Aedas Homes Will Make Its Stock Market Debut Before Year End

25 September 2017 – Expansión

A new real estate company will debut on the stock market before the end of the year. On Friday, the property developer Aedas Homes confirmed its intention to debut on the stock market during the fourth quarter of the year.

The company, which specialises in the construction of homes, has not revealed the price at which the placement of its shares will take place. Nevertheless, market sources forecast that its market capitalisation will be higher than its Gross Asset Value, estimated at €1,345.8 million.

Aedas Homes was created by the US fund Castlelake, after that firm invested several hundreds of millions of euros in buildable residential land in Spain. After creating a portfolio containing 1.3 million m2 of buildable land, worth €1,000 million, Castlelake turned to the team at the Socimi Merlin Properties to design a business plan that would allow it to maximise the returns on its investments. For this project, the fund recruited David Martínez, a director with experience in real estate developments, such as Valdebebas and Castellana Norte, both in Madrid.

Castlelake’s intention is to place between 40% and 60% of the company’s shares on the stock market, through a primary offer and then a secondary offer amongst qualifying investors. The primary offer is expected to raise funds amounting to approximately €100 million.

Investors

“The stock market debut of Aedas Homes will allow us to access funds from a diversified base of investors, which will be used to finance the company’s expansion and development plans”, explains David Martínez, CEO of the property developer. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs are acting as the global coordinating entities of the placement; Banco Santander and UBS as the joint bookrunners; BBVA, CaixaBank and Sabadell are the co-lead managers; and Deloitte is the financial advisor.

Currently, Aedas owns a portfolio of land worth €1,370.5 million, distributed across sight Spanish provinces – including Madrid, Barcelona, Málaga and Valencia–, which will allow it to build more than 13,000 homes. These magnitudes place it amongst the top four property developers in Spain. The company is currently working on 11 projects, involving 576 homes. Its business plan forecasts the investment of between €200 million and €250 million on new acquisitions over the next 2.5 years to deliver 3,000 homes per year from 2022 onwards.

With this move, Castlelake is following in the footsteps of Lone Star, which was the first international fund to list its company, Neinor Homes, on the stock market, after investing in assets in the Spanish market.

The debut of Lone Star’s real estate company took place in March, with a valuation of €1,340 million. Since then, the company has appreciated in value and its market capitalisation now exceeds €1,420 million. Lone Star placed 60% of its company’s share capital in the stock market debut. Last week, it divested another 27%, to raise €394 million. On Monday, the fund Wellington acquired an 8.5% stake.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake