Unibail’s Profit in Spain Falls by 3.6% Following the Sale of 4 Assets

20 February 2019 – Idealista

The French shopping centre giant has seen its profits in Spain decline due to one of the operations of the year. Unibail-Rodamco earned 3.6% less in the Spanish market in 2018, specifically, €155 million, following the sale of its portfolio of four shopping centres to the South African fund Vukile for around €500 million, as reported by Idealista News last July. If it had not carried out that sale, the group’s profits would have grown by 2.8%.

The company ended last year in the Spanish market with a net profit of €161 million, up by 10.3% compared to 2016, when the group earned €146 million. Until now, Spain had been one of the fastest-growing countries for Unibail-Rodamco.

Across all of the markets in which it operates, the French company recorded a net profit of €1.9 billion, up by 36.9% YoY. That increase in gains was due, in part, to the purchase of the Westfield shopping centre group.

Whilst the area where Unibail-Rodamco increased its profit by the most in the last twelve months was Central Europe, up by 21.7%, France was ranked in second place, with growth of 5.3%. Behind France was Austria with an increase in profits of 4.3%.

Mega-operation with Vukile

Unibail-Rodamco became one of the stars of the sector last July when it closed the sale of four shopping centres to the South African fund Vukile, through its Spanish real estate vehicle Castellana Properties Socimi for €489 million (…).

Currently, the group led by Christophe Cuvillier (pictured above) owns a portfolio in Spain worth €3.6 billion, which receives 126.2 million visitors per year. Those assets account for 10% of its global portfolio.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus Postpones Haya’s IPO until its Purchase of BBVA’s RE Portfolio has been Signed

26 April 2018 – Eje Prime

Cerberus is putting the brakes on Haya Real Estate’s stock market debut. The US fund, owner of the real estate servicer, has decided to suspend the process to convert its company into a listed entity until after it has signed the agreement that it reached last year to administer €13 billion of BBVA’s toxic asset portfolio, which is expected to be signed before the end of the year. In addition, the investment firm is waiting to see what decisions its partner Sareb will take regarding a portfolio worth €10 billion that it has recently put up for sale.

The fund, a giant in the sector with almost €40 billion in real estate assets, had planned to complete Haya’s stock market debut before the summer and it had even requested permission from Spain’s National Securities and Market Commission (CNMV) to seal the admission process on the stock exchange.

A few months ago, Cerberus engaged the services of Rothschild to lead the process to convert Haya into a listed company, whilst JP Morgan and Citi were making a Public Sale Offer to the servicer, hoping to obtain a valuation of around €1.2 billion for the fund, according to El Confidencial.

The US firm did not want Haya to debut on the stock market without being sure that Sareb’s mega-operation is not going to affect the valuation of its servicer. Currently, Cerberus manages €24 billion in assets for the so-called bad bank, which accounts for 60% of Haya’s portfolio. That percentage will decrease significantly when BBVA’s €13 billion real estate portfolio enters the equation.

In light of this move, the question now arises as to whether Cerberus will choose to maintain the same strategy of debuting on the stock market with the assets of third parties or to include the properties that are going to be transferred from the bank as its own.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake