Tag: proceeds

Town Hall of Granada Sells Former Housing Dep’t HQ for €1.5M

2 February 2018 – La Vanguardia

The Town Hall of Granada has sold the historic building that used to house the headquarters of the now defunct municipal housing company, together with three parking spaces that form part of its estate, for around €1.5 million. Approximately €1 million of the proceeds received will be allocated to the renovation works that are currently underway in the neighbourhood of Santa Adela.

At a press conference following the local government meeting on Friday, the councillor for Urban Planning in Granada, Miguel Ángel Fernández Madrid, confirmed the sale of the property located on Calle Lepanto, behind the headquarters of the Town Hall of Granada, together with three parking spaces in Plaza Gamboa, nearby in the centre of the city.

According to legislation, the proceeds obtained from the sale of the municipal land asset must be allocated to investments in the city. “As we have an extended budget and the beans have been accounted for, the bulk of the money, almost €1 million, will go towards paying the costs” that the Town Hall is currently facing on the Santa Adela project, explained Fernández Madrid. He added that this will serve to “justify” the municipal investment with a view to the receipt of European Edusi funds for this project.

The future of the half a million euros that will be left over from the sale of the former headquarters of Emuvyssa and the three parking spaces is yet to be decided, but it is expected that that amount will also be invested in projects with Edusi funds, for which the Town Hall has to justify that “it is going to spend around 30% of the money”, that it will receive from Europe, in other words around €3 million.

For this reason, investing most of the proceeds resulting from the sale in the Santa Adela construction work is “the best option”, said the councillor for Town Planning. He recalled that the plenary approved the disposals of municipal land property and that belonging to the now defunct Emuvyssa “by sufficient majority”. They mostly comprise social housing developments that “carry a municipal mortgage”, representing a “substantial amount”, which the Town Hall has to pay each month.

The building on Calle Lepanto has a total constructed surface area of more than 600 m2 – according to information available on the website of the Town Hall of Granada. According to the information provided by Miguel Ángel Fernández Madrid to the media, a tender was held to dispose of the property but no one participated, and so the asset has been sold to the first bidder willing to offer the asking price.

Original story: La Vanguardia

Translation: Carmel Drake

Norwegian Pension Fund Acquires 4.8% of Neinor Homes

17 January 2018 – Expansión

The Norwegian Pension Fund has acquired a 4.8% stake in the share capital of the property developer Neinor Homes. This package, acquired through the manager Norges Bank Investment Management has a market value of around €70 million. The sovereign fund of the Nordic country is positioning itself as one of the key investors in the company led by Juan Velayos, together with several other international funds, including Wellington Management Group, with an 8.5% stake; Fidelity (6.8%); Adar Capital Partners (5.2%); Invesco (5.01%); King Street Capital Management (3.9%); and the Bank of Montreal (3.25%).

The Norwegian Fund first acquired shares in the company when it debuted on the stock market last year and has taken advantage of the two accelerated placements made by the US fund Lone Star to strengthen its position in the share capital of the property developer. Lone Star exited the capital of the company, which it constituted three years ago with the purchase of the real estate subsidiary of Kutxabank, a week ago, after selling the 12.5% stake that it still controlled.

In March 2017, the US fund placed 40% of the shares that it owned on the market as part of the stock market debut, and in September, it sold off another 27% stake through an accelerated placement that generated proceeds of €395 million and decreased its participation to around 13%.

Incentives

Finally, a week ago, Lone Star sold an additional 12.5% stake for €173 million – also through an accelerated placement. Following that sale, Lone Star retained 350,918 shares in Neinor, representing approximately 0.4% of the firm’s share capital, which it is reserving in order to agree the requirements for the incentive plan for directors.

The company’s shares closed at a price of €18.54 yesterday, having fallen by 0.64%.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Town Hall of Córdoba Approves New Shopping Centre

20 December 2017 – Eje Prime

The Town Hall of Córdoba has authorised the installation of a large retail space, with an investment of €30 million, after three years of paperwork.

Rabanales 21 has finally been given the green light to open a shopping centre on its site. Rabanales Plaza could finally become a reality after three years of paperwork and institutional obstacles. On Tuesday, the plenary session of the Town Hall of Córdoba approved a change to the General Urban Development Plan (PGOU), which will allow the installation of a commercial complex in the Cordoban technological park, according to ABC Sevilla.

In total, €30 million will be invested in Rabanales Plaza, which is expected to generate 400 new jobs. The plot for the new complex spans 18,000 m2. The owners of the complex tried to build a commercial business in the city in 2015, on the Las Quemadas plots, but the crisis put an end to that venture.

Now, and after the technological estate filed for creditor pre-bankruptcy in February, the Town Hall has accepted the opening of a new retail centre, for whose land Rabanales 21 will receive €1.5 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ministry of Defence has Earned €28M from Property Sales since 2012

10 December 2017 – El Economista

The Ministry of Defence has obtained proceeds amounting to €28,382,264.77 in total (since 2012) from the sale of several properties that had been left in disuse in various Spanish autonomous regions and provinces.

That figure is reflected in a response from the Ministry (to which Servimedia has had access) to a question posed by the socialist members of parliament Miguel Ángel Heredia and Zaida Cantera to find out how much money has been obtained from the auction and sale of Ministry buildings from 2012 to date.

In its response, the Ministry of Defence explains that on 25 April 2012, it auctioned a building in Tarifa (Cádiz) that had housed a Residential Property for Non-Commissioned Officers for €1,408,676.99.

Meanwhile, on 5 November 2013, the Ministry sold the building that had housed the Armies’ Cultural Centre along with the property that hosted the Janer Naval Shooting School, both in Cádiz, for €881,880.22 and €6,754,907.15, respectively.

In turn, on 2 July 2015, the Ministry auctioned the building in which the ‘Son Simonet’ barracks used to be located, for €5,550,000; whilst on 5 November of the same year, it auctioned the headquarters of the Residential building for Non-Commissioned Officers in Palma de Mallorca for €6,311,003.07. Finally, on 2 December 2017, it sold a property located on Calle Velázquez, 107, in Madrid (pictured above) for €7,475,797.34.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hispania Puts 5 Offices In Barcelona Up For Sale For €120M

14 February 2017 – Expansión

The Socimi wants to sell of the office buildings that it has in Barcelona to focus on hotels.

Divest to keep growing. That is the objective that the Socimi Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios has set itself for the year ahead.

The road map will be presented at the real estate company’s next general shareholders’ meeting, scheduled to take place in April. It is expected that the Socimi, in which the investor George Soros holds a stake, will ask its shareholders to extend this vehicle’s investment period, to focus on the purchase of hotels, and whereby move away from its initial strategy, which covered all kinds of assets for rent.

The Socimi, created and managed by the firm Azora, was designed to have an investment period of three years, which is due to come to an end this year. Its directors will ask its shareholders – including Soros, with his 16.7% stake; BlackRock (3.3%); and John Paulson (2.8%) – to extend the life of this vehicle, which now specialises in hotels.

To this end, the Socimi, which owns 25 office buildings, with a combined surface area of more than 153,000 m2, has decided to explore the sale of its office portfolio in Barcelona.

Hispania owns five buildings in Barcelona with a leasable surface area of around 39,000 m2 and with an average occupancy rate of 93% as at 30 September 2016. The assets include Edificio Cristal, with a GLA of 11,088m2, leased to ACS and Xerox, as well as the Les Gloriès complex, which comprises three buildings, two of which are fully occupied and one, which has an occupancy rate of more than 90%.

Hispania paid €80.3 million for these properties, although their book value as at 30 September 2016 amounted to more than €91 million, following investments made by the company.

Four months later, the Socimi has requested a new valuation of this batch and its aim is to generate around €120 million from the sale, say sources in the sector.

In addition to these properties in Barcelona, the Socimi owns another 20 properties: 19 in Madrid and one in Málaga. Hispania plans to sell the first batch within the next few months and hold onto the rest for the duration of 2017.

Block sale

Hispania could receive proceeds of around €500 million from the sale of its office portfolio. Nevertheless, a block sale would considerably reduce the number of potential buyers, due to the heterogeneity of the portfolio, which includes some properties with an occupancy rate of less than 50%, as well as one building that is not located in either of the two major Spanish markets (Madrid and Barcelona), which would deter some of the more institutional investment funds. (…).

The company has said that it will focus its next investments on hotel assets. Currently, Hispania owns 37 establishments with 10,407 rooms, making it the largest non-operator hotel owner in Spain. The company’s aim is to continue investing in establishments on the coast to reposition them. One of its most recent operations forms part of this strategy: the purchase of four hotels in the Canary Islands for €92 million. (…).

After debuting on the stock market in May 2016, with share capital of €550 million and no assets on its balance sheet, this real estate company – which adopted the Socimi structure in May 2016 – has managed to create a portfolio worth €1,684 million, with a capitalisation of €1,250 million.

During the first nine months of 2016, Hispania generated revenues of €100 million and profits of €136.7 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Duro Felguera Puts Its Non-Core Properties Up For Sale

4 November 2016 – Expansión

Liquidity crisis / The engineering group has two large corporate headquarters in Madrid and Gijón, which it is looking to sell to cover its financial commitments whilst it resolves several legal disputes overseas.

Duro Felguera explained yesterday during the presentation of its results for the 9 months to September 2016 that it has ordered the sale of its “non-productive assets” to avoid the deterioration of its cash balance whilst it resolves legal disputes overseas for unpaid invoices amounting to more than €300 million. According to the sources consulted, the assets under analysis include the company’s two major headquarters in Madrid and Gijón, the proceeds from which could amount to several tens of millions of euros.

For the time being, the company has issued a sales mandate but has not specified which formula it will use for the divestment. In recent years, many of Spain’s large corporations have sold their headquarters through sale and leaseback contracts, whereby the company sells the property but remains as the tenant for a certain number of years. Ferrovial, Acciona, Prisa, Telefónica, Santander, Gas Natural and Endesa, amongst others, have all used this formula in recent years.

Duro Felguera’s office building in Madrid has been on the company’s balance sheet for two years, after it acquired it for €20 million in 2014. The previous owner was the real estate company GMP. The headquarters is located on Vía de los Poblados, in the north of Madrid, alongside the M-40 ring road and the Campo de las Naciones business park.

Duro Felguera’s headquarters in Madrid has a useful surface area of 13,791 m2. It is an eight-storey building – five of the floors are used for offices, two are used for parking and one contains an undercover space for storage and other facilities.

In Gijón, the company chaired by Ángel Antonio del Valle owns of one of the best complexes in the city’s Scientific and Technological Park. That building has a surface area of more than 9,000 m2.

Legal disputes

Duro Felguera will have to use the proceeds from its divestments to cover several urgent obligations. In December, for example, the company is due to repay a loan amounting to €35 million.

In parallel, the group is looking to encompass its financial commitments into the process of recovering its unpaid invoices overseas. Yesterday, the company stated that “it is holding negotiations with various credit institutions (Bankia, Santander, Popular, BBVA, Sabadell and CaixaBank) to adjust the maturity dates of its debt to bring them in line with the expected resolution dates of these conflicts.

In Australia, the group is fighting against one of its client, the Korean firm Samsung C&T, for overruns on the mining project Roy Hill. The court of arbitrage in Singapore calculates that DF may recover almost €140 million (the last invoice amounted to €40 million, plus €90 million in avals). The Australian courts are claiming €46 million, of which €9 million has been already recovered. In Argentina, Duro is claiming another €150 million for overruns at the power plant in Vuelta Obligado. Finally, in Venezuela, the Government led by Nicolás Maduro still owes the Spanish group €101 million.

Original story: Expansión (by C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Axiare Invests €173M In RE Assets In Madrid & Cataluña

11 August 2015 – Expansión

The Socimi Axiare has purchased eight real estate assets in Madrid and Cataluña for €173 million. That quantity represents 45% of the proceeds the company obtained from its recent capital increase.

Specifically, the company has purchased two office buildings in Madrid (one on Calle Ramírez de Arellano, 15 and the other on Calle Don Ramón de la Cruz, 82), a retail store located in the Velazquez building (central Madrid), a portfolio of four buildings also located in the capital, comprising three office buildings and a larger retail outlet, and two logistics warehouses in the Les Puntes industrial estate, in Constantí (Cataluña).

Axiare has invested €761 million in total in just one year. With this transaction, the Socimi adds 108,654 m2 of surface area to its portfolio and increases its gross leasable area to more than 550,000 m2.

Capital increase

The transaction announced yesterday involves the investment of 45% of the funds the Socimi obtained from its recent €395 million capital increase, in June, which was fully subscribed. The company doubled in size as a result of that increase.

Axiare has said that it plans to invest the remaining funds “in new acquisitions with the aim of continuing to increase its portfolio of high quality properties in established locations”.

Since its debut on the stock exchange, the Socimi has closed 18 transactions, acquiring 28 properties in total, with an investment value of €761 million.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Madrid Earns €360M From The Sale Of Public Properties

25 March 2015 – El Confidencial

The Community of Madrid sold around thirty real estate assets between 2012 and 2014, including an entire housing development and a number of buildings on Gran Via.

The sale of public properties generated income of more than €360 million between 2012 and 2014. In total, during this period, around thirty real estate assets of all types were sold, ranging from an entire housing development, to a number of buildings in the heart of Gran Via, as well as flats, plots of land and commercial premises.

The starting gun for “property” sell-off began in the summer of 2012, with the sale of a plot of land for tertiary use in Pozuelo de Alarcón for €5 million. In the same year – when Spain was on the black list of all investors – Metro de Madrid sold another plot of land that it owned on Calle Cardenal Cisneros for €2.1 million.

However, the largest transaction signed to date by the Community of Madrid did not take place until July 2013. Then, it sold a 32 home development, owned by Ivima, to Azora and Goldman Sachs for €200 million, whereby the buyers paid almost 20% more than the initial asking price (€168.9 million).

At the end of 2013, two further transactions were signed that “fattened up” the public coffers by more than €26.5 million. These involved the sale of Gran Via 18 for €18.6 million to Iberia Project Management, although the Texas Pacific Group (TPG) was actually behind the bid – that fund purchased 51% of Servihabitat Gestión Inmobiliaria from CaixaBank in September of the same year. The second sale was of Gran Via 3, which the Community sold for €8 million to Baech Bienes Inmuebles.

Then in 2014, when real estate investment in Spain really took off, more than a dozen transactions were signed; the most noteworthy was the sale of a building measuring more than 9,000 square metres for €40.2 million to Línea Directa, the insurance arm of Bankinter. Last year, Gran Via 20 was also sold to the real estate company of Caja Rural de Almendralejo, which paid almost €20 million for the property.

The final two transactions last year were closed in December: a building on the Carretera de San Jerónimo, measuring 4,500 square metres for €14.1 million and another measuring almost 3,000 square metres on Los Madrazo for €3 million; both were owned by Arproma.

The plans to sell off public assets are on-going. The Community of Madrid has placed a “for sale” sign above another 22 assets that is owns. Office buildings, residential properties, commercial premises, plots of lands, flats and individual buildings. Through these, it hopes to “fatten up” the public coffers by around €56 million, taking advantage of investors’ renewed appetite for Spain.

Nevertheless, the jewels in the real estate crown have been sold already. By price, the following assets are up for sale: an office building on General Díaz Porlier, which has been on the market since October 2013 and for which the Community of Madrid is asking €11.1 million. In terms of land, there is a plot for sale in Tres Cantos for €5.8 million and there is also a flat for sale measuring 170 square metres on Calle Fernando el Católico for €467,000.

The Community is organising public auctions to sell these assets as well as direct sales. To give more visibility to its properties, like in the past, the Community has is making use of specialist websites, such as addmeet.com, which lists the assets sold to date, as well as the buildings for sale and the real estate auctions that are underway.

The sale of the building next to Puerta del Sol is on standby for the moment; the Community of Madrid is asking €10.7 million for that property.

Original story: El Confidencial (by Elena Sanz)

Translation: Carmel Drake