Tag: private banking

Atom Socimi to Go Public With Assets of More than €500 Million

7 August 2018

The Atom socimi, founded by Bankinter, offers the bank’s private banking clients an alternative for investing in the hotel sector. 

Atom announced its IPO in January and now owns 23 hotels with more than 5,200 rooms, managed by chains such as Meliá and Marriott. 

The investment vehicle devised by Bankinter has a 7-year investment horizon, to be followed by disinvestment, though the bank is permitted to extend it

Bankinter will take its socimi public, a listed real estate investment company that has already acquired 23 4- and 5-star hotels spread over Spain. The hotels and their 5,200 rooms are managed by Meliá Hotels International and Marriott International, among others, and are valued at more than 500 million euros. At the end of 2017, the bank began offering its private banking customers the possibility of investing in the socimi, which was dubbed Atom Hotels and constituted on January 5, 2018. Atom was created to acquire a portfolio of hotels for long-term leasing, as Hosteltur tourism news reported late last year.

On February 2, the socimi finalised a capital increase through which it reached a total funding level of €247.8 million and, after that, began acquiring hotels after having analysed a significant number of possible market operations, investing almost all of its available capital. In July, it became known that Meliá had sold the Meliá Sevilla, Sol La Palma and Sol Jandía Mar hotels, in the provinces of Seville, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas, to Atom, while maintaining a contract to manage the properties.

Just a few weeks ago, the socimi signed a syndicated 5-year, 191-million-euro mortgage loan, through which it obtained the necessary financial resources to complete its planned investments and reach a total of 23 hotels in its portfolio.

The portfolio is “well diversified” by asset type, location and operator, with fixed rents of 78%, rental contracts with an average required compliance of 10 years and minimal needed investment as most of the hotels have already been renovated or are in the last stages of renovation, sources said.

The bank intends that the portfolio of hotels should offer the socimi’s shareholders an annual dividend of close to 5%. The socimi is expected to be listed on the MAB, Madrid’s Alternative Stock Market.

Atom’s main shareholders are Bankinter’s private banking clients, with a minimum investment of 200,000 euros and a maximum ceiling of 15% of their financial assets.

Other investors, including Bankinter, the socimi’s manager, GMA, and institutional investors, also have investments of at least €60 million.

The bank led by María Dolores Dancausa allocated roughly 18 million euros while GMA invested another €9 million, so both have sufficient minority stakes in socimi to be represented on its board of directors. Unlike other socimis, Bankinter’s investment vehicle has a disinvestment term of 7 years, although the bank reserves the possibility of extending it.

This is not the first socimi launched by the financial institution. In February 2017, Bankinter launched Ores together with Sonae Sierra, which invests in commercial assets such in Spain and Portugal. Socimis and investment funds have served to boost the sale of hotel portfolios, a report by the Hotel division of Colliers International stated. In the year to June, Spain saw the second largest amount of investments in the country’s history, 1.83 billion euros, down 13% from 2017. Socimis and investment funds played an important role in the feat.

Original Story: Hosteltur

Translation: Richard Turner

Corpfin Capital Lists 2nd Investment Vehicle On MAB

28 January 2016 – Expansión

After debuting its first Socimi on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) last September, Corpfin Capital is trying its luck on the Madrid stock exchange once again, just four months later, in the form of its second listed investment vehicle, Corpfin Capital Prime Retail III, which starred yesterday in the first ring of the bell in 2016.

The real estate arm of Corpfin Capital, which has so far launched four investment vehicles, is intending to create a fifth entity this year with a view to entering new businesses and expanding the mix of assets to include the residential, hotel, office and retail segments. “We are exploring other types of investments, but through another vehicle”, explained Javier Basagoiti, Managing Partner of Corpfin Capital Real Estate and President of the new Socimi.

Specifically, the two Socimis have a joint investment capacity of €110 million for 2016 and they have already spent €76 million. “The remaining €30 million has already been allocated to the purchase of assets, mostly in Madrid”, says Basagoiti, who rules out a capital increase for the time being.

The Director explained that he expects (the vehicle) to provide investors with an annual return of more than 15%, compared with the current yield of 7%.

Despite the sudden rise of the Socimis – Corpfin Capital Prime Retail III is the twelfth company of its kind to list on the MAB –, Basagoiti denies that a Socimi bubble is emerging, instead he regards the vehicles as investment “opportunities”. “A bubble would be created if the investment policy was no good and it was playing on the change in the (economic) cycle with risky investments”, he said. 90% of the company’s investors are domestic and 10% are from the United Arab Emirates. “We focus on small-time savers and private banking clients”, he says.

The real estate area is one of Corpfin Capital’s core business areas; its primary activity is the management of private equity funds.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake