Tag: operation

Orenes Buys Rest of Gran Casino Extremadura for €6M

6 February 2018 – Infoplay

The Gran Hotel Zurbarán de Badajoz, which houses Casino Extremadura, is changing hands once again three years after it was acquired by the Extremeñan bullfighter Miguel Ángel Perera (who is from Puebla del Prior and who now lives in Olivenza) and his partner Miguel Moreno, son of Gregorio Moreno Pidal. They have just sold the property to a group of businessmen from the hotel sector with a strong and consolidated presence in Badajoz. According to sources close to the operation, the new owners are the company Orenes, José Luis Iniesta, from the company that owns the Río de Badajoz Hotel Complex, and a third partner based in Madrid.

La Crónica de Badajoz newspaper reported a figure of €6 million changing hands and added that Orenes and Río were until now owners of the facilities of the Gran Casino Extremadura, for which they obtained the concession to operate from the Junta de Extremadura, as the owners of the only five-star hotel in the city, managed by NH. It just so happens that José Luis Iniesta, a businessman in the hotel and farm sectors and owner of Hotel Río – which is currently linked to the hotel room management company Mercure – has divested his shares in the Gran Casino company.

The businessman has sold his shares to his partner Orenes, for a figure of around €6 million. In this way, Orenes now owns 100% of that company, whilst Iniesta holds 100% of Río, according to the same sources.

The Gran Hotel Zurbarán sale operation was carried out by private contract on 27 December 2017 but has not yet been notarised as it is pending approval from the competition authorities. In this way, Orenes and Iniesta hold onto 80% of the ownership of the Gran Hotel.

Original story: Infoplay 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ifema Wins the Concession to Operate Madrid’s Palacio de Congresos

18 January 2018 – Eje Prime

(…) Ifema has been awarded the concession to operate the ‘Palacio de Congresos‘ in Madrid for the next 50 years, according to confirmation provided on Thursday by the Mayor of the Spanish capital, Manuela Carmena, and the President of the Community of Madrid, Cristina Cifuentes. The public entity will invest more than €50 million to revive the property, which has a surface area of 40,000 m2, and which has been in disuse since 2011.

Coincidentally, the presentation of this agreement was made in one of Ifema’s existing conference spaces in Madrid, where the International Tourism Fair (‘Feria Internacional de Turismo’ or Fitur) was being held. The work that needs to be undertaken on the asset, which is located on Paseo de la Castellana, could take until 2019 when the management firm hopes to be able to restart activity at the venue.

Moreover, Ifema has already confirmed that the space will be occupied by the World Tourism Organisation (‘Organización Mundial del Turismo’ or OMT), as reported by Eje Prime. Ifema’s interest in the space goes way back, given that last summer it was holding negotiations to obtain the concession for its management with Turespaña, the public body responsible for the ‘Palacio de Congresos’.

In recent months, Ifema came up against a competitor in the bid that it had previously been set to win. Not in vain, although the French group GL Events, which manages the Barcelona Convention Centre, amongst others, offered €40 million for the conference space in Madrid, but Ifema, as a public consortium, was not required to participate in an open adjudication process to secure the concession.

Now, with the ‘Palacio de Congresos’ in its portfolio, Ifema now has a monopoly over the conference spaces in Madrid, since it already controls the ‘Palacio Municipal’ and the exhibition venue in the Spanish capital.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Seeks Investors to Develop More Than 2 million m2 of Land

28 December 2017 – Expansión

The bank, through Solvia, has spun off the management of assets worth €600 million into a new company, which will be headquartered in Madrid.

Solvia, the real estate management company of Sabadell, wants to replicate the operation that it carried out in the hotel sector earlier this year, when it sold its hotel business to Blackstone for €630 million, generating profits of €55 million.

As such, the entity has decided to carve out its activity relating to the development of land into a new company called Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios. That company will manage 2.22 million m2 of land in total, equivalent to almost 300 football pitches. The construction of 4,000 homes, across more than 84 developments, is already underway.

The portfolio of assets under management amounts to €600 million, equivalent to approximately 15% of Solvia’s total income. That size places it in the second division in the sector, just behind the listed real estate companies, led by Metrovacesa, Neinor, Aedas and Vía Célere. The largest owner of land in Spain is Sareb.

This new company will be headquartered in Madrid and will be led by Francisco Pérez, former CEO of the Catalan property developer Vertix. “The idea is to grow hand in hand with the large overseas investors that are looking for high returns in Span, but which do not have any structure here. Most of the funding will come from outside of the country”, explains Javier García del Río, CEO of Solvia (pictured above).

The plans

Solvia Desarrollos will develop not only Sabadell’s land – the bank owns 83% of the portfolio – but also plots owned by family offices that the bank manages and the developments that Sareb is granting it. Solvia was one of the four entities chosen by the bad bank in 2014 to help it sell its homes to the general public. Specifically, it took over the problem loans proceeding from Bankia, Ceiss and Banco Gallego.

Sabadell has been developing land since 2013 and has grown a considerable business in that time. It was the first bank to get back on the horse after the real estate bubble burst. “Land is behaving magnificently, although we do not expect to see any abrupt growth. Areas that were very risky in 2013, such as Huelva, are no longer”, said García del Río.

The experts in the sector endorse his opinion. “The turning point in this market came in 2015 and 2016. This year has been exceptional, with more than 20,000 transactions involving land”, explains Samuel Población, National Director of Residential and Land at the consultancy firm CBRE. He calculates that property developers are capable of generating margins of between 18% and 22% from the construction of private housing blocks in Spain.

“The funds that left Spain have returned and investors are interested in buying land”, says José García Montalvo, Professor of Economics at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra and an expert in the real estate sector.

Solvia manages a portfolio of 148,000 real estate assets, whose value exceeds €31 billion. Last year, it generated a gross profit of €57.8 million and brokered the sale of 20,321 properties. Between 2011 and 2016, it sold more than 91,000 assets.

Sabadell granted new financing of €1.35 billion to property developers in 2016, up by 56%. Last year, it started granting property developer loans again in CAM’s area of influence after four years of restrictions imposed by Brussels.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Lander)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aguirre Newman: Almost 1 million m2 of Logistics Space Leased in Madrid & Barcelona YTD

21 November 2017 – El Inmobiliario Mes a Mes

In total, 929,698 m2 of logistics space was leased in Madrid and Barcelona during the first three quarters of 2017, up by 22.6% compared to the same period in 2016, whilst the volume of investment in logistics assets reached €600 million. That figure represents 76% of the total recorded last year, which marked a historical maximum investment volume in Spain, according to Aguirre Newman.

During the third quarter of 2017, the high level of investor interest in logistics assets, which started four years ago, continued to flourish. It was boosted by factors such as the consolidation of economic growth, the gradual improvement in household consumption, rising rental prices in the main markets and improvements in financing conditions.

The initial rate of return for the most prime assets in the best locations amounted to around 6%, and rates of around 5.5% were seen for certain one-off operations. According to the report from Aguirre Newman, the scarce supply in the main logistics markets in Madrid and Barcelona is affecting the market in two ways. On the one hand, interest in secondary markets is continuing to rise, most notably in Zaragoza, Valencia and Sevilla. On the other hand, there is a high degree of interest in buying land, either to develop speculative projects or to build turnkey projects, under forward funding or forward purchasing formats.

Demand for logistics space in Madrid during the third quarter of the year reached 226,757 m2, compared to the total cumulative space leased in 2017 of 614,070 m2. That figure represents an increase of 52% with respect to the same period last year. Both the activity recorded during the third quarter – which is closely related to e-commerce – as well as that registered during the year to date represent record levels never seen before, and so the report forecasts that the end of 2017 will also be very positive in light of the operations currently underway.

The most significant operation in terms of the volume of surface area leased in the third quarter was completed in Illescas (Toledo), where an operation involving a turnkey project with a surface area of 103,000 m2 was signed. That was followed by another operation closed by Leroy Merlin in Meco with a surface area of 59,914 m2. In terms of rental income, the maximum recorded was €4.85/m2/month, as a result of an operation closed in the Corredor del Henares, specifically in San Fernando de Henares.

According to Aguirre Newman’s research, activity in the market for land dedicated to logistics/industrial use has grown considerably with respect to previous quarters, with the completion of seven operations spanning a combined surface area of 379,096 m2, destined for both turnkey and at-risk projects. The most significant land operation was the purchase of a plot measuring 242,000 m2 in Illescas (Toledo) for the development of the aforementioned logistics platform (103,000 m2).

On the other hand, the leasing of logistics space in Barcelona amounted to 91,406 m2 during the third quarter, which represents a slight decrease of 9% compared to the same period in 2016. Meanwhile, the total surface area leased during the first nine months of 2017 amounted to 315,628 m2.

Vallès Oriental and Barcelonès were the most active regions in terms of the number of operations, where three and two operations were closed, respectively. In terms of the largest operations closed, a contract was signed in Alt Penedès for a space spanning 20,000 m2 and in Vallès Oriental, another contract was signed for a space measuring 14,000 m2. Prime rents continued at their levels of between €5.75/m2/month and €6.75/m2/month. Nevertheless, the report from Aguirre Newman highlights that one operation was closed in the Zona Franca Consortium with a rental price above the prime rate indicated.

Leasing of logistics space soars in Valencia

Moreover, during the first nine months of the year in the Valencia metropolitan area, 135,250 m2 of logistics space was leased. That figure represents an increase of 35% with respect to the same period a year earlier, according to BNP Paribas Real Estate.

In that region, demand focused primarily on the town of Ribarroja, which accounts for 80% of the surface area leased (…).

Original story: El Inmobiliario Mes a Mes

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sevilla’s Chamber of Commerce Completes Sale of 2 Plots to Helena Rivero

2 November 2017 – ABC de Sevilla

This week, according to sources consulted by ABC, Sevilla’s Chamber of Commerce has sold two plots of land next to the Antares Club and on the Eusa campus to the family of the Jerez businessman Joaquín Rivero, who died in September 2016. The operation was agreed in November 2016 but was subject to the obtaining of municipal licences for the various projects. On the Eusa land, Helena Rivero’s investor group plans to build a university hall of residence for 400 students. Next to Antares, Helena Rivero is still deciding what to do with the 1,700 m2 plot, which has permission for the construction of a hotel given that it has been allocated for tertiary use.

In this way, the Chamber of Commerce, chaired by Francisco Herrero, will obtain a sizeable liquidity injection thanks to an operation that was closed for around €7.5 million. The negotiations for the sale of these plots were initiated by Joaquín Rivero Valcarce, the real estate businessman who chaired Bami. Following the death of the businessman in 2016, his only daughter, Helena, decided to push ahead with the operation.

Nevertheless, the sale of the two plots in question was subject to the Town Hall of Sevilla granting the necessary authorisations to build on the Eusa and Antares plots. Once municipal authorisation had been obtained to build a university hall of residence on Eusa’s plot, which has been allocated for social/educational use, the sale of the land was closed this week, according to the same sources. The sale had previously received the green light from the plenary of the Chamber of Commerce and the Junta de Andalucía, which oversees the region’s chambers of commerce.

A multi-national firm will operate the hall of residence

In terms of the university residence planned for Eusa, the plot sold to Helena Rivero’s investor group has a surface area of 2,200 m2 and permission to build up to 11,000 m2. According to sources consulted by ABC, a leading European multi-national in the hall of residence sector, which is listed on the stock market, will take over the operation of the building.

The other plot, measuring 1,700 m2 has been allocated for tertiary use – it is currently home to the exhibition hall, auditorium and parking lot of the Antares sports centre. On that plot, the company managed by the Rivero family may be able to build a hotel with a maximum buildable area of 6,000 m2, equivalent to around 100 rooms.

The hotel was promoted initially by Antares and it was precisely that project that led the company to file for creditors’ bankruptcy when the real estate bubble burst and it was unable to refinance a mortgage loan that it had requested from La Caixa in 2008 to build a four-star establishment in El Porvenir. Antares Andalucía had managed to reclassify the 1,740m2 plot, and so it was valued at €10.2 million in 2007.

In the end, the mercantile judge authorised the sale of the assets of the Antares Club, with their charges and levies, as well as of the brands “Antares Andalucía” and “Encuentros 2000”, to the Chamber of Commerce – through Eusa. The Chamber spent €4 million on the operation, including taking on a €3.2 million mortgage with CaixaBank.

With this sale of the two plots, the Chamber of Commerce will now have sufficient revenues to undertake projects in its two business units: Eusa and the Antares Club. The Chamber of Commerce plans to completely renovate the Antares Club, given that it is more than 30 years ago, and move its training activities to the SGAE building in La Cartuja. That building has a surface area of 35,000 m2, including an auditorium measuring 22,000 m2.

Original story: ABC de Sevilla (by M. J. Pereira)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lar Sells Office On c/Arturo Soria To Colonial For €32.5M

2 October 2017 – Eje Prime

New divestment in the real estate business. The Socimi Lar España has sold the office building located at number 336 Calle Arturo Soria to Colonial for €32.5 million, according to a statement made by the company. This asset had formed part of Lar’s portfolio since 2014.

The office building is located in the centre of Madrid. It comprises nine storeys and has an above-ground gross leasable area of 8,663 m2, plus 193 parking spaces. Both companies highlight that the strong future of this property, whose occupancy rate has increased from 80% when it was acquired by Lar España to the current level of 100%, following an initial investment in its renovation undertaken by the company.

José Luis del Valle, President of Lar España, highlighted “the importance of this first divestment, which fulfils the plan that the company initially forecast: acquire attractive properties, increase their value through good management and, having implemented the business plan designed at the time of the purchase, consider the possibility of divestment to continue investing in strategic assets that maximise the value for our shareholders”.

For Pere Viñolas, CEO of Colonial, this purchase forms part of the asset acquisition strategy in the three markets in which the company has a presence. They are all continuing to show “momentum and good performance in the context of policies to convert and reposition assets”. The operation in question has been completed off-market and has been advised by Aguirre Newman.

Lar España Real Estate currently owns thirty real estate assets whose combined value amounts to €1,419.1 million, of which €1,040.8 million corresponds to shopping centres, located in Madrid, Toledo, the Balearic Islands, La Rioja, Vigo, Valencia, Sevilla, Alicante, Cantabria, Lugo, León, Vizcaya, Navarra, Guipúzcoa, Palencia, Albacete and Barcelona; €149.8 million to three offices buildings; €83.3 million to four logistics assets; and €145.4 million to four developments under construction.

Meanwhile, the Colonial group is a listed real estate company specialising in the prime office market in Europe, with a presence in the main business districts of Barcelona, Madrid and Paris, and a portfolio of properties worth more than €8,600 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

TH Real Estate Buys Hypermarket To Take Over 100% Of Islazul

19 July 2017 – Eje Prime

TH Real Estate has completed the acquisition of a hypermarket located in the Islazul shopping centre from the French chain E. Leclerc. The operation includes the refinancing of the Iszazul shopping centre, which was acquired by TH Real Estate in 2014, in such a way that the firm will now manage the whole centre. The amount of the operation has not been disclosed.

With a constructed surface area of 260,000 m2, Isazul has a gross leasable area of 90,000 m2, which makes it the largest shopping centre in the city of Madrid.

This acquisition will add 19,327 m2 of additional space for new operators, whereby increasing the offer available at the shopping centre, which already receives more than 12 million visitors per year on average.

The commercial mix, which accounts for 40% of the centre, is comprised almost in its entirety by the fashion segment, whilst the leisure and restaurant facilities occupy 27% and the hypermarket accounts for 21%. The rest of the space corresponds to other segments, such as services and equipment for the home. In addition, the shopping centre has 4,100 parking spaces.

The company, which has just acquired 50% of Madrid’s Xanadú shopping centre, will start new expansion projects for assets in its Iberian Peninsula portfolio this year. The group will invest €60 million on the expansion of its Norte Shopping retail complex, located in Portugal.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Savills Finalises Purchase Of Aguirre Newman

14 June 2016 – Cinco Días

The large Spanish real estate consultancy firm par excellence, Aguirre Newman, is going to be acquired by its British rival Savills. The two companies are finalising a purchase agreement, according to sources in the market, which could be closed before the summer. The acquisition price amounts to around €80 million.

The Spanish consultancy firm launched a sale process two months ago, in search of an alliance with an international partner. The company, which was founded in 1988 by Santiago Aguirre (pictured above) and Stephen Newman, the current Presidents, employs around 460 people and recorded revenues of €96 million last year.

If the sale is completed, the co-Presidents Aguirre and Newman will remain at the helm for between four and five years. The rest of the management team will also continue to lead the business, according to sources familiar with the process. The Spanish company operates a real estate broker business in the office, hotel and residential segments; it also performs appraisals, town planning activities and corporate operations.

Besides Savills, the owners of Aguirre Newman have received offers from Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers, in a process that has been advised by the financial group Atlas Capital. But only the British consultancy firm has passed through to the final stage, where the finishing touches still need to be agreed.

Savills, which has declined to comment on the operation, is a real estate broker that recorded turnover of €1,645 million last year, up by 13% YoY. It has a market capitalisation of €1,400 million. Despite being one of the largest consultancy firms in the world, it only has limited operations in Spain, falling behind JLL, CBRE and Aguirre Newman itself. Its business in Spain, where Rafael Merry del Val is President, is strong in operations known as off-market deals.

With this acquisition, Savills will become one of the leading players in the domestic market. The company records revenues of around €11 million in Spain, almost nine times less than the Spanish company. Moreover, it is likely that the British consultancy will retain both brands for a period of time, so as to be more recognisable to its customers.

Experts familiar with the operation indicate that Aguirre Newman brings a strong presence and knowledge of the domestic market, compared to Savills, located in London, which will provide its Spanish subsidiary with strong international links.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Santander Owns 40% Of Spain’s Toxic Assets After Popular Purchase

12 June 2017 – El Confidencial

Banco Santander’s purchase of Banco Popular has created a new real estate headache for the entity chaired by Ana Patricia Botín (pictured above). As a result of the operation, which was closed for the symbolic price of €1, the Cantabrian entity has taken on a significant “inheritance” in the form of toxic assets linked to property. Specifically, we are talking about assets worth almost €17,000 million – €10,300 million net – according to data submitted by Banco Popular to Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV) at the end of 2016.

If we add that figure to the €10,700 million that Santander already held on its balance sheet, according to figures at the end of last year, then the entity’s total real estate exposure following this corporate operation amounts to €27,700 million. That volume represents almost 40% of the entire toxic asset exposure that the large listed banks recognise on their balance sheets, which, at the end of 2016, amounted to €70,000 million in total (…).

Despite the clean up of foreclosed assets undertaken in recent years – carried out through the direct sale of properties and portfolios and the signing of operations such as the transfer of homes to Testa – the financial institutions still have a significant volume of property on their balance sheets. And Popular had the largest exposure of any of the listed entities. In net terms, it held €10,305 million; a figure well above those recorded by CaixaBank (€6,876 million); Sabadell (€6,244.7 million); BBVA (€6,012 million); Santander (€4,787.2 million); Bankia (€2,251.2 million) and Bankinter (€260.2 million).

Moreover, in land alone, the gross value of its assets amounts to almost €8,000 million, half of its total exposure to real estate and, once again, the highest figure of any of the listed banks.

Nevertheless, the precise gross value of those real estate assets has been one of the aspects that has generated most uncertainty in the market and one of the main obstacles it faced when it came to closing a corporate operation, which Santander agreed to in the end. An increase in the provisions against Popular’s real estate portfolio after the reappraisal process would increase the coverage ratio of these assets, which currently stands at 38.5%, however, it would also reduce their net book value, which amounted to €10,900 million as at 31 March.

Property continues to be a major problem for the financial institutions despite the clean-up undertaken in recent years. In fact, despite all of the real estate clean-up efforts, the G-7 banks reduced their global volume of foreclosed assets by just 2.3% in 2016; and by 0.73% in the case of land. (…).

The purchase of Banco Popular leaves the (recently announced) sale of a real estate portfolio amounting to €2,000 million up in the air – at least for the time bing – Emilio Saracho was preparing the portfolio together with KPMG, with the aim of reducing the high volume of non-performing assets (…) on its balance sheet in an accelerated way. (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by E. Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Arcano To Raise €125M For Its Second RE Fund

19 May 2017 – El Economista

Arcano is preparing to launch its second real estate fund following the success of its first vehicle, through which it managed to raise €80 million to acquire assets in Spain.

In this case, the objectives of the firm are more ambitious – it hopes to raise between €100 million and €125 million, according to Eduardo Fernández-Cuesta, Partner at the management company.

“Arcano’s platform was essential when it came to obtaining capital for the first fund”, explained the Director, who said that the process was complicated, given that it was the first time that it had operated in that field, but that it was supported by the firm and its own experience with other kinds of assets, such as private equity and European corporate debt (where it already manages assets worth more than €3,000 million).

Since Arcano Spanish Opportunity Real Estate Fund launched its operations “€60 million has been invested or committed to date, and by the end of the year, we expect to have disbursed the remaining €20 million (from the first fund)”, said Fernández-Cuesta.

Just like in the case of the first fund, the new vehicle will focus on value-added operations, “given that it is a niche in the market that we think we can do it better, focusing on operations of between €10 million and €15 million”.

The firm, which seeks “a net return of 15 percent” operates mainly through off-market transactions with private owners, as well as with financial institutions.

“We will likely begin raising capital (for the second fund) from September onwards, but it will depend on how the investments that we have left to close in the first fund are going at that point”, said the Director.

With the first fund, Arcano invests in value-added operations in all types of properties, with a clear focus on residential assets in Spain’s main cities and along the Costa del Sol, without forgetting other assets including office buildings, logistics assets, retail premises and shopping centres, provided they are opportunities that generate value within the fund’s investment philosophy.

“In this way, Arcano covers a gap in the real estate sector in Spain by concentrating on value-added and medium-sized operations (between €5 million and €25 million in equity) with a clear local focus”, explained the firm.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake