Tag: non-binding offers

Sabadell Delays Completion of ‘Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios’ Sale until May

28 February 2019 – El Confidencial

Banco Sabadell is finalising the sale of land from Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios (SDIn) to complete its real estate divestment process with prices of between €900 million and €1.1 billion. The process began with more than 20 funds and property developers expressing interest. Analysts forecast that the Catalan entity will record gains of more than €200 million.

To this end, the bank chaired by Josep Oliu (pictured above, left), has already prepared a timetable. The entity has delayed the deadlines because it has taken longer than expected to receive some of the signed confidentiality agreements (NDAs). Now, the interested parties will have until 30 March to analyse SDIn and submit non-binding offers. The deadline for the subsequent period for the submission of binding offers will be 17 May.

In this way, Sabadell will have the second half of May to accept the winning bid, and then receive the corresponding authorisations to complete the divestment before July (…).

Analysts expect that the operation will be executed in the region of €1 billion, with a discount of 30% on the net asset value. Even so, that would result in capital gains from profits of more than €200 million, according to a report by Alantra, to which this newspaper has had access. In this way, the maximum quality capital ratio (CET1 fully loaded) would move towards 12%, approaching the 12.5% that the bank has set itself as a target for 2020 in its strategic plan. In December, the ratio amounted to 11.1%, well below the 12.8% from the previous year following the sale of toxic property and the problems with the integration with TSB.

The land has been valued at €1.3 billion by Savills Aguirre Newman and by the property developer SDIn itself (…).

Candidates include funds and property developers. Market sources point to Cerberus, Oaktree and Neinor homes as some of the leading contenders. The operation will require the buyer to become one of the largest real estate players in Spain (…).

In December, Banco Sabadell agreed the sale of its property developer Solvia to the Nordic fund Intrum for €300 million. Intrum is listed on the Stockholm stock exchange and is the owner of Lindorff and Aktua in Spain (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Óscar Giménez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aedas, Neinor & Merlin Properties Put €1bn on the Table for Sabadell’s Land

29 January 2019 – OK Diario

Banco Sabadell has now opened the sales process for Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios, its real estate developer, for which the entity expects to obtain €1 billion. To date, the entity chaired by Josep Oliu has already sent the teaser to almost 30 interested parties. But there has been an important development, and that is that it is not only the typical funds that tend to participate in these types of auctions that are interested in the company, property developers are also keen, including Neinor, Aedas and Merlin Properties.

It is worth remembering that when Sabadell decided to sell Solvia, it separated the house-sale business and the real estate development business into two different companies with the aim of achieving a better offer. The land, which is owned by the second firm, forms part of the bank’s balance sheet and that is what is now up for sale.

According to sources speaking to OK Diario, the deadline for non-binding offers will finish in March; it will be after that when Banco Sabadell will start to receive binding offers. Sources in the know indicate that the operation will be closed in the second quarter. And, moreover, in addition to the aforementioned property developers, funds such as Cerberus, De Shaw, Blackstone, Värde, Apollo and Oaktree have also received the teaser (…).

The main plots of land owned by Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios are in Madrid, Barcelona and several places along the Mediterranean Coast. The portfolio includes plots that the buyer will have to reclassify in order to be able to sell, resell or transform them, as well as plots that are ready for development. It is precisely in those assets that so many property developers have expressed their interest.

Banco Sabadell obtained a profit of €138 million from the sale of 80% of Solvia, its real estate subsidiary, to Lindorff, a company that belongs to the Intrum AB group, for €300 million. With that operation, Sabadell, which has retained ownership of the remaining 20% stake in Solvia, achieved a positive impact on its Common Equity Tier 1 (“fully loaded”) capital ratio of 15 basis points.

The completion of that operation, which is subject to obtaining the corresponding authorisations, is also scheduled for the second quarter of 2019 (…).

Original story: OK Diario (by Borja Jiménez)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Neinor & Ática Pull Out of the Bidding for the Mestalla Plots

14 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Neinor and Ática have pulled out of the bidding for the Mestalla plots. The two property developers have decided not to formalise their interest in the land that Valencia Football Club has put up for sale during the period for the presentation of non-binding offers, which terminated on Tuesday.

In the case of the property developer led by Juan Velayos, the listed company has decided not to formalise its interest due to the high percentage of land assigned for tertiary use that VFC has put on the market; it is not offering the option for interested parties to bid for each use separately. Of the 100,000 m2 in total, approximately 40% will have to be used for commercial purposes or as offices or hotel rooms.

The withdrawal of Grupo Ática, by contrast, is based on the complexity of the operation. In its case, the candidates, which were thought to include a fund as a financial partner for the Valencia-based property developer, have considered the transaction to be too high risk, according to sources speaking to València Plaza.

The candidates that are still aspiring to take over the land include the Valencian investor group Atitlán, the fund Cerberus, the property developer Aedas and the Valencian construction company Bertolín. Nevertheless, Deloitte is planning a new bidding period during which the candidates who want to continue in the process will have to convert their bids into binding offers, a commitment that they will have to make before the end of the year, on the basis of what has been seen to date.

Until now, the club has not set a price for its plots, but it estimates that the land is worth around €120 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus, Aedas & Neinor Compete to Acquire the Mestalla Plots in Valencia

5 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Three great players want to score a goal on the grounds of the Mestalla stadium. The US fund Cerberus and the Spanish property developers Neinor Homes and Aedas Homes are interested in acquiring the more than 100,000 m2 of residential and tertiary land that Valencia Football Club is going to release when it demolishes its stadium, according to València Plaza.

The process to sell the land, which is being led by the consultancy firm Deloitte, has already received interest from up to 25 companies, as the Director General of Valencia FC, Mateu Alemany, explained to the press last week. The value of the plots amounts to €120 million, although the club has not revealed the exact price for which it plans to sell them.

Located on Avenida Aragón, the Mestalla land will have a new owner before long. The funds and property developers that want to invest in this operation have until 8 November to place their non-binding offers on the table, with the obligation to convert them into binding offers by the end of the year.

The interest from Neinor and Aedas in these plots is in line with their investments in the Community of Valencia. In the case of the property developer led by Juan Velayos, the company already has €200 million committed in the region. Last week, Neinor announced the launch of its first 48 homes in the provincial capital, where it is now working to obtain the licence for a second development comprising one hundred homes in Quatre Carreres.

Meanwhile, Aedas is planning to build 500 homes in the Community of Valencia and has already started marketing 120 units, distributed over two blocks, which are going to be built very close to the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. The US firm Cerberus would undertake this purchase through its property developer Inmoglacier, which opened its first office in the city opposite the Mestalla stadium at the end of October.

Several local players including Atitlán, the investment firm owned by Roberto Centeno and Aritza Rodero, Grupo Ática and the construction firm Bertolín are also on the list of candidates who want to buy Valencia FC’s former grounds.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Bankia Puts €450M Rental Property Portfolio Up For Sale

27 June 2018 – Expansión

Bankia is going to start a sales process for a portfolio of rental properties with a market value of €450 million, reports Reuters, citing two sources familiar with the operation.

The entity chaired by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri expects the interested groups to present their non-binding offers over the summer, so as to finalise the process with definitive offers from September onwards, indicates one of the sources.

This portfolio of rental properties forms part of the €4.9 billion in assets and loans foreclosed during the crisis that Bankia is trying to eliminate from its balance sheet.

At the end of March, Bankia had a gross exposure of around €16.6 billion on its balance sheet comprising non-performing loans and assets. The bank’s objective is to reduce its non-performing assets by around €9 billion.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Santander To Receive Non-Binding Offers For Popular Portfolio This Week

24 July 2017 – Expansión

Santander is heading into the home stretch of its initiative to get rid of Popular’s toxic real estate assets. The process will be accelerated next week when the entity closes the first phase. According to financial sources, Santander is open to receiving non-binding offers until the end of July.

The bank wants to sell a portfolio of foreclosed assets and doubtful real estate loans from Popular for a gross amount of €30,000 million. Santander is planning to sell 51% of this portfolio to a single buyer. The real estate risk of the bank that was resolved by the European authorities amounts to almost €37,000 million, including the stakes in real estate companies, which amount to around €7,000 million.

On 7 June, on the same day that she announced the purchase, Ana Botín revealed a plan to cut Popular’s non-performing assets in half within 18 months. But the segregation of the portfolios of property into a single vehicle could shorten that period. The agency Reuters said on Friday that the bank expects to receive its first non-binding offers by today, Monday 24 July.

Sources in the market take it for granted that the interested parties bidding for Popular’s toxic real estate will include Apollo, Lone Star and Blackstone. Other sources say that one of those funds has already decided to withdraw and they do not rule out others joining, such as Cerberus. In the pools, Apollo and Lone Star are starting off as favourites.

Santander’s plan also involves selling the majority of the servicer Aliseda to the winner of the bid. That company is responsible for managing Popular’s real estate assets and is fully controlled by Santander, after the entity repurchased the 51% stake controlled by Kennedy Wilson and Värde Partners on 30 June 2017.

Aliseda

By also purchasing the servicer Aliseda, Apollo, for example, would achieve important synergies, say sources in the sector, given that the fund already controls 85% of Altamira, which manages Santander’s real estate assets. Meanwhile, Lone Star has strong a strong interest in Popular’s portfolio, which was put up for sale at the end of June, and has an aggressive plan for absorbing real estate assets in Spain. However, the fund controls 39.6% of the real estate company Neinor, a competitor of Metrovacesa, in which Santander and Popular together hold a 70% stake; which may go against it in the bidding.

The rapid sale of 51% of the portfolio of Popular’s toxic assets would allow Santander to deconsolidate the real estate weight from its balance sheet, one of the main factors that triggered the resolution of the until now sixth largest bank by asset volume. Popular’s real estate portfolio contains €10,500 million in land and hotels, plus more than 25,000 homes, according to the latest available data. Half of the properties are located in Andalucía and Valencia.

Santander has recognised provisions amounting to €7,900 million to increase the coverage ratio of Popular’s real estate to 69%. The average in the sector is 52%, which will allow it to offer significant discounts.

Market sources estimate that Santander may record revenues of almost €5,000 million from the sale of 51% of Popular’s real estate portfolio. The bank could also earn up to €630 million from selling some of Popular’s property, according to a recent report from Citi.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Sampedro and N. Sarriés)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Operation Tramuntana: CaixaBank Assesses Offers Worth €200M

31 May 2017 – Voz Pópuli

CaixaBank is accelerating the sale of Project Tramuntana, one of the largest divestments that the Spanish bank is currently working on. The entity chaired by Jordi Gual is looking to sell off almost €600 million in unpaid loans linked to real estate developments.

The three funds that have progressed through to the final round of the process are: Cerberus, Deutsche Bank and Bain Capital, according to financial sources consulted by Vozpópuli. Those funds have reportedly put offers on the table of around €200 million for the portfolio during the non-binding offer phase.

They now have one more week to analyse all of the loans in the portfolio before submitting their binding offers, given that the cut-off date that was initially stipulated for this sales process was 8 June. With this, CaixaBank wants to be certain about who has won the bid by the middle of next month, so as to have all of the paperwork ready to close the agreement before the end of the first half of the year and whereby include the results in its half-year accounts.

CaixaBank sold the second largest volume of problem assets in Spain in 2016 (€2,100 million), after Banco Sabadell (€2,800 million) and ahead of Abanca (€2,100 million), Sareb (€1,400 million) and Bankia (€1,100 million), according to data from Deloitte.

Buyers

Project Tramuntana is almost a replica of an operation closed last year, Project Carlit, in which CaixaBank sold a portfolio of loans worth €850 million to Goldman Sachs. In addition, the entity sold hotel loans to Apollo.

Of the buyers left in the running, Cerberus is the one that most urgently wants to purchase the portfolio, given that it did not win any of the processes that it participated in last year. The US fund needs to accumulate assets in order to leverage its two platforms in Spain, Haya Real Estate, which it purchased from Bankia, and Gescobro.

Bain Capital, meanwhile, was the largest buyer of bank portfolios in Spain last year, acquiring real estate assets and debt worth €1,700 million from Sabadell, Bankia, Cajamar.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank also had a busy year. On the one hand, it bought assets from several entities, such as the case of the Ocean portfolio, from Bankia, but it also sold the majority of the problem assets held by its own bank in Spain. They were purchased by Oaktree, which forced the entity chaired by Antonio Rodríguez Pina to recognise a provision amounting to €68 million.

Original story: Voz Pópuli (by Jorge Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Project Tour: Bankia Puts €166M Property Portfolio Up For Sale

3 February 2017 – Idealista

The banking sector is starting 2017 with a bang as it accelerates the sale of properties. Bankia has put a new real estate portfolio on the market – it does not contain debt, but rather comprises 1,800 properties, including finished homes, plots of land, retail premises, industrial assets and hotels. Known as Project Tour, the package is valued at €166 million.

Bankia is one of the most active banks at divesting real estate assets once again, as it seeks to focus on its pure banking business. It is a technique that has worked well for the banks in recent years and not just in Spain, but in other countries around the world as well.

In this case, so-called Project Tour is in the hands of the firm Alantra (formerly N+1) which intends to place this property portfolio (known by its initials in English as an REO) with international investors. Its value amounts to €165.9 million, according to financial sources consulted by Idealista.

The portfolio comprises 1,292 finished homes (it does not include any subsidised housing), 324 plots of land, 159 retail premises, 20 industrial assets and 9 hotels. None of the assets in the portfolio are rented or co-owned.

The properties are primarily located in the Community of Valencia, mainly in Valencia; Cataluña, mainly in Barcelona; the Canary Islands, mainly in Las Palmas; Madrid and Castilla y León (Segovia is home to most of these assets).

According to sources consulted by Idealista, Bankia expects to receive non-binding offers from a small number of investors by the beginning of February and binding offers by the middle or end of March. In this way, it plans to close the sale of the package during the month of March.

The entity chaired by José Ignacio Goirigolzarri (pictured above) is known as one of the most dynamic in the market: in 2016, it put several portfolios up for sale, including Project Ocean, a real estate loan portfolio worth almost €400 million, which was sold to Deutsche Bank; Project Tizona, a mortgage debt portfolio worth €1,000 million; and Project Lane, containing properties worth €288 million.

Original story: Idealista (by P. Martínez-Almedia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

ECI Puts Logistics Assets Worth c.€300M Up For Sale

10 August 2016 – Expansión

The distribution giant El Corte Inglés has engaged Morgan Stanley to find investors who may be interested in acquiring assets worth between €200 million and €300 million, according to real estate sources.

Specifically, the company chaired by Dimas Gimeno intends to divest 33 assets, which have a surface area spanning more than 500,000 sqm, as well as five plots of land.

The assets on the market include rental contracts guaranteed for five, ten, fifteen and twenty years; and the deadline for submitting non-binding offers will close at the end of September.

Sources consulted indicate that some of the warehouses included in the sale are not sufficiently tall enough to meet with current demands from investors for this type of asset, which has forced them to adjust the duration of their contracts, as well as the rental prices.

The batch for sale, which comprises 38 assets in total, including the plots of land, contains: El Corte Inglés’ logistics centres in Bisbal del Penedès (Tarragona) and on La Peluquera industrial estate in Madrid. It also includes other assets on Las Atalayas industrial estate (in Alicante) and the Goro en Telde estate (in Gran Canaria).

By contrast, El Corte Inglés has not included any assets currently considered to be strategic in the batch. Thus, for example, the jewel in its logistics assets crown will not be included: its mega centre in the south of Madrid.

Reduce debt

The company, which seeks to reduce its debt balance with these divestment operations, may consider selling other types of non-strategic real estate assets in the future, as Expansión revealed in March.

These real estate asset divestments follow others completed by El Corte Inglés in recent years. In this way, in the summer of 2013, the distribution group completed the sale of a building next to Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona to the fund manager IBA Capital.

Months later, it sold another property to the same investor on Calle Preciados in Madrid.

Other divestments

Last December, the chain sold another building in the iconic Puerta del Sol in Madrid for €65 million to the US fund Thor Equities. At the time, the group agreed to continue to occupy the building, which houses its book store and is located in one of the most important shopping areas of the capital, for another year.

Similarly, in February, the group sold the building that it had acquired ten years ago on Calle Fontanella in Barcelona for €17 million to a Russian investor, which plans to convert the property into a hotel.

By contrast, El Corte Inglés has also completed several important asset purchases in recent years. In this way, the company acquired a plot of land from the railway infrastructure manager Adif, right on Paseo de la Castellana for €136 million in 2014. This plot of land is located next to one of the company’s main shopping centres in the capital, in Nuevos Ministerios.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Deutsche Finalises Purchase Of Diagonal Mar For €505M

11 July 2016 – Expansión

Largest operation in the retail sector for 10 years / The German group has outbid the other candidates, including CBRE, ECE and Henderson.

The process to purchase Diagonal Mar is entering the final stretch. With nothing but the final details left to finalise on what will be the largest real estate operation in the shopping centre segment for ten years, Deutsche Bank has taken the lead by outbidding CBRE Global Investors, ECE and Henderson Real Estate, the other three candidates left in the contest.

Market sources have informed Expansión that Deutsche Bank’s offer, for €505 million, could be signed at the end of this month.

If this operation goes ahead, Northwood Investors will get rid of this property, which it acquired from the Irish bad bank Nama (National Asset Management Agency) in 2013 for €150 million.

Changes of ownership

It is not the first time that this property has changed hands. The real estate company Hines was awarded a mixed use project at the end of the 1990s, which included a residential area, offices, hotels and a large shopping centre with a constructed surface area of 100,500 sqm and a GLA of 87,000 sqm, plus 5,000 parking spaces.

In 2002, the German investment fund Deka paid around €240 million for the property, which it subsequently sold to the Irish investor group Quinlan for €300 million in 2006, in its first operation in Spain. Nevertheless, after the Irish bubble burst, this asset was sold to the banks.

On 7 June, a process was opened whereby investors were invited to submit non-binding offers for the property. 18 offers were submitted in total, including one from the Socimi Merlin (the only Spanish firm to participate in the auction). In the end, only four candidates were selected to go through to the final bid: CBRE Global Investment, ECE, Henderson TH and Deutsche Bank.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake