Tag: shareholder

Generali Creates New Retail JV with €500M to Invest in Shopping Centres

5 March 2019 – Eje Prime

Axis Retail Partners – that is the name of the new investment vehicle focusing on shopping centres that Generali has just launched. The insurance company holds a 51% stake in the company, which is going to invest €500 million in high-quality shopping centres across Europe.

The vehicle is expected to create its first fund, Generali Shopping Centres, during the second quarter of 2019, once the necessary approvals have been obtained. The fund’s expected annual return is 7%.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

GMP Signs Spain’s First “Green” Loan with BBVA: €68M for Castellana 77

9 December 2018 – Eje Prime

The Spanish real estate sector has obtained its first green loan. Specifically, the Socimi GMP, controlled by the Montoro family, has signed a loan of that type with BBVA to finance the project to renovate Castellana 77, an office building in the Azca area. In total, the real estate company has received €68 million.

Specifically, the Socimi acquired the building from BBVA in 2015. GMP has recently completed work to renovate the property. The company’s commitment to obtain the loan has been established around the fact that the money will be used to promote sustainability, according to Expansión.

GMP, which has the Singapore sovereign fund (GIC) amongst its reference shareholders, has been working for a while to create a portfolio of sustainable buildings. 80% of its assets have the Leed stamp and, last June, one of the jewels in its crown, the former Torre BBVA, obtained the Well Oro certificate, becoming the first property in Spain to merit that distinction.

During the first half of 2018, the Socimi saw its profits soar by 81% to exceed €110 million. The company recorded revenues of €49.5 million between January and June, down by 0.8% compared to the same period in 2017.

Currently, GMP has a portfolio of sixteen assets, which sum a total of twenty-seven buildings and a gross leasable area (GLA) of 360,000 m2. All of them are located in Madrid, along with the 65,105 m2 of buildable space that the group owns, concentrated in the urban developments of Valdebebas and Las Tablas. The company’s portfolio of projects also includes a residential tourist development in Alicante, which is called Las Colinas Golf&Country Club.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

The Venezuelan Capriles Family Creates a Socimi: Kowo Real Estate

26 October 2018 – Idealista

Increasingly more families are deciding to channel their investments in property through Socimis. Whilst in August, it was the Koplowitzs who decided to create their own investment vehicle using that structure, now, it is the Venezuelan Capriles family that is throwing itself into the real estate market with its first Socimi, Kowo Real Estate, according to explanations provided by sources in the sector speaking to Idealista News.

In recent years, the Capriles family has become one of the most active in terms of investment in luxury housing through the company Gran Roque Capital. On its shoulders stand the recovery of three developments in Madrid, in the Chueca area (two on Calle Fernando VI and the other on Calle Barquillo). At the end of last year, the company started to market homes on Calle Pablo de Aranda in the El Viso area with the aim of reaching €11,000/m2.

Now, the company is pushing ahead with one of the vehicles of the moment in the real estate sector. The businessman Miguel Ángel Capriles has launched Kowo Real Estate Socimi, with the aim of buying and developing real estate assets of an urban nature for their subsequent rental.

But this is not the first time that the company has considered launching a Socimi. At the beginning of this year, the family announced that it was finalising the constitution of a Socimi to position itself as a leader in the tourist accommodation segment The initial investment in that project amounted to €40 million, according to the business plan provided by Edric Capriles.

The Bluemoon apartments are owned by that Socimi, according to reports from La Celosía. They are located in the El Carmen neighbourhood of Valencia, a stone’s throw from the cathedral and its first commitment in Spain. The company invested €5 million in that aparthotel, comprising homes for tourist use of a residential nature. In addition to Valencia, Málaga and Sevilla are also in the spotlight of the Venezuelan investors.

The real estate business of the Capriles family in Spain comprises luxury housing development and renovation projects. Its corporate network in Spain contains more than twenty companies dedicated to real estate development (Craski Inversiones, Madriski Inversiones…), the sale and purchase of real estate assets on their own behalf (Gran Roque Capital and Invecap Inversiones Inmobiliaria) and the rental of real estate assets (MACL Castellana 56).

Between them, all of those entities own total assets worth €125 million. Invecap Inversiones Inmobiliarias is the most important entity, with total assets of €53.3 million and from which almost all of the other entities depend. The latter, moreover, is the sole shareholder of the recently created Socimi.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Will Pay Merlin, Santander & BBVA €948M for 50.01% of Testa

18 September 2018 – Cinco Días

Another major movement in the real estate sector and with the same star as the buyer: the US giant Blackstone. After acquiring the Socimi Hispania, which specialises in hotels, the fund has now set its sights on Testa, the largest owner of rental housing in Spain.

Blackstone has already agreed to purchase 50.01% of the Socimi (…) from three of Testa’s largest shareholders (Merlin Properties, Santander and BBVA), according to a statement filed by the real estate company with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on Monday. Nevertheless, Acciona, the other major shareholder, has not sold its stake. The US fund manager is carrying out the operation through the company Tropic Real Estate Holding and is paying €948 million, whereby valuing Testa at €1.895 billion.

Blackstone is paying €14.327 per share. The company’s closing price at the end of trading on Friday was €14, representing a premium of just over 2%.

Blackstone is keeping the offer open for the other shareholders. In fact, the document sent to the exchange by Testa explains that the bidder “has committed to buying all of the remaining shares in the company” under the same conditions.

Testa’s shareholders regard this operation as an exit following their failure to launch a major IPO in June, when the political uncertainty, above all surrounding Italy, caused a surge in the markets. The intention of Merlin, Santander and BBVA (and to a lesser extent Acciona, which wanted to remain as an industrial partner) was to divest their stakes with that great stock market debut. Now they have found an escape route with Blackstone as the buyer.

Merlin also reported on Monday that with this operation, it will raise €321.2 million in exchange for its 16.95% stake in Testa. The funds obtained by Merlin will be used to reduce its debt in line with the objectives set out in the company’s business plan.

BBVA, which owned 25.24% of Testa has also sold all of its shares. Meanwhile, Santander sold just 7.82% of the 36.87% that it held in Testa, which made possible the operation that has given Blackstone control over the entity.

The new Testa Residencial is a listed real estate investment company promoted in 2016 by the banks and Merlin. The latter company had been left with homes following its purchase of the former Testa from Sacyr in 2015; meanwhile, Santander and BBVA contributed rental homes from the property developer Metrovacesa. Finally, last year, Acciona incorporated more than 1,000 homes, worth €340 million, to close the current alliance between the four shareholders.

Testa is currently the market leader in the residential rental sector in Spain. It has a portfolio of 10,615 units, worth €2.675 billion, mainly private housing, with annualised gross rental income of €85 million and an occupancy rate of 91.4%.

Original story: Cinco Días 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Zambal Approves Merger with Iberia Nora & Completes €80M Capital Increase

12 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Zambal has approved its merger with Iberia Nora and has given the green light to its capital increase. Following the General Shareholders’ Meeting, the company managed by IBA Capital has notified the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) that it is going to carry out its integration with the other Socimi, which specialises in the rental of real estate assets.

In addition, Zambal has confirmed the €80 million capital increase that it announced in July. It will conduct it through the issue of 80 million shares with a nominal value of €1 and an issue premium of €0.25, which “will be fully subscribed and paid up through the compensation of loans”.

The capital increase has been fully subscribed by the Socimi’s majority shareholder, Altaya, headquartered in Singapore, which owns 95.21% of the share capital. Of the remaining 4.79%, 4.40% corresponds to Loire Investments Pte. Ltd, also domiciled in Singapore and 0.39% is treasury stock.

The Socimi, which started life in 2013, is an investment vehicle managed externally by IBA Capital Partners. The company specialises in the investment, and subsequent management, of offices and retail assets in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, although the company also considers other assets such as nursing homes for the elderly, hospitals, retail parks and logistics platforms.

In a recent operation, Zambal purchased two office buildings on Calle Albarracín in Madrid, leased to the French multi-national firm Atos. That operation involved an investment of €38 million.

Without resorting to bank financing, Zambal has constructed a portfolio worth more than €730 million. Some of the company’s other main assets include, for example, the property at number 77 Avenida San Luis (which is home to Gas Natural’s headquarters in Madrid); the Edificio Vodafone, on Avenida de América; and the building at number 118 Avenida Burgos, which is leased in its entirety to BMW.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

David Martínez: “Aedas Has Land on which to Build Homes for the next 4 Years”

8 September 2018 – Expansión

Aedas, the property developer in which the US fund Castlelake holds a stake, is continuing to push ahead and take on new challenges. As the first anniversary of its debut on the stock market approaches and with its business plan on track, the company is considering starting to buy plots of land that still require urban planning approval to anticipate possible price rises and improve margins, as well as to launch projects to sell to specialists companies in the rental sector, such as Socimis.

“We have a land bank spanning more than 1.5 million m2, which will allow us to build more than 14,000 homes. That gives us four years of visibility with respect to our business plan”, explains David Martínez, CEO of the company.

Aedas became the second largest property developer, after Neinor, to make its debut on the stock market after ten years of drought following the burst of the real estate bubble. It was followed shortly after by Metrovacesa, and several other companies are lining up to take the plunge, including Vía Célere and Aelca.

Aedas is sticking to the objectives announced in the listing brochure and unlike its rivals is not contemplating a reduction in its initial forecasts. “Our objective is to hand over more than 200 homes this year, more than 1,000 homes in 2019 and to exceed 2,000 homes in 2020. In total, by the end of 2020, we will have handed over more than 3,200 homes and we already have 114 developments underway, with more than 4,000 homes in different phases of development, which gives us a great deal of visibility over the objectives. We designed a realistic business plan and we will fulfil the forecasts for 2018, 2019 and 2020”, said the director.

Investment in land

The CEO of Aedas explains that during the first half of 2018, Aedas invested almost €100 million and purchased land for 1,905 homes, almost doubling the planned investment figure for the entire year. In addition, the company signed a corporate financing line for €150 million to continue expanding its land bank.

“We have detected interesting opportunities that fit with our investment criteria that are not going to be available in six months time. For that reason, we decided to bring forward our investment plan. Recently, we formalised a loan amounting to €150 million to provide us with sufficient financial resources to continue bringing forward the purchases planned in the business plan between now and 2023”, he explained.

At this point, Martínez opened the door to the possibility of purchasing non-finalist land. “There is a lot of land classified as “urbanisable” that still requires urban planning. Given that we now have land to cover our requirements for the next four years and we are not in any hurry, nor do we need to buy finalist land, we are considering land in areas with demand that has the partial plans approved but that still require some urban planning management”, he revealed.

Martínez highlighted that a significant percentage of the €150 million resulting from the loan formalised a few weeks ago will be used to buy non-finalist land. “With the economic recovery, new property developers are emerging who need to buy finalist land to get to work. For this reason, in some places, the prices of some plots of finalist land now exceed our expectations. We want to take advantage to buy land at more affordable prices even if that requires more management subsequently (…).

Rental

Similarly, the property developer is exploring other business opportunities, such as the sale of homes to Socimis and other vehicles specialising in the rental market. “One of the challenges involves supplying homes to young people. Aedas is exploring formulae that allow the construction of homes for rent, basically developing projects that we can sell to companies that specialise in rental. We have a very extensive and urban land bank”.

The director anticipates a “long” upwards cycle. “We are at the beginning of a cycle and notwithstanding the fact that we may see some adjustments in prices in certain specific towns, in general, it is going to last”, he predicted.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

La Caixa Finalises its Purchase of 49.9% of Saba for €900M

6 June 2018 – Expansión

Criteria is planning to acquire 100% of the parking lot group, which has itself closed several operations in recent months, resulting in the addition of almost 15,000 parking spaces to its portfolio.

Reorganisation between the shareholders of Saba, the parking lot group controlled by Criteria (50.1%), the industrial holding company of la Caixa, and in which Torreal (20%), KKR (18.2%) and ProA (10.5%) hold stakes, along with 3,000 minority shareholders (1.2%).

Criteria is finalising the acquisition of the remaining 49.9% that it does not yet own in Saba for €900 million, according to sources in the infrastructure sector. It remains to be seen whether this operation will be completed in time to be approved at the Ordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting, which is scheduled to be held next Tuesday, 12 June. The celebration of the assembly had been postponed from 9 May precisely for the purpose of signing the deal that will see Criteria take complete control over the group chaired by Salvador Alemany.

The agenda for Saba’s General Shareholders’ Meeting includes the ratification and appointment of the company’s directors. In the event that the takeover does not take place, the most feasible option would be for another General Shareholders’ Meeting to be convened, but in that case an Extraordinary one.

The price at which Saba had been valued initially amounted to around €1.4 billion for 100% of the Catalan company, based on a multiplier of around 14 times its EBITDA in 2016. Saba’s accounts for 2017 have not been published yet, pending the General Shareholders’ Meeting next week, but a slight increase is expected both in turnover and profits, boosted by the strong performance of the firm in countries such as Portugal. In 2016, the company recorded a comparable gross profit of €94 million after generating revenues of €205 million, 66% of which were recorded in Spain.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Á. Patiño, A. Zañón & C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Espacio Caleido to Build up to 80 Commercial Premises in Madrid’s Fifth Tower Complex

4 June 2018 – Eje Prime

More retail space in Madrid. Espacio Caleido, controlled by the company Inmobiliaria Espacio, is going to build between seventy and eighty retail premises in the fifth tower complex in Madrid. Together, all of the establishments will have a combined commercial area of more than 13,000 m2.

The commercial premises will be destined to retail, restaurant and service operators, which will be located in a zone divided into several areas (some next to the tower) and which will include gardens and rest spaces next to the shops and restaurants.

One of the areas that will be most representative will be formed “by ten cubes that will be located parallel to Paseo de la Castellana and which may be customised by each operator”, said Espacio Caleido. To market the premises available in the complex, Espacio Caleido has already opened an office to show the plans to companies interested in moving there.

The Torre Caleido project, which is being built alongside the four tallest skyscrapers in Madrid, will involve an investment of €300 million. It will span 70,000 m2 in total, stand 165 m tall and contain 36 storeys.

The fifth tower is going to be the shortest of the five skyscrapers and its neighbour, Torre de Cristal, will continue to be the tallest in Madrid, and in Spain, at 249 m tall.

The new complex, which is being built in the Cuatro Torres Business District, will have Instituto de Empresa (IE) as its main tenant, which will create its university campus IE University there, and the Quirón Salud Group, which is going to install an advanced medicine centre in an annexed building that will be four-storeys tall and 20 m high.

The project is being promoted by the company Espacio Caleido, owned by Inmobiliaria Espacio, of the Villar Mir Group, the main shareholder of OHL, with a 51% stake, and by the Philippine company Megaworld Corporation with the remaining 49%.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Colonial & Axiare Formally Approve Their €11bn Merger

24 May 2018 – Eje Prime

Colonial and Axiare are on the verge of merging. Yesterday (Thursday), the General Shareholders’ Meeting of the Catalan Socimi approved the firm’s merger with Axiare, in an operation that is expected to close during the second half of the year and which will give rise to the largest office building rental company in Spain, a real estate giant with asset worth €11 billion.

The integration is a consequence of the takeover bid that Colonial launched over Axiare at the end of last year to acquire the share capital that it did not own in the Socimi, of which it was already the largest shareholder. The real estate company led by Pere Viñolas purchased 86.8% of the Socimi’s share capital in the end. To obtain the remaining 13.2%, it offered a share exchange deal at a ratio of 1.8554 own shares for each Axiare share.

Colonial also subjected the capital increase necessary to undertake this exchange to its General Shareholders’ Meeting, held on Thursday. With this merger, the real estate company chaired by Juan José Brugera seeks “to consolidate” its position in the prime office sector and “to respond to the current challenges in the real estate sector by strengthening its competitive position and achieving greater size and more efficiency in the business in Spain”.

Nevertheless, it does not rule out that the integration may also generate “duplications and incoherencies” in the resulting workforce, in which case, it plans to undertake adjustments over the coming months.

Axiare will, in turn, give its “approval” to the integration at its General Shareholders’ Meeting today, 25 May, where it will also ratify the Transition Board of Directors, comprising independent members, which Colonial appointed following the takeover.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Includes its own RE Manager in the Popular Divestment Deal

3 May 2018 – La Información

Blackstone’s real estate platform, Anticipa, is going to collaborate with Aliseda – founded at the time by Popular – in the management of its voluminous property portfolio. The US fund acquired Anticipa in 2014 when it was awarded Catalunya Caixa’s portfolio, and it has just taken control of Aliseda, as part of the mega-operation signed with Santander. The Cantabrian group included the real estate platform, together with a dozen real estate companies, in the €30 billion gross portfolio of properties that it transferred to the new company, in which Blackstone owns 51% of the capital and Santander held onto the remaining 49%.

Blackstone decided not to merge the companies but they are going to collaborate together, according to information submitted to the market about the syndicated loan signed to close Popular’s transaction. The toxic exposure divested by Santander in the deal known as “Project Quasar” has been valued at €10 billion net, given that there was a provision cushion amounting to 63% of the original value in the case of the foreclosed assets and 75% in the case of the loans.

The transaction was structured with the contribution of 30% in capital and 70% in debt. The bank and the fund are going to contribute almost €3 billion in capital and the remaining almost €7.333 billion will proceed from a financial structure led by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, together with Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Parlex 15 Lux, The Royal Bank of Scotland and Sof Investment. The operation has been advised by the law firm Allen & Overy, amongst others.

The “Neptune” portfolio constituted to obtain the financing includes Aliseda in the perimeter along with numerous real estate companies and stakes held in them by Popular, including Tifany Investments, Corporación Financiera ISSOS, Pandantan (Mindanao), Taler Real Estate, Vilarma Gestión, Marina Golf, Popsol, Elbrus Properties, Cercebelo Assets, Eagle Hispania, Las Canteras de Abanilla and Canvives. A large proportion of the assets transferred are plots of land, together with residential homes, industrial warehouses, commercial properties, offices, garages and almost €1 billion gross exposure in hotels.

This operation is going to allow Santander to dramatically reduce its exposure to foreclosed assets from €41.1 billion to €10.4 billion – a figure that is reduced to a net of €5.2 billion thanks to the provisions it has recognised amounting to 50% of the initial value – but enabling it to benefit from the divestments as a shareholder of the company receiving the portfolios with a 49% stake.

The plan includes the use of Socimis

The fund’s divestment plans include constructing or transferring some of the assets to Socimis, a vehicle that Blackstone has made use of for previous operations because it offers tax benefits such as avoiding the need to pay Corporation Tax if they distribute dividends. In gross terms, residential assets accounted for almost one-third of the perimeter of the original properties involved in the transaction.

After leaving the Popular portfolio in the hands of Blackstone, Santander still has €4 billion net in foreclosed assets and €1.2 billion in doubtful financing that it wants to get rid of soon. The bank plans to repackage the assets by batch and put them on the market, where half a dozen entities and Sareb are exploring how to get rid of almost €48 billion gross – the bad bank alone is looking for a buyer for the €30 billion whose sale is being managed by Haya Real Estate, and Sabadell has several batches up for sale amounting to almost €11 billion.

The Cantabrian group acquired Popular when it had closed the chapter to clean up its real estate and now it wants to return to that position quickly. It was its real estate division to leave behind the “red numbers” this year or by the early stages of 2019 at the latest.

Original story: La Información (by Eva Contreras)

Translation: Carmel Drake