Tag: merlin properties

Merlin Properties Buys Another Building In Barcelona for €37m

13 January 2015 – Expansión

Merlin Properties, a leading Spanish listed real estate company, is investing in Barcelona once more. In August last year, it acquired a building in the World Trade Center (WTC) Almeda Park (Baix Llobregat) from the Swiss bank UBS, and five months later, it is completing a very similar transaction. The Socimi has bought a new office building in the same business complex, which was also owned by UBS, for €37 million. The Swiss bank has been advised by Cushman & Wakefield.

Merlin Properties has acquired building number 8 in the WTC’s Almeda Park complex, which includes 14,543 square metres of office space and is leased to various groups, including Panasonic, Technip and Colt Telecom.

Last August, Merlin Properties bought building number 6 in the same complex, for €47 million, which is leased to Axa (the sole tenant). Cushman & Wakefield also advised on that transaction.

The CEO of the consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield in Spain, Oriol Barrachina, indicates that “real estate investors are interested in this business complex because its facilities are very attractive to the companies that occupy it”.

Catalan sovereignty

Last December, the CEO of Merlin Properties, Ismael Clemente, warned that Catalan sovereignty was beginning to affect real estate investments in that market, “We have seen a shift in investor sentiment in Cataluña”, he said. However, he also assured that Merlin Properties would continue to increase its portfolio in the Catalan market.

Original article: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés)

Translation: Aura REE

Merlin Refinances Debt With €940 Million Loan

31/12/2014 – Expansión

Merlin Properties, one of the new realtors that have been listed as a REIT, announced yesterday that its subsidiary Tree Real Estate Investments (with a portfolio of 880 bank branches and five buildings leased long-term to BBVA) has signed a 10-year loan for 940 million euros with a syndicate comprised of CaixaBank, Santander, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Banco Popular and Société Générale, among others.

The loan is secured by the asset portfolio of the subsidiary itself. The company will allocate part of the funds to repay existing debt of 828 million that is to mature in 2017 and interest rates ranging from 2.5% and 7.75% on top of the Euribor.

Lower cost

The new loan comes as an addition to the funding for 70 million euros based on an asset portfolio located around Madrid’s A-1 highway, signed in October. The Merlin leverage ratio will stand at 39%, with gross financial liabilities of 1.01 billion euros. The average maturity of debt will be 9.1 years, with an average cost of Euribor plus 1.76%. Part of the existing hedges will be held until maturity of the debt, so the cost of financing will be approximately 4% until 2017, compared to more than 6% today. The cost will go even further down, below 3%, afterwards. Merlin will go on working on the financing of two other assets from its portfolio, worth over 150 million euros, as part of its borrowing strategy, with up to 50% leverage.

Original article: Expansión

Translation: Aura REE

Merlin Buys Imaginarium’s Logistics Centre For €10.7m

30 September 2014 – Europa Press

Merlin Properties has acquired the complex of warehouses that house the logistics centre of the toy company Imaginarium in Zaragoza, for €10.7 million, according to reports by the Socimi.

The complex comprises three buildings: two for logistics and storage plus one for use as offices. The toy company rents the buildings, which are located in the ‘Plaza’ logistics area of Zaragoza, one of the largest of its kind in Spain.

Similarly, the Socimi has purchased another warehouse located in Almussafes (Valencia) in the same area as Ford’s factory in Spain for €12.2 million.

This warehouse, which it acquired from a fund managed by CBRE Global Investors, occupies a surface area of 26,613 square metres and is leased in its entirety to Ford, Johnson Controls and Truck & Wheel.

Merlin Properties said in a statement that these two investments “consolidate” its entry into the industrial asset sector.

Moreover, following these purchases, the listed real estate company now has property investments amounting to €1,069 million, i.e. it has spent almost all of the €1,292 million it raised through its IPO.

Original story: Europa Press

Translation: Carmel Drake