Oak Hill Grants €66M Loan To Construction Firm Murias

6 June 2016 – Expansión

The US fund Oak Hill Advisors has granted a direct loan (direct lending) to the Basque construction company Murias. The operation is significant, not only because it is the largest financing agreement of its type to be granted in Spain during the year to date, but also because it shows that major international investors on the other side of the Atlantic are regaining confidence in a sector that had been completely stigmatised, namely construction.

Murias Grupo Empresarial, founded in 1973, comprises 25 companies. As well as participating in several public and private construction projects, such as the construction of the new San Mamés football stadium (in Bilbao), the Group has also built several retail parks: the Gorbeia in Vitoria (pictured above); the Abadía in Tolego; Las Cañas in Viana (Navarra) and the Niessen in Rentería (Guipúzcoa). According to market sources, the €66 million that the Group has just borrowed will be used to develop and then manage a shopping centre in Melilla.

The numbers

The Group recorded revenues of €71.8 million in 2013, according to its most recent set of consolidated annual accounts filed in the commercial registry. Its attributable net profit amounted to €1.2 million and it employed a workforce of 296.

The company has been advised by N+1 Debt Capital markets, a division of the boutique Spanish consultancy firm N+1, regarding the structuring and placing of this operation. The loan has been structured through a single-tranche loan, with a single international investor and a term of 5 years. The funds afford the company complete flexibility to undertake the project to construct a shopping centre in Melilla, as well as to finance new projects in the new future.

The investor, Oak Hill, is a giant in the world of investment, with assets under management amounting to more than $27,000 million (equivalent to around €24,200 million). The fund participated alongside other investors in a recent injection of liquidity into Abengoa, as part of its debt restructuring process. In fact, it may take control of the Spanish company. On the other hand, Oak Hill injected €100 million into the car park subsidiary of Isolux. In exchange, Isolux granted Oak Hill an option to acquire the car park subsidiary from 2019 onwards.

Original story: Expansión (by D.B, I.A and M.F.)

Translation: Carmel Drake