Tag: Platinum Estates

Millenium Acquires Asturias Hotel in Madrid from Platinum for €82 Million

1 November 2019 – The socimi Millenium has acquired the former Asturias hotel in central Madrid from the Platinum Estates group, which is controlled by the Hong Kong-based investor Harry Mohinani, for €82 million.

Millenium plans to refurbish the hotel and reopen it in 2021 in conjunction with Marriott’s W Hotels brand., The hotel is on the central Madrid square of Canalejas.

The 5-star, 136-room hotel will have furniture inspired by angels’ wings, round beds and bathrooms with transparent walls. The larger rooms will have work areas, dressing rooms and terraces with private jacuzzis.

Original Story: Expansión – Rocío Ruiz

Adaptation/Translation: Richard D. K. Turner

Platinum Buys the Park Hyatt Site Near Sotogrande to Open its Own Hotel

25 April 2019 – El Confidencial

Platinum Estates has just completed the purchase of Finca Doña Julia, a plot spanning 40,000 m2 located in Casares, between Marbella and Sotogrande, where the Hong-Kong based fund is planning to open a 4-star hotel.

The future establishment is going to be built on the structure that the property developer Evemarina designed for Park Hyatt. Work was suspended on that project after the company filed for bankruptcy when the economic crisis hit.

The debt ended up in the hands of seven banks, which have now sold their stakes to Platinum for an undisclosed amount. The fund led in Spain by Juan Luis Segalerva has been advised by Garrigues.

The same financial institutions have also transferred another plot to Platinum next to Finca Doña Julia, measuring 11,000 m2.

All of these assets are located next to Finca Cosentín, where KKR, together with Altamar and Single Hom are going to invest €450 million in the development of exclusive villas and apartments.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

The Gran Hotel Velázquez, on Sale for More Than 60 Million Euros

2 March 2016

The Salazar family continues its process of selling off hotels, one that began in 2014 with their eviction from the Hotel Ada.

Madrid’s hotel market is at a fever pitch. This Tuesday, the sale of the Villa Magna hotel, on the Paseo de la Castellana, to the Turkish Dogus Group was announced. Just 300 meters from the Madrid’s central avenue, another well-known property has come on the market. The Gran Hotel Velázquez is up “For Sale,” asking for more than 60 million euros.

Owned by the Corporación Hispano Hotelera (which is in turn owned by the Salazar family), the investors who have made offers for the property have been rebuffed by the family, which is nevertheless beset by debts. “They are asking for approximately 62 million euros”, sources in the real estate sector explained to 02B. Meanwhile, those same sources believe that a fair price for the asset would not exceed €35 to 40 million.

An old-fashioned property

Although the location and the building are very attractive, it would be necessary to adapt the building, bringing it up to modern standards. Some call it “old-fashioned.” Others added that the property could be called, “vintage, if not just old.” The 435,000 euros per room requested by the Salazar brothers would require significant additional investments to remodel the establishment.

At first, the owners of the Gran Hotel Velázquez confirmed that the property has been on sale “for a while.” However, other sources at the firm then stated that they had no information on the possible sale and that any statements to the contrary were “rumours.”

The hole of the Salazars

The Salazar brothers have been divesting themselves of their hotels since 2014. In May of that year, they left the Ada Hotel – currently owned by Único Hotels – evicted for failure to pay rent to Real Gran Peña. A year later, in March, the Hotel Maria Elena went to Hotusa while Asturias went to Platinum Estates in May.

The former owners of SOS Cuétara, the current Deoleo, are awaiting a court appearance regarding fraud allegedly committed in 2008. A €213-million loan ended up on the balance sheet of another the group’s company. For that, a judge confiscated their passports and imposed a fine of 93 million euros. Also, the magistrate seized its assets to guarantee a €360-million security.

A hotel bubble

The Gran Hotel Velázquez is just one example, but prices have skyrocketed in Madrid. “A bubble is forming,” warns Bruno Hallé, a consultant at Magma HC. “Threats of a possible moratorium generate uncertainty and consequently the value of real estate increases.” Also, growth is not commensurate with the pace of occupancy and prices in the capital.

Meanwhile, an investor says: “They’ve put this price on to see if someone bites.”

Original Story: Cerodosbe – Carles Huguet

Translation: Richard Turner

 

Indian Fund Platinum Estates Creates €300M Fund to Buy Hotel Assets

28 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Platinum Estates is investing and divesting in Spain. The fund led by the Indian investor Harry Mohinani has launched a new vehicle, its third in Spain, to acquire hotel assets. The entity is going to have a purchasing capacity of €300 million.

In order to set up this new vehicle, Platinum Estates has been engaged in a period of divestment, according to El Confidencial. In recent months, Platinum Estates has agreed the sale of four Hilton establishments (Garden Inn Luton, Manchester Airport, Warwick and St. Anne’s Manor).

Moreover, the fund also sold a luxury residential development that it was promoting on c/General Oraá (Madrid) and Edificio Estel (Barcelona, pictured above), the building made famous for housing the headquarters of Telefónica and which it purchased at the height of the economic crisis.

The latter was the subject of the star operation in the divestment strategy of Mohinani’s fund, given that Platinum paid around €56 million for the property, four years ago, and has sold it for almost €150 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Paraguayan Magnate Buys Luxury Development on c/General Oráa 9

8 April 2018 – El Confidencial

A new Latin American investor has entered Spain’s luxury residential market. The person in question is Carlos Gill Ramírez, a businessman who was born in Paraguay and who also has Venezuelan citizenship. He has just purchased the high-end development at c/General Oráa 9 in Madrid from Platinum Estates, according to sources.

This sale is the first divestment that the Asian fund has carried out in Spain and forms part of the asset rotation policy that it has launched for its first Spanish fund, to focus on raising and investing €500 million in its new vehicle.

For Gill, this acquisition represents the first step in his growth plans in the country, where he has constituted the company Sari Holdco with a view to continuing to star in operations that will allow him to create his own real estate empire. Uría has represented the Latin American businessman in the purchase of General Oráa and Garrigues has represented Platinum, whilst Engel & Volkers has acted as the advisor.

Having obtained all of the necessary authorisations from the Town Hall of Madrid, construction of this luxury development is almost 70% complete. It will allow the transformation of this building, dating back to 1926, into 10 high-end homes, measuring between 348 m2 and 409 m2 each, plus two penthouses measuring 500 m2, with 250 m2 dedicated to a solarium and private swimming pool. The sales prices range between €3.6 million and €10 million per home.

Since Platinum acquired this development from the Catalan firm Renta, four years ago, it has always been said that it would be aimed at Latin American buyers interesting in owning a home in the Salamanca neighbourhood. Nevertheless, nobody imagined that a businessman from the other side of the Atlantic would also end up taking over the entire project, with the objective of finishing the construction work and putting it on the market.

Industrial wealth

Born in Paraguay, in July 1956, aged just six, Carlos Gill moved with his family to Venezuela, where he ended up being an honorary counsel for his native country. After studying Dentistry at the Central University of Venezuela, the businessman participated in important restructurings such as those of Banco Unión, Mercedes-Benz Venezuela, Grupo Corimón, Banco Capital, Banco Canarias de Venezuela and Bancentro Banco Comercial.

He is currently the President of Grupo Corimón, a Venezuelan corporation that operates in the paint, chemical product and flexible packaging sectors. The firm claims to be the largest conglomerate of its kind on the entire sub-continent and its shares are listed on the Caracas Stock Exchange.

Moreover, four years ago, Gill purchased a controlling share of Ferroviaria Oriental, the company that operates the railways in the east of Bolivia and, months later, he did the same with the country’s western network, by acquiring Ferroviaria Andina from the Chilean firm Luksic. Recent operations include his purchase of Bridgestone Firestone Venezuela.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Marbella Rises From The Ashes With A €300M W Hotel Resort

27 March 2017 – El Economista

The investor group Platinum Estates, owned by the magnate Harry Mohinani, and the Marriott International group, have signed an agreement to launch the Hotel W Marbella Resort, which will be constructed in the Malagan town of the same name and which will cost around €300 million.

The agreement first started to take shape in September 2015, when the group owned by Mohinani expressed its interest in investing in the town to make one of Marbella’s dreams a reality: to be born again as a luxury destination. In this sense, the mayor José Bernal said that the future complex represents the “resurgence” of luxury international hotel brands in Marbella, after more than 50 years. “It improves the quality of supply in the town”, he added.

Specifically, the W chain has just one establishment in Spain. The W Barcelona (pictured above), also known as the sail hotel, is a 99 m building that was designed by the Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill.

The hotel in Marbella will have 600 beds, will create around 1,000 direct jobs and will target customers with significant spending power. The ground floor, which will be four storeys high, will occupy a surface area of 50,000 m2, and will extend for 60 m along the coast. There will also be 54,000 m2 of green space, 27,000 m2 assigned to services and access roads and 19,000 m2 for facilities. One of the venue’s attractions will be a sand dune, which will be integrated into the hotel complex.

In total, the plot of land on which the property will be built will have a surface area of 160,000 m2, located in a really beautiful area.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Salazar Family Sells Hotel Velázquez For €63M

26 July 2016 – El Confidencial

Beset by debt, the Salazar family, the former owner of SOS-Cuétara, has spent the last three years trying to get rid of its vast hotel and real estate empire, an emporium whose last great jewel was the Gran Hotel Velázquez in Madrid, a property for which it has just received an irresistible offer.

Corporacion Hispano Hotelera, the company owned by the Salazar-Bello family, has reached an agreement with the Didra Group, famous for having constructed the luxurious residential areas of Montepríncipe and El Encinar, to sell the property for €63 million, according to several sources close to the deal.

The Ardid Villoslada family, which is behind Didra, has been linked to the property development business for decades and was made famous due to the marriage of one of its members, Rafael, to Mariola Martínez Borduí, the granddaughter of the dictator Francisco Franco. One of their sons, Jaime Ardid Martínez Bordiú has closed this agreement, with a view to opening a luxury 5-star hotel.

On 23 August 2016, Corporación Hispano Hotelera will present this sale for approval by the General Shareholders’ Meeting, with the aim of wrapping up the final sale in January, once the Salazar family has also received the blessing from its creditor banks, led by Banco Popular.

With its privileged location, in the heart of the neighbourhood of Salamanca, just a stone’s throw from the Retiro Park and the capital’s golden mile, the Gran Hotel Velázquez is a sought-after establishment. Nevertheless, it needs to be completely refurbished, according to experts in the sector.

In fact, Didra is expected to invest between €15 million and €20 million refurbishing the property. It plans to retain the image of a more bourgeois Madrid that characterises it, and always under the maxim of reserving the right to manage it, meaning that the Ardid family’s plans do not include opening a large hotel chain.

Didra maintains a close relationship with brands such as AC and NH, with which it operates some of the properties in its hotel group Nevertheless, the plans that the Ardid family have in mind for the Gran Hotel Velázquez more closely resemble the concept of the Hotel Palacio de Villapanés in Sevilla, a 5-star property located in the neighbourhood of Santa Cruz, in a former seventeenth century palace, which Didra manages itself.

With this sale, Corporación Hispano Hotelera will be reduced to an empty shell, after selling off the majority of its hotels in just over two years. The house of cards first started to topple in the Spring of 2014, when it had to close down Hotel Ada Palace, located on Gran Vía in Madrid, after it was evicted by the owner of the property, Real Gran Peña, which denounced the company for not paying the rent.

A year later, Hotusa purchased the Hotel María Elena, located 50m from Puerta del Sol, and renamed it the Eurostars Casa de la Lírica; meanwhile, Platinum Estates acquired the Hotel Asturias, in Plaza de Canalejas for €21.5 million. (…).

Original story: El Confidencial (by Ruth Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Baraka Group Agrees To Buy Edificio España For c. €265M

20 July 2016 – Expansión

The Baraka group, controlled by the businessman Trinitario Casanova, has reached an agreement with the Chinese group Dalian Wanda to acquire Edificio España in Madrid, according to reports by the El Mundo newspaper.

The holding company is finalising the details of the operation, which is expected to be completed after the summer. Casanova’s offer, which is understood to amount to around €265 million, reportedly exceeded the bids made by the other interested parties, including the Chinese firm Fosun, Hemisferio and Platinum Estates.

According to reports, Baraka is undertaking a significant expansion program. It recently acquired a plot of land measuring more than 10 million sqm in Valdebebas (Madrid) for around €75 million.

The “for sale” sign went up over the iconic Edificio España building in January, when Wanda engaged the real estate consultancy JLL, which has not confirmed the operation, to find a buyer.

The Chinese group, controlled by Wang Jianlin, the richest man in China, opened the door to the possible sale of the building after discrepancies arose with the Town Hall of Madrid regarding the renovation of the building. Wanda’s plans, which included the construction of a luxury hotel, a shopping centre and homes, clashed with the demands of the Town Hall, which insisted on the conservation of the front and side façades of the building, as established by the law governing the protection of historical buildings. In any case, Wanda has maintained contact with Madrid’s Town Planning team, in parallel with the sales process, and last met with them on 14 June.

The Chinese group paid Banco Santander €265 million in June 2014 for the building. Now, it is on the verge of selling it for a similar amount.

Wanda’s future divestment of Edificio España comes shortly after the Asian holding company announced its purchase of the UCI Odeon group – which owns the largest cinema chain in Spain.

After several years trying to sell the British Odeon cinema chain to AMC Theatres, Wanda’s subsidiary in the USA, the private equity firm Terra Firma announced the deal on 12 July. The price of that transaction amounts to GBP 921 million (around €1,100 million), of which GBP 407 million relates to the debt held by UCI Odeon, which the buyer will take on.

One of UCI Odeon’s main assets, to be taken over by Dalian Wanda, is the chain Cinesa, which is the largest film company in Spain with 535 screens across the country. In total, the chain owns 2,236 screens in 242 cinemas in Spain, the UK, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Germany. (…).

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Wanda Accelerates Timetable For Edificio España Sale

29 June 2016 – Expansión

Wanda wants to get its homework done before it goes on holiday and so has decided to accelerate the sales process for Edificio España. Following a recent visit to Spain by representatives of the Chinese group, Wanda has called on the interested parties to submit binding offers for the iconic Madrilenian property. Candidates have until tomorrow to present their final proposals.

The business conglomerate led by Wang Jianlin, which acquired Edificio España from Banco Santander in June 2014 for €265 million, engaged the real estate consultancy firm JLL to manage the sale of the property a year and a half after its acquisition. The possible buyers include the Chinese group Fosun, the Philippine group Emperador, the Hong-Kong based firm Platinum Estates and the Spanish RE manager Domo. Sources at JLL declined to make any comments about the process.

During their stay in Spain, the representatives of the Chinese group met with some of the candidates and revealed certain information about the property, located in Madrid’s Plaza de España, as well as about the company Renville Invest, which is the immediate owner of the building.

In addition, although the positions adopted by the Town Hall and Wanda, regarding the approach to the renovation of the property, seem irreconcilable, the Chinese group is still in contact with Manuela Carmena’s urban planning team, according to sources at the Town Hall. Specifically, the councillor responsible for the Sustainable Urban Development department, José Manuel Calvo, met with Wanda’s representatives on 14 June to discuss the project for remodelling Edificio España.

The main obstacle in the negotiations between the municipal team and the Wanda group lies in the Town Hall’s demand to preserve the façade of the property, as required by law, a position opposed by Wanda, which had been hoping to demolish the building and reconstruct it.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Domo Submits Bid To Wanda For Edificio España

31 May 2016 – Cinco Días

Domo Gestora has submitted an offer to acquire the historical Edificio España as part of the sale process that the Chinese group Dalian Wanda currently has underway. Three sources close to the operation have confirmed the bid, but it is expected that the company will have to compete with other interested parties.

The sale of Edificio España is being managed by the consultancy firm JLL, which declined to comment on the process. The intermediary closed the first deadline for the presentation of non-binding offers last Friday, 27 May 2016. Over the next few weeks, the Chinese group will analyse the offers it has received for the building, in which Wanda had planned to open a hotel and luxury homes, as well as a shopping arcade. The plan is to finalise the sale before August. Domo is one of the possible candidates to take over the property and is expected to form an alliance with a hotel partner or other investor, whose identity has not been revealed.

Domo is a medium-sized company that specialises in the management of housing cooperatives. According to the sources familiar with the transaction, it could become the perfect local partner to take over the renovation and marketing of the apartments. The management firm has been in the news recently for its involvement in Residencial Maravillas, a luxury housing development on Calle Raimundo Fernández Villaverde (in Madrid), where work has not started yet and whose approval divided the municipal Ahora Madrid government.

The sources consulted understand that Wanda lost interest in this Madrilenian project after it was unable to carry out its renovation plans, which involved demolishing the property to rebuild it from scratch in keeping with the original style. After the plans were rejected by the Administration, the company decided to withdraw its complex renovation plans. The group purchased the 1950s building from Santander for €265 million in 2014. Domo is thought to have been inspired by a proposal put forward by the architect Carlos Rubio Carvajal, who submitted a more respectful design to the financial institution.

In addition to Domo’s offer, sources in the sector indicate that other investors, who were potentially interested in the building initially, have also analysed this operation, however, it is not known whether they have submitted bids in the end or not. The other parties include the Chinese fund Fosum, the Hong Kong-based firm Platinum Estates, the Philippine group Emperador – which recently acquired Torre Espacio from the Villar Mir Group -, the US fund Hines and the insurance company Axa, which declined to comment on its involvement in the sale. Both Wanda and JLL are maintaining the utmost confidentiality surrounding this transaction.

Experts in the sector indicate that Wanda will only be interested in selling the property if the consideration offered exceeds the €265 million it paid in 2014. Meanwhile, the Asian group is continuing its negotiations with the Town Hall regarding the handling of the renovation work, given that the property would be worth more if the group manages to obtain the necessary building permits.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón)

Translation: Carmel Drake