which Players Will Shape The RE Sector In 2017?

5 December 2016 – Expansión

The end of 2016 will mark not only a new record in terms of real estate investment in Spain, but also the start of a new phase in the sector, after three years of recovery.

“In mid-2013, funds like Blackstone started to close operations, at a time when the market was completely paralysed. That prompted a magnet effect, which, together with the creation of Socimis and the reorganisation of the banking sector, launched the recovery of the sector”, said Adolfo Ramírez-Escudero, President of CBRE.

Thus, after closing last year with an investment volume of €12,884 million, the expectation is that the figure will reach €13,900 million by year end 2016. “We may reach record investment figures by year end, as new property owners, with a more institutional profile, enter the market, such as German investment funds, insurance companies, etc.”, he said.

The investment figure may be maintained next year if corporate operations continue, say sources at the consultancy firm. “We are living in a different Spain, with GDP growth of 3.2% this year and forecast GDP growth of 2.5% next year. That has a direct correlation with employment and, therefore, with real estate”, said Ramírez-Escudero.

For this new phase, one of the most important players will be the large Socimis, which have continued to close operations this year, but in a more measured way as they have been more focused on managing their properties; as well as German funds, such as Invesco Real Estate and the real estate division of Deutsche Bank.

Nevertheless, these more risk-averse investors will share the stage with another kind of player in the Spanish real estate sector in 2017. “We are pretty convinced that there is going to be a new property developer cycle, given that the real estate companies have now been established, with new capital. Next year, the property developers will be building new products”, said the Head of CBRE.

Residential segment

These new players will include Neinor Homes. The real estate company, created by the fund LoneStar with the former subsidiary of Kutxabank, has become a key player in the property development sector, with projects underway across Spain. In 2017, the company led by Juan Velayos will debut on the stock market, whereby restoring the profile of property developers, such as Martinsa Fadesa and Reyal Urbis, which fell from grace following the burst of the bubble.

Another player in the residential sector will be Avantespacia. The new real estate company, in which Inveravante (Manuel Jove’s company) owns a 70% stake and Anida (BBVA’s real estate arm) owns a 30% stake, will promote almost one thousand homes during its first phase of development. Its first project in Málaga, with 135 properties, is already being sold, whilst in Madrid, the new company is preparing a development in the Francisco Silvela area.

But development will not only be happening in the residential segment, major projects are also planned for the office and shopping centre segments. In the former, Merlin Properties is expected to play an important role. Spain’s largest Socimi is currently working on the development of an office building in the Isla Chamartín area, in the north east of Madrid.

In addition, it has just completed the purchase of the Adequa business park, a complex that comprises four office buildings and a shopping area, with space for the construction of a 24-storey skyscraper, with a total surface area of 29,000 m2.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

The New Kings Of The Residential Market

17 November 2016 – Expansión

The crisis in the real estate sector not only led to the disappearance of some of the historical giants, such as Martinsa Fadesa, Reyal Urbis and Nozar, it has also resulted in a structural change in the residential landscape, with the emergence of new players, including several international investment funds, which have revived the market by injecting their capital. (…).

“Traditionally, the residential sector has been a very polarised market, with lots of local developers playing key roles. Nevertheless, the residential business model has changed following the crisis. In 2014, we began to see new players emerging in the form of partnerships between local property developers and international investment funds, with the funds providing the capital and the developers the local knowledge and ability to manage the market”, explains Ernesto Tarazona, Partner-Director of Residential and Land at Knight Frank.

Meanwhile, the National Director of Residential at CBRE, Samuel Población, explains that the partnerships created by the international funds and local developers bring together the local developers’ capacity to manage and know the local market, and the funds’ capacity to invest and provide solvency levels (…). “Grupo Lar and Pimco; Renta Corporación and Kennedy Wilson; Momentum Real Estate and HMC; Aquila Capital and Inmoglacier; Mina Inmobiliaria and Eurostone; Aelca and Värde; and Q21 Real Estate and Baupost, are just some of the partnerships that have been formed in recent months”, he says.

In this way, we are seeing “the professionalisation of the sector with institutional money that wants to enter this market”, says Borja Ortega, Director of Capital Markets at JLL. (…).

Enrique Isla, Partner at King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), explains that, in addition, some of the funds have burst into the market by purchasing real estate companies in order to access their portfolios of land as well as their management teams. “That was the case with Lone Star’s purchase from Kutxabank of its real estate subsidiary Neinor; and Värde’s acquisition of Sanjosé’s real estate subsidiary to create Dospuntos; it also explains Castlelake’s interest in Aedas, the property developer that has emerged from the ashes of Vallehermoso”, he adds.

Isla thinks that the investment funds see great potential for growth and profitability in the residential sector, given the improvement in the Spanish economy and employment, as well as the favourable financing conditions.

In this sense, Población points out that the new developments in Spain will have to respond to the depletion in the stock of new housing that we are seeing. “Given the high number of housing permits granted in 2015, we expect between 60,000 and 65,000 new homes to be ready in 2016”. (…).

In addition to the funds, Spain’s banks, through their servicers – companies created during the crisis to streamline the administration and sale of portfolios of properties and loans by financial institutions – are becoming increasingly involved in property development.

In this sense, Anida, one of the few large platforms that is still completely owned by its parent company, BBVA, has just signed an agreement with Inveravante, a holding company owned by Manuel Jove. During the first phase, the new company, in which Jove holds a 70% stake and BBVA the remaining 30% stake, will develop 850 homes in Málaga, Madrid and Las Palmas.

The experts think that other movements of this kind may well take place in the real estate market, given that many of the banks are still major land owners.

Meanwhile, Sareb is continuing to be a major player in the residential market, with its stock of almost 100,000 units as at June last year.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Manuel Jove Joins Forces With BBVA To Construct New Homes

8 November 2016 – La Opinión A Coruña

Inveravante, the corporation owned by the A Coruñan businessman Manuel Jove, has joined forces with Anida, the real estate arm of BBVA, to create a new firm, Avantespacia Inmobiliaria, which will focus on building new homes in Spain, according to a statement made today by the two companies.

During the initial phase, the partnership will build 850 new homes in the centre of several cities such as Madrid, Málaga and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and, in a second phase, it will take on other new developments, also in large capital cities.

With this initiative, the Galician businessman makes a return to the residential property development business in Spain, given that it is the first project that he has undertaken in the sector in the last decade, following the sale of Fadesa to Martinsa in 2006. Nevertheless, during the intervening years, through Avantespacia, the real estate division of Inveravante, Jove has developed housing complexes in cities in the north of Africa, specifically in Casablanca and Tanger, and is considering embarking on projects in Mexico and Brazil.

Now, “given the strong outlook for the real estate sector in Spain”, Jove’s firm and the subsidiary of BBVA have decided to unite some parts of their respective buildable land portfolios in a return to house construction.

Inveravante will control 70% of the partnership, called Avantespacia Inmobiliaria, whilst Anida will own the remaining 30% stake.

The two partners have already launched their first project in Malaga, involving the development of 135 homes, which will be constructed on a plot of land formerly owned by Tabacalera, in one of the areas “with most potential” in the city, next to the new Paseo Marítimo.

The next initiatives, which have already been put on the market, will be undertaken in Madrid, on Calle Francisco Silvela and in the neighbourhood of Las Rosas.

Avantespacia will be in charge of the architecture and construction aspects of the properties, as well as the marketing, although the homes will be included on BBVA’s specific websites. Manuel Jove used to be a shareholder of Spain’s second largest bank.

Original story: La Opinión A Coruña

Translation: Carmel Drake