Tag: Socimi

The new taxation system attracts the real estate fund Orion.

The investment fund Orion has created a Socimi (Real Estate Investment Listed Public Limited Company) of nearly 300 million Euros with its asset the mall Plenilunio, located in Madrid. It constitutes the first great Socimi with the new favorable taxation system for the real estate investment, days before the final date to create these vehicles in 2013.

Until now, only a few small Socimis had been created, of no more than 15 million Euros, like the ones from Visionlab or El Corte Inglés. Orion is the first international fund with experience in the real estate market and in Real Estate Investment Trusts that decides to invest in Spain. The advisors of Orion have been Pablo Serrano de Haro and Alfonso Benavides, partners at Clifford Chance. Sources within the sector do not rule out the creation of new Socimis before the end of September, the final date to do it this year. They assure that the new system is very favorable and they point out that there have been no operations until now because investors have preferred to wait as much as possible.

Taxation for the company is zero, while until this year it was 19%, and it is transferred to investors. The new norm provides two years for the company to be listed. Orion is thinking of doing it on the short and medium term.

The Socimis can now be listed in the Alternative Equity Market.

The listed limited companies which invest in the real estate market (Socimis) can now be listed. The circular which allows its listing in the alternative equity market was published yesterday. The Socimis were created in 2009 with the aim of promoting the rental market, offering tax advantages to investors. At the end of 2012, the reform of the Law 11/2009, modified on the 27th December, was approved. The most important novelties were the tax exemption in the Company tax and the possibility of being listed in the alternative equity market, instead of in the official stock exchange, as proposed in 2009.

For the Socimis to be listed it is necessary that the number of shares have an estimated value of two million Euros in the market. The issuing institution needs to provide a valuation made by an independent expert in order to establish a first reference price. This, unless there has been an offering of shares or a financial operation which results relevant to determine its initial valuation in the six months prior to the request.

For the moment, only one company has requested the start-up of this type of firm and its listing: the firm Promociones, Renta y Mantenimiento, controlled by the group Pavón Olid, owners of Moneygram and the optician´s shops chain Madrid Vision. José María Luna, analysis director of Profim, thinks it is positive that this type of firms appear, even though he thinks their yield will not be very high in the short term.

Source: Expansión