Pozuelo Gives the Green Light to the Montegancedo Urban Development Project

The new area spans 680,000 square metres in total, including almost 216,000 sqm for residential use, which will allow for the construction of 1,050 homes in one of the richest areas of Spain.

A new urban development has received the green light in the Community of Madrid. Specifically, in Pozuelo de Alarcón, one of the areas with the highest incomes per capita in the country and, therefore, with the most expensive house prices in all of Spain. The project is called Montegancedo, a new neighbourhood where more than 1,000 homes are going to be built. And several of the major property developers in the market, such as Aedas Homes and Pryconsa, have already expressed their interest.

The Town Hall of Pozuelo de Alarcón, chaired by the Popular Party’s Susana Pérez, has given the green light to the reparcelling project for the urban sector of Montegancedo. In this way, approval has been given to the construction of an area spanning ​​688,470 square metres, of which more than 215,000 sqm corresponds to residential space. This building project will allow for the construction of 1,050 homes, in one of the locations with the highest demand for high-end residential properties in Spain. The Town Hall of Pozuelo will be entitled to 300 of the 1,000 units, which will be incorporated into the municipal housing stock on municipal land.

La Finca Global Assets Approves its MAB Debut for July

12 June 2019 – El Confidencial

On Wednesday, the General Shareholders’ Meeting of La Finca Global Assets approved the company’s debut on the stock market, which will take place during the first week of July.

The decision was supported by Susana García Cereceda, President of the company and owner of 50% of the share capital, and Värde Partners, which holds a 39% stake. It was opposed by the President’s sister, Yolanda, who owns a 10.99% stake, but she was outvoted.

La Finca owns 220,000 m2 of office space worth €725 million as at 31 December 2018, all of which is located in Madrid and Pozuelo de Alarcón. Nevertheless, the company has debt amounting to almost €400 million, and has to cover the costs of managing its business parks, and so, its final valuation is expected to range between €156 million and €170 million.

At its meeting, the General Shareholders also approved the company’s accounts for the year ending 31 December 2018, which reported operating profits of €45.9 million, mainly from rental income and a result for the year of €9.73 million, up from €4.6 million in 2017.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Agustín Marco & Ruth Ugalde)

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Caledonian Buys 10,000 m2 of Land in Central Madrid For Residential Development

14 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Caledonian has increased its land portfolio in Madrid, but this time it has done so in the centre of the Spanish capital. The property developer has purchased a plot spanning 10,000 m2 in the Chamartín district of the city centre. The company plans to construct a residential development on the site, which it will add to the two that it already owns in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón.

The objective of the construction company is to convert an industrial plot into a residential one. On the site, located on Calle Javier Ferrero, the company is planning to build different types of apartments with between one and four bedrooms.

Like on other occasions, Caledonian is going to collaborate this time with the architecture studio MK27, led by the Brazilian Marcio Kogan, to carry out the design of the urbanisation. The development will also have common areas with a gym and indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

The company, founded in 1998 by Enrique López Granados, plans to start work on the construction of the homes at the beginning of 2019. The project managers confirm that the construction work will take approximately one year.

Caledonian’s turnover in 2017 amounted to €25 million. The firm focuses its activity on the north-west of Madrid with projects that include several residential developments containing more than thirty homes.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Lería-Luksic, the Chilean Magnates Arriving in Spain’s Wealthiest Municipality

11 August 2018

“Wealthy Chileans.” That was the answer much of the real estate sector gave when El Confidencial was investigating the identity the people who just became the third largest landowners in the Pozuelo Oeste Distribution Area (ARPO), in Pozuelo de Alarcón, the wealthiest municipality in Spain.

The buyers are the executives Óscar Lería Chateau and Paola Luksic Fontbona, the couple who have just acquired 40,000 square meters of land, 8% of the total area, from La Caixa for 30 million euros. The couple plan on developing 396 homes on the land, according to sources in the sector. The transaction was executed through Paola Luksic’s family office Wildsur and Óscar Lería’s Osim, the Chilean newspaper ‘La Tercera’ confirmed.

ARPO is the largest urban development area in the municipality of Madrid, which has been in force for more than a decade, amounting to more than six million square meters. The construction of a total of 5,500 homes is planned for the area, of which 2,900 will have some type of protection. Sources consulted by El Confidencial noted that Luksic is likely to have signed an agreement with a local partner to build the homes houses, “possibly one of the landowners in the area,” as he had done before in other projects in which he was involved.

At the beginning of June, this newspaper reported on three operations in that area. Santander, Iberdrola and Servihabitat had sold or were about to sell their holdings in Pozuelo. Twin Peaks Capital was the first to snap up property, purchasing land controlled by the bank run by Ana Patricia Botín. Oaktree took over land from the power company and has allied itself with Banco Sabadell for the development. Only the identity of the buyers’ of La Caixa’s land had still to be revealed. Though he is known to value his privacy, Oscar Lería himself then made the transaction public, in which he partnered with the A&G Group.

Lería is married to Paola Luksic, daughter of Iris Balbina Fontbona (daughter of the Catalan Luis Fontbona Buxallen, who emigrated to Chile at the beginning of the last century) and stepsister of the Chilean magnate Andrónico Luksic, who control much of the business inherited from the Croatian billionaire Andrónico Luksic Abaroa (1926-2005). The Luksic family is one of the richest in the Andean country and, through Aeris Invest, one of its investment vehicles, recently demanded from Santander payment of the 113.02 million it had invested in 145.14 million shares of Popular in May 2017, one month before its resolution. Furthermore, the Chilean family’s fund threatened the Single Resolution Board (SRB for its acronym in English) with additional lawsuits should it not publish the valuation report 2 on Popular, since it considers that the 3 is irrelevant and “does not correspond to the real situation of the entity at the time of the resolution.”

The most expensive municipality in Spain

As Lería explained to the Chilean newspaper, the group set its eyes on the richest municipality in Spain three years ago, although they have been present in the country for years, especially on the Costa del Sol. After the end of the crisis, when investors were still avoiding the country, other large Latin American investors began landing in Madrid in search of opportunities. At that time, the Lukisc family again looked carefully at the Spanish market, where they plan to invest about 480 million euros.

“The family has been investing intermittently in Spain, but I decided to go and stay for the next 40 years. To create something that will last,” Óscar Lería declared to La Tercera, a newspaper that noted that the family had arrived in Andalusia in 2012 to “resuscitate a project” that had “died.” This project was the Lagoon Alcazaba, the first development with a crystalline lagoon in Europe. With 60 million euros, they also invested in half a dozen retail stores on Madrid’s Serrano street.

ARPO, the major urban development area in Madrid, is under the developers’ spotlight. Vía Célere bought in a year ago; iKasa has had land there for years, and Metrovacesa, which owns more than 46,000 square meters with a market value of 25 million euros, as shown in its IPO prospectus, are some of the principal property owners in the region. They are joined by Pryconsa, with long-term holdings in the area, and the newcomers Twin Peaks and Oaktree.

Four months ago, the city council of the district of Madrid finally approved the Partial Plan for the development. The procedure triggered the first real estate transactions and had caused the developers to begin taking positions before the final approval of the reparcelling and urbanisation plan takes place, the last procedure needed before the first homes can begin to be built. Also, fifteen days ago the project for a rainwater collector for Pozuelo, which will have to supply water to the new homes, was also definitively approved.

With an approximate cost of about 40 million euros, the Pozuelo de Alarcón city hall will contribute 20% of the amount, and the rest will be invested by the private landowners. ARPO, for example, corresponds to 52%, Eje Pinar 11% and Huerta Grande 7% – there are 16 urban sectors in Pozuelo. “This approval opens the way to launch public tenders for the works, with execution possibly beginning at the start of 2019. Also, it will also permit the execution of the urbanisation works in the rest of the sectors and make Pozuelo’s 2002 PGOU a reality”, the Board of Compensation for the region noted. “The collector is now a reality thanks, to a large extent, to ARPO’s new management team – the manager is the architect José Luis Oñate, while Pryconsa holds the presidency of Arpo and Ikasa has the vice-presidency – and the city hall’s technical-political team, which has demonstrated a true desire to move things ahead.”

The same sources assured El Confidencial that in a few months, construction for the collector would be tendered and the approval of the project of urbanisation and reparcelling of the Arpo is foreseen for the end of the year. “The plan is to combine construction on the collector with the urbanization, for which the approval of the Hydrographic Confederation of the Tagus will be needed and, subsequently, to be able to combine the urbanization works with the construction of the houses, for which the City Council of Madrid’s authorisation will be needed.”

Of all these urban procedures will depend, to a large extent, on the price that developers will be willing to pay for the land and, consequently, the final price of future homes will depend on a location with high demand and a very limited supply of new construction.

According to sources, the residual land value is at present around the 1.000 euros per square meter, well below the 1,600-1,800 euros currently paid in Valdebebas. “There are still urban procedures ahead, the land is not yet ready for construction, hence the price differential,” the same sources explained. At those prices, future homes could go on sale starting at 2,250 euros per square meter.

“Taking into account the price that is being paid for the land, the venture would already be profitable for the developers. That does not mean that, if the urbanization proceeds without complications, the prices might not be higher, considering the high level of demand in Pozuelo by people with elevated purchasing power who have been displaced to Majadahonda, Las Rozas and Boadilla del Monte in the absence of new builds,” says a real estate expert at El Confidencial.

The Madrid municipality was not oblivious to the crisis. From its high of 2007, when the square meter reached 3,807 euros, the price of new housing fell by 38% to 2,360 euros, just below the 40% nationwide, according to data from the appraiser Tinsa. However, in two and a half years, prices have increased by around 20%, largely due to the enormous shortage of product in the area and the elevated demand.

According to data from Foro Consultores, the average price of multi-family homes in Pozuelo de Alarcón hovers, on average, at 3,500 euros per square meter, with the average per house going for 610,000 euros, without garage or storage. Single-family homes average roughly 900,000 euros and 3,000 euros per square meter. However, as pointed out by this company, what characterises this municipality is that, depending on the location, you can find affordable housing in apartment buildings, while prices in better areas easily surpass one million euros, both for flats and single-family homes.

Venezuelans, Argentines, Chileans…

Since 2014, when the real estate market hit bottom in Spain, numerous Latin American investors have put money into Spanish property. The biggest Venezuelan investors have been the most active, especially in the neighbourhood of Salamanca, where, for four years they have rehabilitated many buildings to place on the luxury market.

The entrepreneurs Miguel Ángel Capriles and Axel Daniel Capriles, relatives of the Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles, bought, through Gran Roque Capital, more than a dozen properties in the most exclusive neighbourhoods of Madrid, totalling more than a hundred luxury homes. Barquillo Doce, Serrano Anguita, Pablo Aranda, Lagasca 38, Fernando VI and their latest project, Españoleto 19. However, the Capriles has also extended their investments to “more modest” projects. For example, they bought land in the vicinity of the Vicente Calderón stadium from Prosegur, while they are the financial partners of Grupo Ibosa in the purchase of ready-to-build land north of Madrid. The Venezuelan family Pizzorni, through Italinmuebles, is also behind several luxury projects in the capital such as Alfonso X and Montalbán 11.

On the other hand, the Argentines Jorge Pepa – brother of Juan Pepa, former head of Lone Star in Spain and architect of Neinor’s IPO – and Francis Btesh, manage through their company 1810 Capital, investments by the Argentine-Israelis Zev and Sergio Gustavo Marynberg. The firm’s purchases include properties at Santa Isabel 21, Tirso de Molina and Barceló. All of them are being converted into luxury homes.

Among the Mexicans, the best known and most active investor has undoubtedly been Carlos Slim (FCC, Realia …), while the less known Mexican investor Moisés El-Mann Arazi has also carried out operations in Spain, and is behind the purchase 253 branches leased to Banco Sabadell from Moor Park Capital Partners for €290 million.

After the fiasco at Banco Popular, the Luksic family will bet on the Spanish property market, where it plans to invest a total of 480 million euros

The Chilean family Luksic, the main shareholders in the mining company Antofagasta, Banco de Chile and the Compañía de Cervecerías Unidas (CCU), took a 3% stake in Banco Popular last year, valued at more than 2.9 billion euros. Óscar Lería and Paola Luksic’s plans for Spain, after their family’s failed investment in the financial institution, are limited to the Spanish property market, where they expect to invest a total of 480 million euros, Lería revealed to La Tercera. In the short term, they will invest 200 million euros, focusing on Seville and the Balearic Islands, especially Ibiza.

In fact, the couple signed an agreement with Mediterranean Capital Management, a firm based in Barcelona, to search for land. The two groups are going to begin developing a project in Mallorca in the next few months, near the Marivent Royal Palace, resulting in about twenty luxury flats costing between 1.3 and 1.5 million euros, according to the Chilean newspaper.

Pozuelo is Óscar Lería Chateau’s most recent investment. Through the Osler company, he has been making important real estate investments in Spain since 2012, during the middle of the property crisis, working with local investors. He currently has several second-residence projects in Marbella, between Estepona and Puerto Banús.

Original Story: El Confidencial – E. Sanz / Ó. Giménez

Translation: Richard Turner

Twin Peaks Buys Plot of Prime Residential Land in Pozuelo (Madrid)

4 June 2018 – Eje Prime

Pozuelo de Alarcón has land for sale and nobody wants to miss out on the chance to acquire a slice of it. The Madrilenian town, the richest in Spain in terms of income per capita, has had a large portfolio of land up for sale for a few months now, and the family office Twin Peaks has opened the bidding in the flurry of purchases that are expected to be signed soon. The family office has acquired a plot of buildable land owned until now by Banco Santander.

The plot in question is included in the Arpo Partial Plan, the name given to the whole portfolio. Definitive approval is expected to be given for the reparcelling and urbanisation of the plots soon, which will allow investors to start building the first homes on the site. As such, the operation by Twin Peaks comes as it tries to position itself ahead of the great appetite from international funds, which are already working on buying plots on this site, according to El Confidencial.

In fact, Oaktree is already very close to sealing two operations with Iberdrola for the acquisition of plots located on the perimeter of Arpo. For Twin Peaks, the land attached to its real estate portfolio will allow it to continue growing in the luxury market in Madrid. In Barcelona, the other major Spanish city in which the firm has a presence, it acquired an asset on the central Paseo de Gracia last November for €25 million.

Pozuelo is a prime and very attractive market for property developers and funds in the residential boom that the Spanish capital is experiencing. Its high rents and ability to generate high yields are a showcase for luxury in the sector, which has seen how in just two and a half years, land prices in this municipality have risen by 20%, boosted by demand and, above all, by the shortage of buildable land available for development in Madrid.

Property developers such as Metrovacesa, which owns land spanning 46,000 m2 in Pozuelo alone worth €25 million, Vía Célere and iKasa already have important projects in place in this prime area of the Spanish residential market.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Logistics Socimi Tarjar Buys Commercial Plot in Madrid for €1.17M

16 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Tarjar Xairo will add a fifth asset to its portfolio next year. The logistics Socimi has just purchased a plot of buildable land in Madrid for €1.17 million, according to a statement filed by the company with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The investment company is going to build a commercial premise on the site, which is located in the Cerro de las Columnas area of the Madrilenian town of Pozuelo de Alarcón. The building work for the construction of the asset will begin at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019. Tarjar will lease out the space once the project has been completed.

For the acquisition of the plot, the Socimi has signed a mortgage loan with CaixaBank amounting to €2.5 million. The company has used two of its existing industrial warehouses as collateral, located in Coslada (Madrid) at numbers 31 and 33 Calle Fuentemar. Tarjar is the landlord of the Catalan pharmaceutical giant Grifols in the first of those properties.

The loan will be repaid over 144 monthly instalments between now and 2032 and will have a fixed annual interest rate of 1.5% plus 12-month Euribor. The plot in Pozuelo will be added to the existing real estate portfolio, which already contains four industrial warehouses. Besides the two properties in Coslada, Tarjar owns a third logistics space in Madrid, at number 75 Calle Hierro. Moreover, beyond the Spanish capital, the Socimi owns a fourth asset on the Ribarroja del Turia industrial estate, in the province of Valencia.

In total, the four properties span a constructed surface area of around 25,000 m2 and a leasable surface area, primarily for industrial and office use, of 22,000 m2.

50% of Tarjar is currently under the control of María del Carmen Escribano Sánchez-Beato, who owns 86,692 shares in the Socimi. After her, the other two main shareholders are Juan Hernández Villa, who owns 12.7% of the Socimi, and Francisco Javier Echenique Gordillo, who owns 7.6%. Hernández Villa also manages the Socimi’s rentals through his company Arquibuba.

First anniversary on the MAB 

Tarjar Xairo started to operate as a listed company over a year ago now. The logistics Socimi rang the bell of the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on 20 February 2017 with a company valuation of €9.2 million. The company, which thereby became the 30th Socimi to debut on the stock market, set an initial share price of €53.12.

Now, with twenty more Socimis trading on the MAB (50 in total), Tarjar is betting on buildable land for commercial use, which it hopes will allow it to continue growing. In 2017, the Socimi registered a profit of €118,710, with revenues of €377,509, according to the company’s public records (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Santander Grants €128M Loan to La Finca for Madrid’s Largest Ever Luxury Development

12 February 2018 – Expansión

A loan from Santander / The group owned by the Cereceda family has obtained financing for the first phase of its project, which will include the construction of 144 homes, a golf course, sports facilities and a leisure centre.

The group owned by the García Cereceda family – owners of the La Finca business and residential complex – has obtained a cash injection of almost €130 million to develop its LGC3 residential project, which will involve the construction of around 500 luxury homes in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) for a total investment of €340 million.

Specifically, the company has signed a loan with Santander amounting to €127.5 million for the development of the first phase of the project, which will include the construction of 144 homes in three-storey blocks, a golf course, a lake, sports facilities and a shopping and leisure centre, according to financial sources speaking to Expansión.

The first phase of the project, which has been called LGC3 – an acronym that corresponds to the initials of Luis García Cereceda, the patriarch and founder of Procisa (now La Finca) who passed away in 2010 – is already underway and will involve a total investment of between €154 million and €159 million.

Prices

The homes in this first phase will have a surface area of between 200 m2 and 400 m2, approximately, and will have terraces that may extend to 600 m2, as well as private swimming pools for some of the homes. The sales prices of the units will range between €1 million and €2 million.

The LGC project will be carried out on a plot that has a total surface area of 850,000 m2 in Pozuelo de Alarcón, to the north of the capital, next to Parque Empresarial, the exclusive urbanisation were well-known footballers and Spanish businessmen live. Of the total surface area, around 100,000 m2 will be allocated to the plot where the 500 homes will be built. The first phase of the development alone, with 144 units, will occupy around 36,000 m2.

The rest of the surface area – around 750,000 m2 – will be allocated to the Country Club, accessible only to owners of the homes, which will have an 18-hotel golf course, next to a lake with a water surface area of 35,000 m2, an artificial beach, sports facilities and schools, lakes, gardens, a running track and a shopping and leisure centre with a surface area of 10,000 m2.

In addition to the security measures that the urbanisation will have, with a double perimeter fence surrounding the plot and an intrusion detection system and gatehouse, the development will also incorporate the latest requirements in terms of sustainability and energy efficiency (…),.

Property business

La Finca, chaired by Susana García Cereceda, has already started to construct the first phase of homes and has allocated around €25 million from the group’s own cash funds to the urbanisation work. The company carried out a corporate restructuring in 2016 and signed a financing agreement with a syndicated loan led by Société Générale, CaixaBank and Santander amounting to €395 million destined to pay off its existing debt and tackle new projects.

Moreover, last year, the company welcomed the fund Värde into its office property business – La Finca Global Assets – which includes its La Finca, Cardenal Marcelo Spínola and Martínez Villergas business parks.

The company has already initiated the process for La Finca Global Assets (in which Värde owns a 40% stake) to debut as a Socimi on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) during the course of 2018.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Benahavís & La Moraleja Lead Ranking Of Spain’s Most Expensive Homes

4 September 2017 – Eje Prime

With an average price of €6 million per home, the two most exclusive urbanisations in Spain are getting more expensive by the year. La Zagaleta (pictured above) in Benahavís (Málaga) and La Moraleja in Madrid are the addresses with the most expensive homes for sale, according to a recent study performed by Idealista.

Specifically, owners in the Benahavís area of the Costa del Sol ask potential buyers for c. €5.6 million on average for a detached home (chalet). In the case of La Moraleja, the second most expensive area in Spain, the average price does not fall below €5 million. In third place is Calle del Castillo de Aysa, also in the Spanish capital, where properties cost around €5 million on average.

Below the €5 million mark are Avenida del Tibidabo in Barcelona (€4.83 million), Paseo de los Lagos in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid), with an average price of €4.75 million and Avenida Miraflores in Madrid (€4.71 million).

The top 10 list is completed by Avenida Rocaferrera in the Catalan town of Sant Andreu de Llavaneres (€4.5 million), Paseo de Marquesa Viuda de Aldama (€4.4 million), Calle del Camino Ancho (€4.3 million) and Paseo de Conde Gaitanes (€3.8 million), all located in La Moraleja.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Procisa Group Undergoes A Corporate & Financial Makeover

30 December 2016 – Expansión

Procisa, the group owned by the Cereceda family, which in turn owns La Finca, the business and luxury residential complex, in Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid) has embarked upon a profound corporate and financial restructuring process involving: a capital injection amounting to €395 million; the entry of the US fund Värde; and the strengthening of its corporate governance.

In terms of the corporate changes, from now on, the company will be organised around the Grupo La Finca holding company, which will in turn own three separate companies: La Finca Global Assets, dedicated to the real estate business and to the operation of the high-end office market; La Finca Casablanca, which will construct the largest luxury residential development containing more than 500 homes; and La Finca Real Estate, upon which the group’s future development will hinge.

Under the framework of this operation, the US fund Värde, owner of Dospuntos (the former real estate division of Sanjose) and owner of a stake in Aliseda, Banco Popular’s real estate asset manager, has acquired 39% of La Finca Global Assets. The US private equity firm, which manages more than $40,000 million in assets around the world, has been one of the most active investors in Spain since the outbreak of the crisis.

Portfolio

By virtue of the agreement signed yesterday, Värde, which must have paid around €130 million for its stake, will become a shareholder of the current office buildings in the portfolio and of the new projects in this area of the business. In addition to the La Finca business park, La Finca Global Assets’s properties include a property located on Calle Marcelo Spínola – a business centre comprising seven seven-storey buildings – and another property on Calle Martínez Villergas, comprising three seven-storey buildings.

Meanwhile, the La Finca business park, covering 220,000 m2 of premium rental space, comprises 20 buildings, 16 of which are used as offices plus the remaining four, located in the centre of the complex, which are used to provide the necessary services to the users of these offices. The complex’s current tenants include technological companies such as Orange and Microsoft.

In terms of the injection of funds, the company has signed a financing agreement with a syndicate led by Société Générale, CaixaBank and Santander amounting to €395 million, which it will use to pay off existing debt and tackle new projects. According to the latest available balance sheet, Procisa’s debt amounts to €525 million.

Specifically, the subsidiary La Finca Casablanca is planning to construct a development containing 515 luxury and exclusive homes, a shopping and leisure centre, as well as sports facilities and a golf course, in the south of Pozuelo de Alarcón.

New directors

Meanwhile, the group owned by the Cereceda family has strengthened its corporate governance by hiring some new directors. Susana García-Cereceda, the current Chairman of Procisa and one of the heiresses of the family empire created by the businessman Luis García Cereceda, who died in 2010, will lead the holding company and each of its subsidiaries, as the CEO.

In addition, Grupo La Finca will hire Jorge Morán as the Vice President of the holding company. (…). Moreover, Värde will join the Board of La Finca Global Assets with the appointment of three board members. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Family War Between The Owners Of La Finca

24 August 2016 – Expansión

An open war is raging between members of the García-Cereceda family, owner of Procisa, the property developer of, amongst other assets, the exclusive La Finca business park in Madrid.

The carve out of the property developer and the subsequent entry of the US fund Värde has represented a new chapter in the battle between Susana and Yolanda García-Cereceda, both daughters of the founder of Procisa, Luis García Cereceda, who died in 2010, and both heiresses of the family empire.

As a result of this latest encounter, a ruling from Commercial Court number 11 in Madrid, on 18 August, decided to partially adopt the injunction requested by Mercedes López, the mother of Susana and Yolanda García-Cereceda, regarding the total carve out of Procisa.

The carve out of Procisa

The carve out was approved at a general shareholders’ meeting held on 26 July 2016. Specifically, the shareholders approved the decision to divide Procisa’s assets between La Finca Global Assets – owner of the carved out company’s real estate assets, which manages the leases of the offices and retail premises; La Finca Somosaguas Golf – which included ownership of a urban development area for luxury residential use that can be executed immediately, known as Casablanca – and finally, La Finca Promociones y Conciertos Inmobiliarios (owner of Procisa’s remaining assets and liabilities).

This carve out plan also involved the entry of the US fund Värde into the office business, as Expansión revealed in April.

This line of business is the group’s most profitable and it includes, amongst other assets, La Finca business park, located in Pozuelo de Alarcón, whose tenants include multinationals such as Orange and Microsoft.

Entry of Värde

Procisa, chaired by Susana García-Cereceda, had reached an agreement to sell 40% of its office business to the fund Várde, with Procisa retaining ownership of 100% of the residential business.

According to that plan, Susana García-Cereceda would lead the two areas. The entry of new members with experience and background in the sector was also planned, to complete the organigram of the new real estate company.

Nevertheless, this decision had not been approved by all of the company’s shareholders. Some voices against the negotiations argued that the complete carve out had not been referred for consultation to the Tax Authorities or other tax bodies to confirm the existence or otherwise of tax benefits in terms of exemption from Corporation Tax.

According to sources close to the opposing shareholders, if there are no tax benefits in terms of Corporation Tax, then the younger daughter of García-Cereceda, Yolanda, and her children, would be “seriously harmed”.

The legal ruling on 18 August requires the Commercial Registrar to suspend the inscription of the corporate operation agreed at the general shareholders’ meeting in July. This decision, therefore, hampers Värde’s entry into Procisa’s office business. (…).

According to the ruling, the suspension must remain in force until the Tax Authorities have issued their binding opinion regarding the existence or otherwise of tax benefits in terms of Corporation Tax. (…).

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake