Tag: Meridia

Partners Group Negotiates the Purchase of 5 More Office Buildings from Meridia Capital

10 January 2020 – El Confidencial

The Swiss manager Partners Group is in talks with Meridia Capital, led by the Catalan businessman Javier Faus, with a view to purchasing half of the office portfolio that Meridia put up for sale at the end of last year.

The two players enjoy a close relationship following a deal closed last April, which saw Partners acquire a portfolio of 18 offices from Meridia for €215 million, and the Socimi continuing to manage the portfolio.

A similar arrangement could be sought this time around. The portfolio on the table in 2020 comprises a dozen offices in Madrid and Barcelona worth around €200 million, although Partners is only interested in half of the properties.

Both parties declined to comment on the reports of a potential sale, however, sources in the know confirmed that a due diligence process has begun on five of the assets.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Meridia Takes €83.5-Million Loan to Build Project in Barcelona’s 22@

21 November 2019 – A socimi controlled by Meridia has arranged an up to €83.5-million syndicated loan with CaixaBank and Santander to build the future headquarters of Everis in Barcelona’s 22@ district.

The firm’s real estate vehicle, Meridia III, requested the loan, which will be guaranteed by the plot of land located at Avenida Nova Icària 213, as well any future construction on the site. The loan will last until seven years after the end of construction.

Original Story: Expansión – Marisa Anglés

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Meridia to Sell a Major Portfolio of Office Buildings in Madrid and Barcelona

31 October 2019 – Meridia is selling the largest portfolio of office buildings currently on the market. The portfolio, known as Project Square, is made up of a dozen real estate assets in Madrid and Barcelona. The sale of assets from the socimi Meridia III could be worth up to 200 million euros.

The assets in Madrid include the Omega Building in Alcobendas; three buildings on Calle Julián Camarillo, and the Virgilio II building in Pozuelo de Alarcón.

In Barcelona, ​​the portfolio consists of the Citypark in Cornellá; two office buildings in Viladecans; the Diagonal Business Park in Esplugues de Llobregat, and another asset at Paseo de San Joan 75.

In total, the portfolio has around 80,000 square meters of surface area, with approximately 1,200 parking spaces.

Original Story: Cinco Días – Alfonso Simón Ruiz

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Franklin Templeton Teams Up with Meridia to Invest in Social Infrastructure

17 June 2019 – El Economista

The global investment manager Franklin Templeton has created a new fund to invest in social infrastructure across Europe, with a specific focus on Spain. To this end, it has teamed up with the Spanish manager Meridia to search for opportunities in the student hall, hospital, nursing home, university and school sectors, amongst others.

Franklin Templeton has committed €160 million to the fund in an initial phase, but the vehicle is open to new funding and so there are really no limits in terms of investment size

The alliance in Spain has already completed its first operation with the acquisition of a juvenile court in Madrid. Meanwhile, the Franklin Templeton Infrastructure Fund has also purchased a clinic in London and a nursing home on the outskirts of Milan.  

Original story: El Economista (by Araceli Muñoz)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Meridia III Raises €44M to Grow its Property Portfolio

31 January 2019 – Idealista

The Catalan fund Meridia is giving a boost to one of its Socimis. Meridia Real Estate III, led by the businessman Javier Faus, has increased its capital by €44 million, according to an announcement made by the group in the Official Gazette of the Mercantile Registry (BORME). This increase will serve to allow the company to continue with its business plan and add new properties to its portfolio.

According to explanations provided by the company to Idealista News, this increase forms part of the normal operation of the investment vehicle during its investment phase. Meridia Real Estate III is a vehicle dedicated to investment in all segments of the real estate sector in Madrid and Barcelona. The company’s portfolio currently comprises nine assets, including office buildings, industrial platforms and a shopping centre.

One of the most recent operations to be closed by the investment vehicle was the acquisition from the US fund Värde of a plot with a buildable surface area of 24,600 m2 in the 22@ district of Barcelona for €25.8 million.

The company, which purchased that land through its Socimi Meridia III, has already paid half of the cost of the operation. Payment of the remaining €12.9 million has been postponed until 17 March 2020, and it has been guaranteed by a mortgage on the land acquired, according to reports by the company to the stock market regulator.

With this purchase, the company is seeking to undertake a transformation plan for tertiary purposes in the Barcelona district. Currently, Meridia III owns more than 60,000 m2 of buildable space in the 22@ district, making it one of the leading investors in that area of the Catalan capital.

Meridia’s Socimi has been listed on the MAB since the end of last year. The company has starred in some of the most important operations of the last two years, both in the office market, as well as in the retail segment (…).

The fund manager is preparing to launch its fourth fund onto the market before the end of this year. The company is currently in the pre-market phase in territories such as Benelux and Israel, amongst others. The group’s new investment vehicle will join Meridia II, currently in its divestment phase, and Meridia III.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meridia Will Build Everis’s New HQ in Barcelona Spanning 25,000m2

29 September 2018 – Expansión

The multinational consultancy firm Everis will move its headquarters from Barcelona to an office complex that Meridia Capital is going to build for it in the Villa Olímpica and which will have a surface area of 25,000 m2. According to Cushman&Wakefield, which has advised on the lease, it is the largest corporate rental operation in the Catalan capital for the last 10 years.

Currently, Everis has its headquarters at 605, La Diagonal, although it also occupies other offices in different locations around the city. Its intention is to move all of its workers from Barcelona, around 2,900 people in total, to the future headquarters. The new facilities will be located at number 213 Avenida Icària and will be split between two buildings.

The plot was acquired a year ago by Meridia, the investment manager chaired by Javier Faus, and has a total surface area of 43,000 m2. The plan is to allocate two-thirds of the plot to offices and the rest to homes.

The Everis project is the first one to be announced for this mega-plot and will be constructed by Meridia turnkey for the multinational firm, with which it has signed a 10-year lease contract. According to a statement issued by the consultancy firm yesterday, the new offices will be “a series of modern, efficient and open spaces that will promote collaboration and innovation through their shared work areas and the latest technologies”.

The new space will be complementary to Living Lab, an innovation and co-creation laboratory located in Barcelona, where more than 70 Everis professionals are based working on the development of innovative projects.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meridia’s Socimi Invests €26.5 Million in an Office Building in ​​Madrid’s Financial District

26 March 2018

Meridia’s socimi is growing its participation in the office sector. The fund, led by the Catalan executive Javier Faus, bought 90% of an office building in Madrid’s financial district. The group is in negotiations to acquire the remaining 10% in the coming days. The total price for the property is expected to involve an investment of 26.5 million euros.

The building has 7,000 square meters of area, according to Meridia Real Estate III Socimi, the company through which the fund is finalising the deal. Merida is financing the purchase with equity and a seven-year loan, granted by a Spanish financial institution, of 17 million euros.

Meridia’s socimi listed on Spain’s Alternative Stock Market (MAB) on December 29, the 47th socimi to join the MAB and the last in 2017. The socimi’s shares started trading with a market value of one euro per share, giving the company a capitalisation of 78.5 million euros. The company, which was established last year, is the fund’s third investment vehicle, created by Faus in 2001.

The vehicle has attracted the attention of various investors since its inception. The last to announce its interest in the socimi was the Puig family, which owns the Puig perfume and fashion group. The group acquired 5.25% of the socimi’s capital through its real estate investment firm Inmo.

In addition to the Puigs, its main shareholders include: the institutional investor Dreof, based in New York, which holds 18.39% of the group, a church pension fund, with 15.75%, the European institutional investor Periza Industries (1.13%), the Israeli Harel investment and financial services group (11.98%) and Credit Suisse (7.88%).

The rest of the socimi’s capital is in the hands of two local family offices: Anangu Grup, the principal holding of the Catalan company Eurofred (6.56%) and the Puig family’s Inmo (5.25%). According to a document sent to the Alternative Stock Market, the president of Meridia, Javier Faus, personally owns 5.21% of the socimi.

Original Story: EjePrime – C. Pareja

Translation: Richard Turner

Meridia Capital Acquires Logistics Platform in Guadalajara for €10M

8 March 2018 – Eje Prime

Meridia Capital is fattening up its asset portfolio. Today, the company announced the purchase of a logistics platform spanning 27,500 m2 in Alovera (Guadalajara) for €10 million. The asset has been acquired through the real estate vehicle Meridia III.

Constructed in 2006, the warehouse is located on the Corredor de Henares axis, an industrial area where companies such as Volvo, Eroski and Mahou are situated. The first warehouse that Meridia III acquired in April 2016 is also located there.

Following the signing of this agreement, Meridia Capital’s logistics portfolio will span a surface area of 112,000 m2 in total, of which 73,000 m2 has been purchased through Meridia III.

Meridia Capital is an independent manager that manages assets worth almost €1 billion (including debt). In recent years, it has established itself as one of the main regulated alternative investment managers in Spain.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Meridia Capital Will Debut its Socimi on the MAB in 2018

13 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The Socimi fever is never ending in the real estate sector. In fact, it is growing. The latest company to bet on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) is Meridia Capital Partners, a Barcelona-based fund led by the veteran businessman Javier Faus, which has announced it is going to debut its Socimi on the stock market, most likely at the beginning of 2018. This incorporation will come after today’s debut on the stock market of the logistics firm P3 Logistics Parks, and after Student Properties, which will soon become the first listed real estate investment company specialising in student halls.

Meridia III, which is what the Socimi is called, owns assets worth more than €100 million, according to Cinco Días. The future listed company owns a diversified portfolio with investments in every sector, from offices and logistics to residential, retail and hotels, but focused, for the time being, in Spain’s two largest cities, Madrid and Barcelona.

Constituted last year, Meridia III was created as the third investment vehicle of the fund, created by Faus in 2001. Its most recent acquisitions include the Barnasud shopping centre, for which it paid €35 million to Unibail-Rodamco.

Moreover, the company has carried out seven capital increases in the last year and a half, amounting to €50 million in total, with the aim of financing its future plans.

In total, Meridia III has an investment capacity of €500 million, of which it has already spent more than 50%.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Operación Neo: Lone Star Negotiates Sale of Former Fecsa-Endesa HQ in Barcelona

28 November 2017 – El Confidencial

Lone Star is on the verge of closing another chapter in its history, with the sale of the last major asset that forms part of Project Octopus, a portfolio comprising more than €4,000 million in real estate loans from the bank Eurohypo in Spain and Portugal, which the US fund acquired three years ago, in conjunction with JP Morgan.

The asset in question is the former headquarters of Fecsa-Endesa in Cataluña, a building with a surface area of 35,000 m2, whose three chimneys form part of Barcelona’s skyline and regarding which, it is holding exclusive negotiations with the joint forces of the Tramway group and the German vehicle Indigo Capital.

The conversations are now in the home stretch and may even be closed this afternoon, according to sources familiar with the process, although they also indicate that a second finalist is waiting in the wings, which could take over if these negotiations do not end up proving fruitful.

This operation marks another step forward in Lone Star’s strategy to unwind its positions in the Spanish real estate market, following the sale of the rest of Project Octopus and of the property developer Neinor Homes. That company debuted on the stock market in the spring and following several share sales, the US fund now only controls a 13% stake. Moreover, it goes against the grain of the current situation in the real estate market in Cataluña, which has all but come to a standstill due to the ‘independentista’ challenge.

This property, which has been empty for five years, has both environmental and change of use problems, which have certainly conditioned its sale. Constructed on the site of an old coal generation plan at the beginning of the 20th century, the subsoil of the plot contains impurities from the former coal and gas operations, which constitute the main risk to this operation and which have convinced other interested parties to withdraw from the process.

Impact of the sovereign challenge

In addition, the property has a key 4 urban planning rating, which restricts its use to public services with a technical component. In fact, its former owner, Grupo Sanjosé, which acquired the building from Endesa in a “sale & leaseback” operation, did not manage to resolve the change of use, which allowed Lone Star to execute the debt linked to the building in 2015.

And so on and so forth, because the sovereign crisis in Cataluña was about to bring down the process, launched in September and managed by JLL, in which firms such as Meridia, Colonial, Oaktree, Tristan, GreenOak, Värde and Stoneweg expressed an interest, according to sources.

In the end, only two candidates have submitted bids, for around €20 million, and the winner will likely have to double that investment figure in order to be able to carry out all of the renovation work that this asset requires to be in a position to generate value again.

Original story: El Confidencial (by R. Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake