Tag: real estate company

Engel & Völkers’ Sales In Spain Soared By 45% In H1

28 July 2016 – Expansión

The German real estate company Engel & Völkers, which specialises in the sale of luxury assets, increased its (global) turnover by 41% during the first half of the year. In Spain, its revenues soared by 45.1%, to reach €690.9 million. This growth was driven by operations in both the sales and rental markets.

The company, which plans to open nine new outlets in Spain, attributed this “good progress” to strong demand for premium properties in holiday areas such as Mallorca, a fundamental market where its business grew by 79% during H1, as well as in large cities, where it has a presence through the Metropolitan Market (MMC).

At the global level, the group increased its revenues from commission by 26.2%, to €229.4 million.

Original story: Expansión (by Inma Benedito)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Realia Launches €87M Capital Increase

11 November 2015 – Cinco Días

Realia has approved the launch of a capital increase amounting to €87 million, which the real estate company’s majority shareholder, Carlos Slim, has promised to participate in, according to the company.

By virtue of the operation, the real estate company will issue 150 million new shares at a price of €0.58 per share, the same price that Slim paid in the takeover (OPA) through which he took control of the company.

With this operation, Realia is seeking to strengthen its financial structure ahead of the company’s debt restructuring program. In total, Realia’s debt amounts to €1,067 million, of which half is due to mature within the next few years.

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake

Realia Appoints Gerardo Kuri As Its New CEO

13 October 2015 – El Mundo

Realia has appointed a new CEO in the form of Gerardo Kuri, one of the real estate company’s directors, as a representative of its majority shareholder, Carlos Slim.

Kuri is also a director of FCC and Cementos Portland, the real estate subsidiary where he is also the CEO. Similarly, he has been performing CEO functions at Inmuebles Carso, the real estate division of businessman Slim’s conglomerate, since 2010.

Realia appointed its new CEO after appointing Julio Rodríguez Torres, also a close advisor of Slim, as the new non-executive Chairman.

Rodríguez Torres and Gerardo Kuri take over from Ignacio Bayón and Íñigo Aldaz, as the Chairman and CEO of Realia, respectively. The former is going to retire and the second recently resigned from the post.

Realia is restructuring its board and governing bodies after Slim took control of the company in June 2015 – he won the takeover war waged during the first half of the year with Hispania, a company in which George Soros holds a stake. After that takeover process, the Mexican businessman secured control of the company, since he added the 25.1% stake that he then acquired in the company to the 36.8% stake already held by FCC.

Realia, whose share prices has risen by 53% on the stock exchange so far this year, owns property covering 419,000 m2, worth around €1,400 million, including the Torres Kio in Madrid. Its residual housing and land business comprises a portfolio of land with a surface area of 1.87 million m2 and a stock of 650 homes.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Quabit Recorded €6M Loss In H1 2015

17 August 2015 – Expansión

The real estate company Quabit recorded a loss of €6 million during the first half of 2015, compared with a profit of €62.3 million during the same period in 2014. According to management, the company’s earnings performance during the first half of 2014 was positively affected by the operations linked to its debt restructuring program.

Quabit has indicated that the loss recorded during H1 2015 reflects the “state of transition” in which the company currently finds itself and is the result of “limitations that have existed in recent years surrounding the launch of new projects, due to the crisis in the sector, and the difficulties involved in obtaining funding”.

Since restructuring its debt, Quabit has started to resume its activity, with projects in Zaragoza, Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) and Guadalajara, which now “need to undergo a period of maturation” before they will be reflected in the income statement.

The extraordinary impact of the debt restructuring is also reflected in Quabit’s turnover, which amounted to €4.1 million between January and June 2015, down by 91.8% on the same period last year, when the real estate company recorded revenues of €50.4 million.

EBITDA and debt

The company’s gross operating profit (EBITDA) was negative during H1 2015 (€5.8 million) compared with €71.6 million the previous year. Net debt with credit entities amounted to €355.4 million at the end of the first half of 2015, the same figure as a year earlier.

As at 30 June 2015, Quabit held a stock of 305 homes, compared with 281 homes at the end of 2014, up by 8.5%.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Quabit Records Losses Of €3.95M In Q1 2015

18 May 2015 – Expansión

The real estate company Quabit recorded revenues of €1.17 million during the first three months of 2015 and losses of €3.95 million. These results contrast with those recorded in the first quarter of 2014, when the company generated a profit of €75.5 million from the sale of assets to banks.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Villar Mir Continues To Strengthen Its Stake In Colonial

28 April 2015 – El Mundo

Villar Mir consolidates its 24.4% stake through the acquisition of 1.1 million shares.

Obtains a block of shares at a price that ranged between €0.603 and €0.607.

Grupo Villar Mir has purchased a block of 1.1 million shares in Colonial, representing 0.03% of the real estate company’s share capital, for €665,700.

The corporation controlled and chaired by Juan Miguel Villar Mir has hereby consolidated its 24.4% stake and (position as) the company’s primary shareholder.

Grupo Villar Mir has acquired the new block of shares in Colonial for a price of between €0.603 and €0.607 per share, in transactions closed on the stock exchange on 20 April and 21 April, according to the register of the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

The group is strengthening its stake in Colonial at a time when the asset company is entering a new phase of investment, in which it plans to allocate funds of €300 million in 2015.

The other key shareholders of Colonial are the Qatar Sovereign Wealth Fund, which is the second largest shareholder with a 13.1% stake; MoraBank and the Santo Domingo group, which hold 7% each; plus three international investment funds that own 3% each.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

CaixaBank Injects Another €1,900M Into BuildingCenter

6 April 2015 – Expansión

Over the last two years, the bank has invested €4,400 million in its subsidiary, which owns properties that have been foreclosed (by CaixaBank) following the non-payment of debt.

The property sector is still taking its toll on CaixaBank. In 2014, the entity had to inject another €1,900 million in BuildingCenter, the company in which the bank places all of the real estate assets that it forecloses in exchange for (the cancelation of) debt.

This new contribution of funds responds to the need for BuildingCenter to restore the equity balance of its balance sheet, due to the losses generated by these assets, which are managed and marketed by ServiHabitat, the real estate platform owned by TPG (51%) and CaixaBank (49%). BuildingCenter generated a loss of €1,280 million in 2014.

Typically, the bank chaired by Isidro Fainé, rebalances BuildingCenter’s (balance sheet) through capital increases. However, this time, the €1,900 million has been injected into the Catalan group’s bad bank in the form of a “non-refundable monetary contribution from the sole shareholder”. This means that the money forms part of its restricted reserve, and therefore, constitutes the own funds of the company, just like its capital. In 2013, CaixaBank also used this formula to transfer another €750 million to the real estate company.

The BuildingCenter’s last capital increase was also conducted in 2013, for €1,250 million, plus an issue premium of €500 million. Therefore, if we sum the three contributions, CaixaBank has invested €4,400 million in total in BuildingCenter in just two years.

In parallel, over the last two years, the bank has made provisions for the impairment (of its investment in) BuildingCenter amounting to €2,233 million. In 2013, it made provisions amounting to €1,101 million and last year, it made provisions for a further €1,132 million. The NPL ratio of the real estate company is 58.7%.

Financing

According to CaixaBank’s annual report, the financing granted by the bank to its subsidiary BuildingCenter, amounted to €9,268 million at 31 December 2014, i.e. 16% more (than a year earlier).

In total, the net book value of the BuildingCenter’s real estate assets amounted to €6,515 million, i.e. 8% more than in 2013. 73% of that figure related to properties that the company had foreclosed from construction companies and property developers in exchange for the non-payment of debt.

Homes resulting from the foreclosure of individual mortgages accounted for 15% of the portfolio, amounting to €1,000 million.

In 2014, CaixaBank (successfully) marketed 23,400 properties, including sales and rentals, for €2,512 million, i.e. 15% more (than a year earlier). The occupancy rate of the rental portfolio amounts to 87%.

Finally, last year, BuildingCenter took over General de Inversiones Tormes and the company VIP Gestión de Inmuebles, which it inherited from Banco de Valencia.

Original story: Expansión (by S. Saborit)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Reyal Urbis Appeals To Judge To Advance Its Payment Plan

27 March 2015 – Expansión

Negotiations / The real estate company, which has a debt of €4,000 million, has appealed against the judge’s request to change and clarify certain points of its proposed agreement.

The negotiations to enable Reyal Urbis to emerge from bankruptcy have taken an unexpected turn. The real estate company, chaired by its largest shareholder Rafael Santamaría, has decided to appeal against the request from the judge in charge of the bankruptcy process to modify various points of its proposed agreement.

The decision by the real estate company to postpone the changes requested by the judge has come as a surprise, given the very difficult situation it finds itself in. Reyal Urbis has debt amounting to €4,435 million, whilst its assets are valued at €1,345 million. Moreover, it has an equity deficit of more than €3,000 million.

In 2014, the company recorded a loss of more than €694 million. It has not made a profit for five years, due to the depreciation of its real estate assets and declining sales.

On 6 March 2015, the judge Franciso Javier Vaquer, head of the Commercial Court No. 6 in Madrid, asked the company to remedy deficiencies in the feasibility plan that it had presented a few days earlier. The proposal by Reyal Urbis included a discount of 90% for those creditors with mortgage guarantees from bilateral loans. In the case of creditors of syndicated loans, which included entities such as Santander, Sareb and Barclays, the real estate company proposes two options: one of them involves a discount of 90% and the payment of the balance using certain assets (Reyal reserved some of its portfolio, worth €260 million, for itself).

The second alternative is a discount of between 88% and 93% and a six year wait for the payment of the remainder, with a grace period of four years. In both cases, the discount to be applied “far exceeds the legal limits”, something which is not justified in the feasibility plan presented by Reyal Urbis, according to the judge.

Moreover, the judge also considers that in its business plan the real estate company does not explain how it is going to obtain the funds to pay the remainder of the debt.

These high discount rates would not apply to the Tax Authorities, another one of Reyal Urbis’s creditors, with a liability of €400 million, which the judge asks them to justify “if the bankrupt entity is willing to grant the AEAT (State Tax Administration Agency or Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria) unique, special or beneficial treatment that differs from that offered to other creditors of equal ranking (…), then Reyal should explain all of the details behind the unique, specific or preferential treatment or treat AEAT in the same way as it would treat creditors of similar loans with no option to refer to a subsequent agreement”.

The “Drag effect”

In its proposal, Reyal Urbis clings onto the bankruptcy reform law, approved last year, to obtain its exit from bankruptcy, even without the support of all of its creditors. “The company interprets that Article 121.4 of the Insolvency Act allows a vote in favour of the proposal by 75% of the creditors (by grouped liabilities) of the aforementioned syndicated loan to “drag” the remaining 25%”, they say at the company. This is something the judge rejects, since the waiver of the rights to receive (funds) should be made expressly.

The appeal raised against the judge’s request has surprised the financial creditors, which had expressed their willingness to accept significant discounts in exchange for holding onto the assets that were already provisionally awarded through the drawing of lots, and which featured as collateral in the refinancing agreements signed in previous years.

The main creditors believe that these changes requested are necessary, before they will consider submitting the possibility of accepting this plan or not to their respective boards of directors. If it fails to gain the support of the majority of the debt holders, Reyal Urbis will have to follow in the steps of its counterpart Martinsa Fadesa, which is in the middle of liquidation.

Nevertheless, the creditors have not completely given up on the process and believe that the appeal may afford Reyal extra time to present a proposal by consensus.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz and S. Arancibia)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Disagreement Between Tax Authorities And 4 Top Banks Over Nozar’s Future

10 March 2015 – Expansión

Two camps have been established in the lengthy bankruptcy process involving the real estate company Nozar. The company, which operates food and hotel companies, in addition to its real estate business, is awaiting the court’s decision as to whether to accept or reject the proposed agreement presented at the end of last year.

This proposal has the support of 30 creditors, which together hold 73.73% of the senior loans and almost 70% of the ordinary loans. The creditors include entities such as Bankia, Banco Sabadell and Hypothekenbank, as well as companies such as Colonial and the Tax Authorities.

Nevertheless, another four financial creditors (BBVA, Popular, CaixaBank and Santander), together with Nozar’s bankruptcy administrators, have expressed their opposition to the proposal. Barclays has decided to abstain.

The confrontation between Nozar and the two bankruptcy administrators has led the company to file a criminal complaint against them. In turn, the administrators, together with the four Spanish banks, are calling for the liquidation (of the company).

The origin of this confrontation stems from a series of agreements that Nozar reached with its creditor banks before it filed for bankruptcy and which caused it to reduce its debt from €3,500 million to around €1,500 million. The bankruptcy administrators estimate that these financial creditors should return around €110 million to Nozar through rescissory actions. Nevertheless, the administrators abandoned the recovery of around €62 million.

Instead, Nozar understands that this figure is much higher and that BBVA, Popular, CaixaBank and Santander should repay €500 million that was (previously) distributed to the creditors. Therefore, the bankruptcy administrator of Dimora Gestión, the company created by Nozar, which is in turn a creditor, has claimed €479.4 million from these entities.

The Tax Authorities, which are owed €200 million, claim the payment of VAT on these rescissory actions; a payment that has been postponed by many real estate companies during the crisis. The creditors that have signed up to the bankruptcy agreement support the formula that once the €500 million from the rescissory actions has been repaid, then €50 million should be paid to the Tax Authorities and the asset shall be distributed based on the debt held by each one.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Martinsa Has Until Thursday To Convince Its Lender Banks

23 February 2015 – Expansión

Deadline for negotiations / The real estate company has debts of €3,500 million and must reach an agreement with its creditors to avoid liquidation.

Martinsa Fadesa has until Thursday 26 February for its banks to accept the new creditors’ agreement that the real estate company submitted to the judge to deal with its €3,500 million debt and whereby avoid the liquidation of the company.

One of the discrepancies between Martinsa and its creditors is a mismatch of up to 70% in the valuations of its assets. For this reason, entities such as Popular, Caixabank, Abanca and Sareb will not be joining the agreement.

Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court rejected a claim for €1,500 million that the company had filed against the former managers of Fadesa and in doing so further compromised the feasibility of the real estate company controlled and chaired by Fernando Martín.

Moreover, the High Court ordered Martinsa to pay the legal costs (of that trial), which according to financial sources, amounted to €50 million, somewhat higher than the amount for which the company, which lacks liquidity, had make provisions.

On 30 December, Martinsa Fadesa submitted a request to the Commercial Court of La Coruña to reform the creditors agreement that in March 2011 enabled it to avoid the largest bankruptcy in Spanish corporate history. The real estate company has requested a modification to the agreement on the basis that it is impossible for it to meet the debt payment calendar established.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake