Tag: share issue

Basque Construction Firm Ondobide Buys 3.8% of Quabit for €8M

9 January 2018 – Eje Prime

The Basque construction firm Ondobide is taking positions in the Spanish property development sector. The company has acquired 3.82% of Quabit’s share capital for €8 million, by exchanging the shares for plots of land in its construction company Rayet, according to a statement made by the group to the National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV).

The Basque firm has whereby become the third largest shareholder of the company, after its President, Félix Abánades, and the fund manager Francisco García Paramés, who also acquired 4.93% of the firm in the same capital increase. In the case of the President, by virtue of the capital increase, his stake was diluted to 24% from the 28.63% that he had increased his stake to on the occasion on another capital increase.

Ondobide and Paramés have acquired stakes in Quabit’s share capital as part of the most recent capital increase that the real estate company has undertaken. It issued new shares amounting to €29 million for the express purpose of opening up its equity to new shareholders.

The real estate company undertook this increase and admitted these new shareholders after also making way for minority shareholders through a series of non-monetary capital increases approved in November to close half a dozen operations that involved swapping land for shares.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Domo Activos’s Socimi Approves €15M Capital Increase to Buy Land

12 December 2017 – Eje Prime

Domo Activos is getting down to work with its growth plan. The largest property developer Socimi, which is aimed at medium-sized investors, has approved a €15 million capital increase at an Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting. The funds will be used to purchase land in Spain for the construction of new homes.

The company has already identified purchase opportunities in a number of cities in Spain, according to José Luis Alba, the company’s Area Director, speaking to Eje Prime. “We will focus these acquisitions on Madrid, Málaga and Valencia in the first instance, but we are also searching for plots in Sevilla, Córdoba, Granada and Zaragoza”.

The Socimi’s capital increase will be undertaken through the issue and launch into circulation of a maximum of 7.5 million shares, granting a nominal value of €2 to each one of them.

Currently, the first project promoted by Domo Activos is the development being constructed in Madrid, in the Ensanche de Vallecas. This building will have eighty homes allocated for rent.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Socimis Have Raised €1,700M In Funding In YTD16

11 August 2016 – Expansión

Merlin, Hispania, Grupo Lar and Axiare are increasing their capital and attending the bond market in order to finance new acquisitions, increase their asset portfolios and grow in size.

The large listed real estate investment companies (Socimis) – Merlin, Hispania, Lar España and Axiare – are preparing themselves to gain financial muscle and resume their property purchases. Specifically, so far this year, those Socimis have raised almost €1,700 million between capital increases, financing agreements and bond issues and they are expected to continue to pull on the real estate sector this year.

These four companies, which debuted on the Madrilenian stock exchange between March and July 2014 with €2,560 million to invest, have been the stars of the reactivation of the real estate sector and intend to continue to grow this year. Last year, the Socimis accounted for more than 40% of all real estate investment, with an investment volume of around €5,300 million. To that end, Merlin, Axiare, Hispania and Lar España managed to raise almost €3,000 million on the main market through several capital increases.

Bond issue

So far in 2016, the Socimis have again been very active in terms of raising funds for investment. Specifically, Merlin, which is preparing for its merger with Metrovacesa in a deal that will see it become the largest real estate company in Spain, has opted to go to the bond markets. The company chaired by Ismael Clemente completed a bond issue in April amounting to €850 million, with a maturity of seven years and an annual coupon of 2.225%, payable annual in arrears.

Similarly, in June, the Socimi announced that it had signed a revolving loan (a flexible arrangement) for a maximum amount of €320 million over five years, which will be used for the current investment program that it is undertaking, as well as to finance new acquisitions. (…).

Meanwhile, Hispania, which focuses on the hotel sector above all, completed a capital increase in June amounting to €231 million, through the issue and placing into circulation of 25.8 million new shares, at €8.95 per share (the sum of the nominal value and the issue premium). The company in which George Soros owns a stake, which had used up almost all of its investment capacity, has identified new opportunities worth €1,500 million. (…).

Another of the Socimis listed on the stock market that wants to gain financial muscle to make purchases is Lar España. That company has completed a €147 million capital increase this year, through the issue of 30 million shares at a price of €4.92, in order to be able to undertake new transactions.

In addition, in February, the company signed a loan with a banking syndicate comprising Natixis, Credit Agricole and Santander, amounting to €97 million over a seven year term. This financing was associated with the acquisition of Megapark Barakaldo. (…).

Financing agreements

In March, also with the aim of raising funds for investment, Axiare Patrimonio signed a new financing contract with Banco Santander for €14.9 million over two premises in Edificio Velázquez, in Madrid.

In addition, in June, Axiaire reached a financing agreement with Bankinter amounting to €31.2 million, with a five-year term. (…).

Similarly, the company has also signed an agreement with BBVA amounting to €7 million, also with a five-year term. In this case, the financed property is an office building on Calle Josefa Valcárcel (Madrid).

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sareb May Exchange Its €57.5M Debt In Realia For Shares

20 May 2015 – El Economista

Sareb may have the option to enter the share capital of Realia, with a maximum stake of 4.5%, through the exchange for shares of the equity loans (€57.5 million) that it holds with the real estate company.

Realia will request authorisation at its next shareholders’ meeting to undertake the necessary capital increases in the event that the ‘bad bank’ decides to perform the operation.

It will undertake two capital increases, one amounting to €29 million and a second amounting to €28.9 million. In both cases, it will issue around fourteen million new shares at €2 per share, a price that almost triples (+185%) the current share price of the real estate company.

Shareholder

In this way, Realia will give the ‘bad bank’ another year to exercise its option to become a shareholder of the company. The institution will consider this possibility at a time when Realia is subject to two takeover bids (OPA), one by the Socimi Hispania and the other by the businessman Carlos Slim.

These bidders are waiting for Spain’s National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) to approve the second bid so that the acceptance period may begin.

Sareb’s equity loan in Realia was granted in September 2009, when the real estate company signed a €100 million loan agreement with its two then partners (FCC and Bankia), which each contributed 50% of the balance. FCC then exchanged its entire loan balance for shares in the company, converting it into the majority shareholder, with a stake of 36.8%, which it has already said it will not sell under either of the takeover scenarios.

Meanwhile, Bankia, which currently has an agreement to sell its 24.9% stake in Realia to Carlos Slim, transferred its share of the loan to Sareb in December 2012. The entity has not yet made any decision about the eventual conversion. Nevertheless, the financing is due to expire in 2016.

Of Sareb’s total loan amount, one tranche amounting to €29 million is “freely convertible” in nature, whilst the second tranche, amounting to €28.58 million, is “not freely convertible”, which means that the institution will have to decide between capitalising it or accepting a discount.

Slim’s arrival

Another item on the agenda at Realia’s shareholders’ meeting, which will be held on 22 June, is the ratification of the appointment of Gerardo Kuri as a Director – he is currently the Director General of Real Estate at Carso, one of Slim’s companies, as well as a Director of FCC and the CEO of Cementos Portland.

Slim appointed this spokesman and positioned him on Realia’s board, after he became the primary shareholder of FCC and that group decided to continue as a partner of the real estate company, but just days before the Mexican businessman launched his takeover bid for the company.

Realia will also ask its shareholders for approval, if they deem appropriate, of an increase in its share capital by up to half of its current size and to issue debt securities for a period of up to five years and for a maximum amount of €450 million.

Original story: El Economista

Translation: Carmel Drake