Bilbao-Based Kategora Acquires Office Building in Valencia for Conversion into Apart-Hotel

16 August 2019

The Basque investment firm Kategora has acquired the building that houses the headquarters of Valencia’s PSPV party from the Valencian families Nebot Oyanguren and Pascual. The new owners have given the socialist political party and other tenants one year to vacate the property, which Kategora plans on converting into an aparthotel.

The building, located at Avenida Oeste, 28, in Valencia, is an office building whose owners opted to sell a few months ago. While the building has a market value of 25 million euros, the parties declined to reveal the negotiated sales price. The socialists already had to leave their historic headquarters on Calle Blanquerías de València after having sold it to the Valencian chain Myr Hoteles for 5.8 million euros.

Kategora, which was founded in the Basque Country thirteen years ago by Kepa Apraiz, manage an €80-million portfolio of properties. Its assets include residential properties, tourist apartments and student residences.

Original Story: Levante-EMV – Ramón Ferrando

Photo: E. Ripoll

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Goldman Sachs Sells Office Building in Valencia to Zriser

6 August 2019

Goldman Sachs sold a historic building in Valencia, one which formerly housed Bancaja’s Cemeco data centre, located on Avenida Cardenal Benlloch, 67. The buyer, Zriser, which is owned by Ana and Pablo Serratosa, has lately been one of the most active local investors in the Valencian real estate market. The building has a surface area of about 11,000 square meters, including offices and parking.Naturgy, Indra and Haya Real Estate are all tenants.

The two firms declined to reveal the sales price. Grupo Zriser’s real estate division operates more than 27,000 square meters of offices in five buildings located in different areas of Valencia, with an average occupancy rate of over 90%.

Original Story: Expansión – A.C.A.

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Domo Activos Acquires Metro Office Building on Calle Cavanilles for €14.1 Million

30 July 2019 – Richard D. K. Turner

The socimi Domo Activos has acquired the Metro office building located on Calle de Cavanilles, 58, in Madrid’s  Retiro district, from a cooperative that had previously acquired the land where the building is located, for 14.1 million euros.

The office building has seven above-ground floors with 7,500 square meters of constructed surface area. The asset comes with a project to expand the current building, including more offices, commercial premises and parking.

Original Story: La Vanguardia

Starwood Finalises the Purchase of 5 Buildings from Oaktree for €150M

4 June 2019 – Eje Prime

Starwood is finalising the purchase of four office buildings in Madrid and one in Barcelona from Oaktree and the German company Freo for €150 million in total.

Together the five buildings span a surface area of 78,428 m2 and have 1,323 parking spaces. They are currently leased to a number of companies, such as Indra, BBVA, Air France KLM and Hoist Finances, amongst others.

Specifically, the properties are located on Calle Julián Camarillo, numbers 4 and 6, Avenida de Manoteras, 44 and Valportillo Primera, 13 in Madrid; and on Calle Samontà in Sant Joan Despí in Barcelona.

The US fund is teaming up with the Spanish real estate company Drago Capital, as it continues to strengthen its position in Spain. In recent months, the alliance has purchased assets worth €400 million.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Axa Puts Up For Sale 8 Buildings Acquired from La Generalitat in 2013

1 May 2019 – Eje Prime

The French insurance company Axa has put up for sale 8 of the 13 office buildings that it purchased from the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2013 for €172 million.

The assets are classified as large offices located in the centre of Barcelona and may have doubled in value in the last six years. The Generalitat de Catalunya still has long-term rental contracts for all of the properties.

Axa has engaged Savills Aguirre Newman to handle the sales process.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Pryconsa Draws a Roadmap to Build 1,300 New Homes by 2020

17 January 2019 – Eje Prime

Pryconsa is remaining strong in its commitment to the Spanish residential market. The property developer is planning to build at least 1,285 homes by 2020, located across the Community of Madrid as well as in the municipalities of Cáceres and Valladolid, according to sources at the company speaking to Eje Prime.

During the course of this year, the company is going to launch fourteen developments, containing a total of 727 homes, located in different parts of the Community of Madrid (such as Alcalá de Henares, the Puerto Hierro area, Torrejón de Ardoz, Boadilla del Monte and Vicálvaro), as well as in Cáceres and Valladolid.

On the other hand, in 2020, Pryconsa is going to start work on the construction of 558 homes, spread across six developments and located in the city of Madrid and the surrounding areas (Alcalá de Henares, Vicálvaro and Carabanchel). Nevertheless, as the group explains, “it is most likely that during this year, the number of projects started will increase”.

In addition, the company has the objective of handing over 561 new homes in 2019, 1,196 in 2020 and another 1,107 in 2021. For now, Pryconsa has the intention of focusing on the centre of the country, although it does not rule out entering other cities soon. “It will all depend on the situation and on the opportunities in the market, but that will happen from 2021 onwards”, say the sources.

Currently, Pryconsa has its headquarters in Madrid and operates delegations in Valladolid, Sevilla, Ayamonte and Valencia. The company, which has a workforce of 500, recently settled in the Mediterranean city, to open a Prygesa office, one of its firms specialising in the development of homes.

More than fifty years in the Spanish real estate sector

Founded in 1965, Pryconsa is a company that spans the entire construction cycle: from the purchase of land to the construction of assets and their sale. Besides the residential sector, the group also works in other segments, and is present in the hotel, retail and office sectors through its Socimi Saint Croix Holding Immobilier.

The Socimi, constituted in December 2011, is the owner of six hotels, twelve office buildings, thirteen retail premises and one logistics centre, most of which are located in the Community of Madrid, the group’s main area of operation.

Led by Marco Colomer, Pryconsa is one of the great survivors of the real estate crisis that Spain suffered from 2007. Nowadays, the company continues to be one of the largest residential property developers in the country, with more than 54,000 assets delivered by the end of 2018.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Berta Seijo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Socimi Árima Buys 4 Office Buildings in Madrid for €110M

27 December 2018 – La Vanguardia

The Socimi Árima has purchased its first four office buildings in Madrid for €110 million, operations that it has carried out just two months after making its stock market debut in October without any real estate assets in its portfolio.

In this operation, the firm promoted by the former CEO of Axiare, Luis López de Herrera-Oria, has invested the c. €100 million that it raised from its stock market debut and “is whereby starting its journey”.

The four assets purchased comprise a combined surface area of around 27,000 m2, as well as 460 parking spaces, and are located in the business centre district and northeast of the capital.

The firm, which is going to invest €16.7 million to improve the properties, is convinced that they have “great potential for appreciation”.

Specifically, Árima has purchased one building on Calle María de Molina on the corner with Príncipe de Vergara, and another one on the intersection of Paseo de la Habana with Avenida de Alfonso XIII, for €31 million in total.

Moreover, the Socimi has signed a commitment to acquire another two office buildings, located in the northeast of Madrid, for €63 million, which will materialise in January 2019.

With these two operations, Árima is purchasing its first buildings after it made its stock market debut without any assets in October and through which it raised €100 million, a third of the €300 million initially planned.

“With the purchase of these assets, Árima is reaffirming its business plan presented during its IPO and the good investment opportunities that the Spanish real estate market offers”, said the CEO of the firm, Luis López de Herrera-Oria, in a statement.

Original story: La Vanguardia 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Patrizia is On The Hunt for New Purchases in Bilbao, Sevilla & Valencia

10 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Patrizia Immobilien is confirming its interest in the Iberian real estate market. The German investment manager, which has been present in Spain and Portugal since 2015, has set itself the short-term objective of entering Bilbao, Sevilla, Valencia and Oporto, through the purchase of new assets, according to comments made by Borja Goday, the Director General of the company in the Iberian Peninsula, speaking to Eje Prime.

Until now, the company has invested €870 million in total in real estate in the Spanish and Portuguese markets. Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Lisbon are the cities in which Patrizia is already present, “with minimum investments of €15 million but where that figure could exceed €500 million if the operation is worth it”, explained the executive.

In fact, the manager participated in the process to acquire one of the office buildings that comprise the Cuatro Torres Business Area in Madrid. Moreover, the company not only invests in the office segment, it is also committed to other markets such as the residential, retail, hotel, logistics and alternative asset segments (including student halls, complexes for the elderly and parking spaces).

Currently, Patrizia’s asset portfolio in Spain includes Serrano 90, located on Madrid’s golden mile and Gran Vía 21, also in the Spanish capital, which houses a hotel and a retail premise. Nevertheless, the latest major operation by the manager on the peninsula was the purchase of an industrial plot spanning 66,424 m2 in Toledo for €37.5 million. The other three logistics platforms that the company owns in Spain are located in Madrid and Barcelona.

Patrizia and its great interest in Spanish property

With its headquarters in Madrid and a staff of eleven, Patrizia arrived in Spain just three years ago. “At the end of 2017, we purchased Triuva and Rockspring, two companies that already owned assets on the peninsula”, explained Goday, who added that “the rapid growth of the group in both the Spanish and Portuguese markets is due to those two acquisitions”.

“Spain is still an attractive market, we still have demand and that is why we are launching new operations on such a frequent basis”, said the director. Since the beginning of the year, the manager has been on the hunt for capital from Spanish institutional investors, although, as Goday explains, it is not an easy task, since “they do not invest from one day to the next”.

One of Patrizia’s other plans on the peninsula is to strengthen its presence in the rental market. “It is a segment that we like a lot and for that reason, if we find an appropriate residential or office building, then we would not rule out buying it”, explained the executive. Nor does the group rule out alliances with Socimis or the acquisition of a property developer to grow in the Spanish residential sector. In this sense, Goday says that “a good opportunity has not presented itself yet” and that “it would all depend on the quality and location of the land that they own”.

Patrizia is currently present in more than twenty European countries, including, besides Spain and Portugal, important markets such as Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg. The group’s main focus of activity is Germany, where it launched its activity 32 years ago and where it is a listed company (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by B. Seijo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Barings Finalises Purchase of 4 Office Buildings from GreenOak

2 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Barings is on the verge of acquiring 100% of Avalon. The British fund manager is finalising the purchase from GreenOak of the four office buildings that it owns in the Madrilenian business park. If the operation goes ahead, the British company will become the owner of the nine properties that make up the complex.

Avalon Business Park is an enclosed business park, with a total surface area of 47,000 m2 and 1,000 parking spaces, located in the Julián Camarillo area of Madrid. Barings has been present in the complex since the end of the summer when it purchased five office buildings, with a combined surface area of 25,785 m2, from Meridia Capital for €73 million.

Now, the fund manager wants to advance with its growth plan in Spain by acquiring the four remaining properties, owned by GreenOak, which have a combined surface area of 21,170 m2. The US fund has owned the assets since 2015 when it purchased them from Banco Santander for €40 million. Almost four years later, the price of the properties amounts to around €60 million, according to reports from Expansión.

Barings arrived in the Spanish market three years ago and has already undertaken several investments in other real estate segments. In November 2017, the company purchased a logistics centre in Plaza (Zaragoza) from Deka, which it added to another logistics asset that it acquired in Madrid in April last year for €35 million.

The fund manager also has a portfolio of retail assets, which includes the Berceo shopping centre in Logroño (La Rioja). The British group acquired that complex, which has a gross leasable area (GLA) of more than 34,000 m2 at the beginning of 2018, after reaching an agreement with CBRE Global Investors, the former owner.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Realia Launches a €149M Capital Increase

15 November 2018 – El Economista

Realia has launched a capital increase amounting to €149 million, with preferential subscription rights, through which Carlos Slim is going to make a new capital injection into the real estate company that he controls in Spain.

This increase follows another two that the firm has carried out since 2015, when the Mexican magnate took control of the company and which have been used to clean up the firm and reduce its debt.

By virtue of the new operation, Realia is going to issue 175.45 million new shares at €0.85 per share, a price that represents a discount of 7.5% with respect to the firm’s current share price, which closed trading on the stock market on Thursday at €0.923.

The operation is going to be launched once approval has been received from Spain’s National Securities and Markets Commission (CNMV). Current shareholders will have preferential subscription rights, which means that they may request new shares at a rate of three new shares for every eleven that they already own.

Carlos Slim controls 70.76% of Realia’s share capital, 33.8% in a direct way and 36.9% through FCC, a construction group that he also controls. The Mexican businessman has participated in all of the capital increases that Realia has undertaken until now.

Realia is launching a new capital increase after reactivating its construction and house sale business, which has been suspended since the start of the crisis.

The company also has a portfolio of assets spanning a surface area of around 500,000 m2, comprising office buildings and shopping centres, including one of the Kio Towers in Plaza Castilla, Madrid.

The real estate firm, which has suspended its dividend since 2009, closed the first nine months of this year with a profit of €24 million and a turnover of €70 million. The firm has total debt amounting to €672 million.

Original story: El Economista 

Translation: Carmel Drake