Tag: stock market

Silicius Sells an Office Building in the Centre of Madrid

3 June 2019 – Eje Prime

Silicius has taken another step in its strategy to debut on the stock market. The Socimi owned by Mazabi has sold an office building in the centre of Madrid to an investment vehicle created by Tenigla Real Estate for more than €9 million. The property spans a surface area of 3,648 m2 and is leased in its entirety to several tenants.

To undertake this purchase, Tenigla has created an investment vehicle together with several private investors. Following the operation, the company now has €90 million in assets under management.

Ahead of its debut on the MAB, Silicius is planning to create a portfolio worth €740 million by the end of 2019. Currently, the Socimi owns 17 assets worth €160 million, which generate annual income of more than €8 million.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Blackstone’s Hotel Socimi Hispania Ceases Trading on the Stock Market

4 April 2019 – La Vanguardia

Hispania, the largest hotel owner in the country, will stop trading on the stock market from tomorrow Friday 5 April. This outcome has been on the cards since the Socimi, which owns 46 hotels located all over Spain, was taken over by the US fund Blackstone last year.

Blackstone paid €18.25 per share for the Socimi, compared with the firm’s debut price of €10.00. On Thursday, Hispania closed trading at €17.82 per share.

The Socimi, which is worth almost €2 billion, will abandon the stock market five years after making its debut in March 2014. It is the first Socimi to have trading in its shares terminated in this way.

Original story: La Vanguardia 

Translation/Summary: Carmel Drake

Vía Célere Completes its Merger with Aelca to Create a Giant Firm with Land for 25,000 Homes

16 January 2019 – El Confidencial

Vía Célere has completed the integration of the real estate assets (land and property developments) of Aelca, to become one of the largest property developers in Spain with a gross asset volume (GAV) of €2.2 billion and a land bank for the construction of 25,000 homes. From today, the company has the capacity to deliver an estimated 2,000 homes in 2019 and 5,000 homes in 2021.

To put that into context, Metrovacesa owns land for the construction of 38,000 homes, has a GAV of €2.6 billion, and so it is still the largest property developer in Spain. Meanwhile, Aedas has land for 14,521 homes and a GAV of €1.6 billion, whilst Neinor, with a GAV of €1.7 billion, has land for another 13,500 units.

Following the operation, Värde is now the owner of 75% of the shares in Vía Célere, whilst the other minority shareholders (Marathon, Attestor, BAML, Barclays, DB and JPM) own the remaining 25% stake. The company is also strengthening the diversification of its asset portfolio with 38% in Madrid, 20% in Málaga, 11% in Barcelona, 9% in Sevilla, 5% in Valencia and 17% in other provinces across the rest of Spain.

The purchase of Aelca by Vía Célere was made with one clear objective in mind: to grow the company so as to be able to list it on the stock market, given that the transaction has allowed the company chaired by Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado (pictured above) to incorporate assets worth €1.3 billion (…).

Future stock market debut?

Since then, the rumours regarding the possible stock market debut of Vía Célere have been constant (…). In fact, it was initially scheduled for the spring of 2018, but it was always known that the property developer needed to be larger to be able to compete in the market with Neinor, Metrovacesa and Aedas (…).

Original story: El Confidencial 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Urbas’s Share Price Rallies Following the Publication of its 5-Year Strategic Plan

8 January 2019 – Idealista

Few events are as long-awaited by investors and analysts as the presentation of the strategic plan of a listed company. Above all, when that company has had a difficult year on the stock market, such as the case of Urbas. The real estate company, a classic amongst the ‘small cap’ or companies with a small market capitalisation in the Spanish market, is leading the first stock market rally of 2019 in the sector after losing almost 75% of its value in 2018.

During the first week of the year, Urbas’s share price has recorded a large rise of 30%. In reality, the reaction began during the final week of last year, when the group revealed the broad strokes of its strategy for the period 2019-2024. Its plan pivots around a reduction in the level of debt, generating value from its assets and the payment of a dividend from 2022.

The market has picked up on the company’s message, which with a land portfolio of almost 18 million m2, also wants to provide a new boost to its property developer business. But its number one objective is to reorganise its debt balance, which amounted to €194 million at the end of the third quarter, up by 3.7% compared to the same period a year earlier. The figure contrasts with the just over €16 million that the company is currently worth on the stock market.

The objective is to reduce the debt figure to €86 million. To achieve that, Urbas faces the challenge of moving forward with the dual negotiations that it is holding on the one hand with its creditor banks and on the other hand with Sareb to refinance its indebtedness to the necessary levels to allow it to handle new investments.

Therefore, the group’s plans are aggressive, as shown by the fact that Urbas wants to finish the first year of its new business plan with revenues of more than €20 million and a net profit of more than €14 million. By the end of the period, in 2024, the forecasts skyrocket. But, today, the reality of the group is very different. Until 30 September, Urbas lost €5 million due to the effect of the financial interest adjustment made and its revenues slightly exceeded €2 million.

In any case, the sharp rise in Urbas’s share price so far this year should be considered with the utmost caution. It is a very small security with very limited liquidity, which means that its movements may be brusque and fast, both up and down. In recent years, it has recorded large fluctuations. With the sole exception of 2017, the share price has always moved by at least 33% in each of the last nine years (…).

Original story: Idealista 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Castellana to Merge the Kinépolis & Alameda Shopping Centres in Granada

2 November 2018 – Eje Prime

Castellana is making changes in Granada. The Socimi owned by the South African fund Vukile is going to merge the Alameda Retail Park and the Kinépolis shopping centre into a new brand, called Granaita, according to explanations provided in a corporate presentation that the firm has distributed to potential investors.

The company, which has been listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) since July, will invest €5 million in the process to reposition and integrate its two shopping centres in Granada.

Castellana is one of the emerging players in the current retail market in Spain, in which it specialises. The objective of the company is to be “the leading Socimi in the retail sector”, adds the company, whose objectives include the optimisation of its asset portfolio. The operation that it is going to carry out in Granada sits firmly within that framework.

The real estate manager acquired Kinépolis in June 2017, through the company Junction Parque Granada. The asset, inaugurated in 2004, comprises eight stores with a gross leasable area of 18,508 m2 and is worth €32.5 million.

Meanwhile, Alameda Retail Park was incorporated into Castellana’s portfolio in December last year. Located in the municipality of Pulianas, in Granada, the park began operating in 2014 and comprises four stores with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 27,256 m2. The monthly rent at Alameda amounts to €10.71 and its market value stands at €55.3 million.

The fund that sustains the Socimi financially, Vukile, is going to inject up to €200 million over the next few years to continue with its plan to conquer the commercial sector in Spain, where it hopes to form a portfolio worth €1.2 billion. Castellana is going to look for new shareholders to inject the resources necessary to carry out this plan, which seeks to enable the Socimi to make the leap from the MAB to the main stock exchange within the next three years.

In pursuit of this goal, Vukile acquired four shopping centres from Unibail-Rodamco for €489 million last summer, which were placed in Castellana’s portfolio, as reported by Eje Prime.

Castellana Properties closed 2017 with revenues of €9.31 million, whilst it registered turnover of €5.15 million during the first three months of 2018. The net result for 2017 amounted to €18.61 million, and the firm earned €6.65 million during the first quarter of 2018. The group’s debt at the end of 2017 amounted to €146 million.

Original story: Eje Prime (By Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ores Socimi Acquires 3 Commercial Assets for €19.7M

25 October 2018 – Idealista

Ores Socimi has circumvented some of the operations that it was studying and has leapt into action. The Socimi owned by Bankinter and the Portuguese real estate company Sonae Sierra has acquired three commercial assets, occupied by the supermarkets Mercadona and Día, and the home decor store Conforama, for €19.7 million. The purchases have been carried out in Madrid and Santander.

In Madrid, Ores has purchased an asset occupied by Mercadona, located in the town of Humanes, which has a retail surface area of 2,334 m2. That transaction was carried out for €4.1 million.

Ores has also purchased a supermarket in Getafe, which is leased to and operated by the company Día. That asset has a total surface area of 1,956 m2 and the amount of the operation was €3 million. In Santander, meanwhile, the company has invested €12.6 million in an asset operated by Conforama and with a surface area of 8,000 m2.

These acquisitions form part of a new period of purchases by Ores, which has set itself the objective of investing €30 million, as revealed by Idealista News.

In this way, Ores is continuing to grow its portfolio, which comprises 30 assets and has a combined market value of more than €328 million and a gross annual income of €19.4 million.

Ores is aimed at private banking clients. Although its portfolio of assets is small, for the time being, the Socimi made its debut on the stock market with the objective of investing €400 million in retail premises on high streets, as well as supermarkets, retail parks (up by 20,000 m2), bank branches and singular assets with long-lasting leases and solvent tenants.

Bankinter and Sonae Sierra launched their real estate vehicle in record time. On 15 December last year, the two groups constituted the company and, within just two months, they carried out the process to create the vehicle, raised sufficient capital to get it going and completed its stock market debut.

Original story: Idealista (by Custodio Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Madrid-Based Socimi Única Finalises its MAB Debut with c. 30 Commercial Premises

14 June 2018 – Eje Prime

Única Real-Estate is one step closer to its stock market debut. The Socimi is finalising the procedures to start trading on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) this month. The company owns 29 commercial premises in the Community of Madrid (25 in Madrid capital and four in other municipalities) with a combined net book value of €32.5 million and an annualised gross rental income of more than €1.9 million.

The Socimi is committed to diversifying its portfolio to ensure that no single asset exceeds 15% of the total portfolio, and for a moderate financial leverage equivalent to less than 40% of the market value of the combined investment.

Única, which defines itself as a long-term investor, was created in 2015 and financed its previous growth through capital increases. In September 2017, the real estate firm became a Socimi. The President of Única is Eduardo Paraja, who used to be the CEO of Metrovacesa and an external advisor to Habitat.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aelca & Aedas Enter Final Round of Sareb’s Property Developer Venture

1 June 2018 – Eje Prime

The bad bank is gradually outlining what its property development venture in Spain is going to look like. Aelca and Aedas Homes are the final candidates in the bid to take over the land portfolio that the bad bank has put on the market in exchange for entering the share capital of one of the house builders. By contrast, Vía Célere has abandoned the competition, leaving the path clear for the other two operators.

According to sources familiar with the process, Vía Célere has decided not to submit a final proposal to Sareb. The property developer, controlled by Värde Partners (51%), together with other funds, decided against going forward to exploit the bad bank’s €1.2 billion portfolio.

The bet by the entity chaired by Jaime Echegoyen is also happening because its property developer partner is listed on the stock market, such as in the case of Aedas, or has the intention of doing so, such as Aelca. That means that the financial institution will be able to divest its shares easily in the future and make a gain. That point is likely to have been one of the reasons that led Vía Célere to back out of the deal, given that it has put the brakes on its stock market debut following the postponements announced by Testa and Azora.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Kronos to Invest Another €500M by 2021 to Become the New Real Estate King

16 May 2018 – Press Release

The real estate developer created by a former director of Fortress now owns a  land portfolio spanning more than 1 million m2 for the construction of 8,000 homes.

Led by the investment manager Kronos, the real estate company Kronos Homes has become one of the largest property developers in the country, in just four years, with a land portfolio that exceeds 1 million m2.

Saïd Hejal leads the company. The Parisian founded Kronos in 2014, after several years studying the Spanish market from London as the head of one of Fortress’s investment funds. “I was in charge of investments in Southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Greece and France) for Fortress, with a particular focus on Spain from 2012 onwards. We chose Spain because we believed that it was the market with the greatest future growth potential with respect to the other European countries”, explains Hejal, Managing Partner of Kronos.

Unlike other investors, the former executive of Fortress opted to create his own property developer and grow it to become one of the largest landowners in the country. “I have worked for years in the US, and there, the property developers were focused on design; in Spain, we saw the opportunity to create a company based on design, that’s why we chose to create a company, with a new image, rather than acquiring an existing one”.

To carry out this project, Hejal went to a group of investors who, through Kronos Asset Management, put together the funds to create the Spanish developer. “Kronos is the owner of Kronos Homes, the brand of the residential developer. We have an office in London since most of our investors are based all over Europe; they are family offices and global investors. In total, we have around 15 investors, who arrived after the company was created, although the family that founded Kronos is also still with us”, explains.

Since its creation, Kronos Homes has invested €500 million in the purchase of land. “We have a portfolio spanning 1 million m2, which will allow us to develop 8,000 homes. The plots are located in Madrid, Cataluña, Costa del Sol and Alicante. Now we are entering some of Spain’s large capitals such as Córdoba, Sevilla, Tarragona and Cadiz”, says Hejal who predicts more new acquisitions. “We plan to invest another €500 million over the next 24 to 36 months”.

To this end, Kronos is backing the selective purchase of land. “We have acquired two thirds of our current portfolio from banks and the other third from developers; we have also completed several operations with Sareb and we will continue to work in this way”.

Thus, he rules out the possibility of corporate operations, giving priority to organic growth. “We are not interested in buying other companies. Such deals typically involve very difficult processes, combining corporate cultures and requiring a lot of time for integration.”

Kronos closed 2017 with 500 homes sold, among their developments in Madrid, Barcelona, Costa del Sol and Alicante. “2017 was quite a good year, better than expected, and 2018 is going very well, too. We have some very expensive projects and others that are more affordable. Our cheapest house costs around €145,000 and the most expensive, €2 million. The latter is a spectacular project in Estepona (Málaga), designed by Rafael de La-Hoz”.

“Our typical customers are first-time buyers, who have budgets of between €300,000 and €400,000.”

Stock market

Unlike other investors, the head of Kronos Homes is not planning to debut his firm on the Stock Exchange – “we are not interested, there are too many distractions”, he says – but he does plan stay with the company for many years. “Our plans in Spain are long term, we have already developed ten projects, this year we will deliver more than a hundred homes (133) and launch six new promotions. In 2019, we will launch another 20, including a project in Valencia that will be the tallest residential building in the city, with 34 floors”.

The plans of Kronos coincide with other ambitious bets from property developers such as Aedas, Vía Célere and Metrovacesa. “I think it is good that there is competition, it is healthy and positive for the consumer. We have positioned ourselves in a certain niche, with a focus on design and architecture, and that is what makes us different.”

Original story: Press Release

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Ardian Places Indigo Sale On Hold after Raising €700M in Debt

4 May 2018 – Expansión

Ardian and its partner Predica (Credit Agricole) have decided to put on hold the sale of their parking lot subsidiary Indigo, one of the giants in the European sector with significant interests in Spain. The shareholders, which have been looking at various options for their investment over the last year, have opted to re-leverage the company in the end, with a €700 million bond issue, which will be used to refinance some of the debt that expires in 2020, and also, to distribute an extraordinary dividend to shareholders.

With this move, the possible sale of the former VinciPark has been put on hold, after Ardian went off the idea of divestment in 2017 when it did not obtain satisfactory offers for the asset. According to sources close to the operation, Indigo’s shareholders were left with three options: put the “for sale” sign back up; re-leverage the company and distribute an extraordinary dividend to the shareholders; or encourage a merger agreement with other parking lot groups.

Until a few weeks ago, all three options were on the table. One of the possibilities involved exploring an alliance with the Spanish firm Saba. The parking lot group controlled by Criteria (La Caixa) is also undergoing a process of transformation after the decision was taken by its minority shareholders, which together hold a 49% stake, to exit the company. That round of contact did not prosper and Indigo decided to begin the procedure to launch a macro debt issue, which took place on 12 April.

Sources in the sector believe that a merger between Saba and Indigo would have business logic given the minimal overlap and their capacity to form a group with sufficient critical mass to explore a stock market listing. Trading on the stock market has always been the ultimate dream of Saba’s founding partners. By contrast, Ardian avoids investments in listed groups (…).

Indigo is, together with Qpark and Apcoa, the largest parking lot group in Europe. According to the latest available figures, the company recorded turnover of €897 million in 2017, with an EBITDA of €310 million. The company’s net financial debt amounts to €1.666 billion. Saba and Empark also feature in Europe’s Top 8 ranking of the largest parking lot groups, but their turnover figures are significantly lower than those of Indigo and QPark.

According to experts, another factor that would contribute to accelerating the corporate movements in the sector is the ownership structure. The giants in the sector are owned by investment funds and private equity firms with a relative dearth of long-term investors. QPark is controlled by KKR, whilst the German firm Apcoa is owned by Centerbridge. Ardian controls Indigo and Macquarie is the new owner of Empark. Saba is the only company with an industrial shareholder – Criteria – and a long-term interest (…).

Although not its largest market, Indigo conducts significant business in Spain. Revenues amounted to €41 million in 2017, with an EBITDA of almost €20 million. It is Indigo’s third largest market in Europe, after France and the United Kingdom. The outlook for Spain is positive. According to the consultancy firm DBK, revenues from the rental of parking spaces (…) in Spain and Portugal amounted to €1.145 billion in 2017, which represented an increase of 3.8% with respect to the previous year. In 2016, that figure grew by 4.5%.

Original story: Expansión (by C. Morán)

Translation: Carmel Drake