Tag: Santo Domingo

Colonial Will Increase its Share Capital by €180M to Finance Merger with Axiare

21 April 2018 – Expansión

The merger between Colonial and Axiare is moving ahead. The Socimi chaired by Juan José Brugera is expected to approve a capital increase at its next General Shareholders’ Meeting, scheduled for 24 May, to absorb the 13% stake in Axiare that it does not control yet. The capital increase will take place through the issue of 19.27 million new shares, which at current prices corresponds to a monetary value of around €181 million.

On 10 April 2018, the Boards of Directors of Colonial and Axiare approved the project to merge the two Socimis, which will give rise to a real estate giant with a portfolio of assets worth around €11 billion, which will place the new group very close to its rival Merlin, with assets of €11.254 billion.

This operation will go ahead after Colonial successfully completed its takeover of Axiare in February to acquire 87% of its share capital. The operation will involve the termination due to dissolution of Axiare and the block transfer of the Socimi’s assets to Colonial.

According to the approved exchange ratio, each existing shareholder of Axiare will receive 1.8554 shares in Colonial. To this end, the Catalan real estate company will submit to a vote by its shareholders the issue of a maximum of 19.27 million new ordinary shares with a nominal value of €2.50 each to pay for the merger exchange.

This operation will also be subject to a vote by the shareholders of Axiare, whose General Meeting is due to be held on 25 May on the first call and on 28 May on the second call, if the necessary quorum is not reached on the first call.

New Board

The items on the agenda for that General Shareholders’ Meeting include the appointment of Javier López Casado as a proprietary director, as a representative of Finaccess, which will then have two representatives on the Board after taking control of 18% of the group’s share capital. In this way, Axiare’s most senior governance body will comprise 11 members: four independent directors, two executive directors and five proprietary directors – two to represent the sovereign fund of Qatar, two to represent Finaccess and one to represent the Colombian firm Santo Domingo-.

On the other hand, Colonial is going to approve the distribution of a dividend amounting to €0.18 per share, up by 9%. The company is thus going to increase the remuneration to its investors with a third dividend payment after recovering it in 2016, following ten years of not paying the shareholders anything.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grupo Villar Mir Sells Final 1.51% Stake In Colonial

10 July 2017 – El Mundo

Grupo Villar Mir has definitively exited the share capital of the real estate company Colonial by selling the 1.51% stake that it still owned in the Socimi. The shareholding that has been sold is worth around €40 million on the basis of current market prices.

The corporation owned by Juan Miguel Villar Mir has thereby brought to an end its phase as a shareholder of the real estate company, which began in January 2014 – at its height, the Group was the largest shareholder, with a 24% stake. Villar Mir first invested in the real estate company Colonial when that firm was in the middle of its restructuring and clean up process, and it has exited it days after the firm returned to the Ibex 35 and became a Socimi.

Specifically, the corporation has sold the 5.42 million shares that it still owned directly in the real estate firm, through Espacio Activos Financieros, a package equivalent to a 1.51% stake of its share capital, according to the registers of Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV).

Grupo Villar Mir also owned another 3.21% of Colonial indirectly, through various financial instruments. Those shares have been “loaned to hedge a financial operation”, according to the supervisor’s register.

In this way, the corporation concludes just over three years as a shareholder of Colonial, after leaving the Board of Directors in December 2016, when it decreased its stake in the company to just 3.3%.

Subsequently, in January 2017, it decreased its percentage to 1.5%, which is the stake that it is now selling.

Finaccess, current largest shareholder

Currently, the Mexican group Finaccess is the largest shareholder of Colonial; following its recent share purchase, it now owns 13.76% of the share capital. The Qatar sovereign fund is the second largest shareholder of the company chaired by Juan José Brugera, with a stake of 11.7%. The next largest shareholders are the Colombian firm Santo Domingo (6.1%) and the Puig family, which recently acquired a 5.10% stake.

On 19 June 2017, Colonial returned to the Madrid Stock Exchange’s Ibex 35, nine years after leaving the exclusive group. The firm owns a portfolio of office buildings for rent in the centre of Madrid, Barcelona and Paris, with a combined surface area of 866,000 m2 and a value of around €8,000 million.

With its return to the Ibex, Colonial completed the restructuring and clean-up process that it began in 2015. After that, it undertook a growth strategy through which it has now made investments amounting to €1,760 million through various operations, ranging from the purchase of assets to increasing its stake in its French subsidiary Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL), and acquiring capital in another Socimi, Axiare.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colonial Pays Its First Dividend In 10 Years

5 July 2016 – Expansión

Colonial will distribute a gross dividend of €0.015 per share to its shareholders today.

Colonial is making dividend distributions again, ten years after it suspended such payments to its shareholders. The real estate company is rewarding its shareholders now that it has completed its recent restructuring and after closing 2015 with a profit of €415 million and a record number of lease contracts.

Colonial will thereby become the first real estate company of those that have managed to overcome the crisis to start paying dividends again, after it also became the first to achieve an investment grade rating from a ratings agency in 2015.

As such, with the recovery of payments to its shareholders, the company has definitively completed the process to clean up, restructure and return to growth that it embarked upon a few years ago and which involved the entry of new shareholders into its capital.

Currently, Colonial’s two largest shareholders are the Qatari sovereign fund, with a 13% stake and the Grupo Villar Mir, with a 9.2% stake, which will thereby receive €6.23 million and €4.43 million in dividends, respectively.

The company’s new third largest shareholder, the Mexican group Finaccess, will receive €4.3 million for the 8% stake that it just purchased in the company in exchange for a batch of assets.

The other high profile shareholders of the real estate company include the Andorran bank MoraBanc, which holds 7%, the Colombian group Santo Domingo (6.8%), the British billionaire Joseph Charles Lewis (5%), the Reig group with a 2.5% stake and several investment funds, which hold between 1.9% and 3% each.

Following the capital increase, which saw the entry of two new shareholders (Finaccess and Reig), and the dividend payment, Colonial is now waiting to carry out another item on the agenda approved at the last General Shareholders’ Meeting: a “reverse share split” of ten shares for one.

The company chaired by Juan José Brugera defines all of these operations within the growth strategy that it is currently undertaking, which has involved expanding the business focus, beyond its three traditional markets (Madrid, Barcelona and Paris) to analyse operations in other European capitals.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Princeton Acquires c/Mazarredo 7, Next To Google Campus

9 March 2016 – Noticias CBRE

The British family office Princeton has closed the acquisition of the building on Calle Mazarredo 7, in Madrid, in a deal advised by CBRE, the world leading real estate consultancy and services company. The property, situated in a strategic location next to the headquarters of the Google Campus, has a surface area of 4,000 m2 spread across 5 floors.

It is a unique, listed building next to the Manzanares River, located in the new technological area of Madrid that has become fashionable thanks to the arrival of the Google Campus. The building will be leased to companies who want to be located in the area of influence around the technology giant’s headquarters.

Princeton is the investment vehicle of the Lee family, the former owners of the company Imry Property Holdings, which was listed on the London Stock Exchange for more than 25 years. Since the sale of the company, the Lee family has undertaken significant investments in Europe, the UK and the USA, often in partnership with major institutional investors. In April 2015, it acquired a building measuring 10,600 m2 on Calle Fomento, 2, in the Plaza de Santo Domingo, close to Gran Vía, which shows this investor’s commitment to the Spanish market. Following that operation, its purchase of the building on Calle Mazarredo, 7, next to the Google Campus in Madrid, constitutes Princeton’s second acquisition in Spain.

In this way, we are beginning to see the impact of the Google Campus on the area. The headquarters of the technology firm opened its doors last June in the Madrilenian district of Arganzuela, with the aim of becoming a meeting point for entrepreneurs and creatives, and in response to the growing demand in the city for shared work spaces. According to Paloma Relinque, the National Director for Capital Market Foreign Investments at CBRE, “the arrival of the Google Campus is generating an environment of entrepreneurship and a technological meeting point that is impacting the whole area. Demand is very high and it is unlikely that the Campus will be sufficiently large to satisfy it, which means there will be entrepreneurs looking for co-working spaces in the surrounding area”.

Original story: Noticias CBRE

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colonial To Pay Dividends Again After 10 Years

23 February 2016 – El Mundo

The Group generated profits of €415 million in 2015, thanks to the revaluation of its buildings.

Its profits in 2015 were 15.6% lower than in 2014, when the figures reflected the positive accounting effect of the deconsolidation of Asentia.

After 10 years, the Colonial Group is going to distribute dividends once again, distributed from its results for the financial year 2015. The real estate company will allocate around €47 million for payment to its shareholders, 59% of whom are individual investors. The rest of the Group’s capital is held by the Villar Mir Group (15%), the Qatar Investment Authority (13%) and Aguila LTD (7%), a fund owned by (the Colombian group) Santo Domingo (…).

Colonial’s share price closed 2015 at €0.62, after improving by 29% during the year. Shareholders will receive a dividend of €0.015 per share. The company, led by Juan José Brugera, generated a net profit of €415 million last year, after receiving revenues from rental income of €231 million, up by 9% YoY, due to a 6% increase in rental prices, as well as the impact of new acquisitions made in 2014 and 2015. The Group’s profits in 2015 were 15.6% lower than in 2014, when the results reflected the positive accounting effect of the deconsolidation of Asentia (which was not repeated in 2015).

The real estate company, which operates in Barcelona and Madrid, as well as in Paris, through its French subsidiary Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL) recorded a 20% increase in the valuation of its assets, to €6,913 million, with 4% of that amount relating to its most recent operations in Paris. In 2016, the firm wants to continue its pace of investment, at around €300 million per year, even though that figure rose to €475 million in 2015. It will also continue to operate in the office segment in its three geographical markets, through both renovations and new builds.

Original story: El Mundo (by M. T. Coca)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Joseph Lewis Increases His Stake In Colonial To 5.08%

16 September 2015 – El Mundo

The English businessman Joseph Lewis has increased his shareholding in Colonial from 3% to 5.08% and so his stake is now worth €91.3 million on the basis of the company’s current market price.

Lewis increased his stake in the real estate company to more than 5% on 10 September 2015, i.e. on the day after Grupo Villar Mir put 10% of the share capital it owned in the real estate company up for sale, according to the records of Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV).

Specifically, the British investor acquired 66.13 million shares in Colonial, representing 2% of its share capital, worth around €37 million. Following this investment, Lewis owns 162.16 million shares in the real estate company in total, which represents a 5.08% stake.

The business tycoon hereby strengthened his position as a shareholder of the real estate company, in which he first acquired a stake in January 2015. Grupo Villar Mir continues to be Colonial’s largest shareholder, with 14.5% of the share capital.

Amongst Colonial’s other important shareholders are the Qatar sovereign fund, with a 13.3% stake; the Andorran bank MoraBanc with 7%; the Colombian group Santo Domingo (6.8%) and several other investment funds, whose stakes range between 1.9% and 5%.

The real estate company closed trading on Monday with more losses, making it the third consecutive day of decreases since 9 September, when at the close of business, Villar Mir announced its divestment, for €0.56 per share.

During the first trading session of the week, the company’s value decreased by 1.75%, taking its share price to €0.563, in line with that selling price.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake

Telefónica Sells 2 Buildings In Madrid For €42M

18 August 2015 – Expansión

According to company sources, Telefónica has sold one property located in the central Madrilenian square of Santo Domingo and another on Calle Don Ramón de la Cruz, in the Salamanca neighbourhood, also in Madrid.

The divestment comes after the company completed the auction of five buildings last year as ‘Sale & Leaseback’ transactions. It is continuing to occupy those properties as the tenant for 7 years from the date the deeds were signed.

According to the company’s accounts, Telefónica España generated Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortisation (OBIDA) of €19 million during the first six months of 2015 from the extraordinary sale of buildings.

According to ‘El Confidencial’, which has disclosed this latest information, the company recorded revenues of around €42 million from the sale of the two aforementioned properties.

Similarly, the newspaper has reported that Telefónica will continue to occupy the first building as the tenant for a period of seven years. Once that contract term is up, the new owner may turn the property into homes.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake