Tag: Stoneweg

Stoneweg to Sell more than 300 Homes to a single Investor for €200M

13 April 2018 – Expansión

The Swiss fund Stoneweg is finalising the sale of a batch of three large residential developments located in Cataluña and Madrid, which have sparked interest from several international funds and a handful of property developers. The three developments, which contain more than 300 homes, are worth around €200 million.

They are the three largest developments of the almost thirty residential projects that Stoneweg is promoting in Spain through its subsidiary Stoneweg Living. Two of them are located in Cataluña and one in Madrid and, although in theory, they were designed to be sold, on an individual basis, to end users, the significant interest that the Spanish residential sector has sparked amongst investors has led to a change of plan.

In this way, Stoneweg has combined its three largest developments and is going to sell them as a single lot, with the idea that the buyer will incorporate them into its real estate portfolio and put them on the rental market. Although several overseas investors have expressed their interest in the package, the most advanced negotiations are the ones being held with a German institutional fund, according to sources speaking to Expansión.

Stoneweg was created in 2015 by the former team of the real estate division of the private bank Edmond de Rothschild and by the founding partners of CBRE in Switzerland. It is chaired by the former President of the Executive Committee of Edmond de Rothschild, Claude Messulam, and two Spaniards sit on the management board: Jaume Sabater, as the CEO and Joaquín Castellví, as the Director of Investments and Acquisitions. Since 2015, it has invested more than €500 million in the promotion of offices and residential buildings in Spain. Recently, it moved its headquarters from Barcelona to Madrid and expanded its offices in the Spanish capital to make space for its growing workforce.

The sale of this package of more than 300 homes is another example of the interest that the residential rental market is sparking in Spain. This business, which has just a few strong operators, is gaining strength in the capital. The professional rental home market in Spain is very fragmented. Testa owns a portfolio of 10,700 homes and is preparing its stock market debut. Another player is the manager Azora, which is also preparing its debut on the stock market, and Fidere – Blackstone’s Socimi – which made its stock market debut in 2015 with 2,688 social housing properties purchased during the crisis.

Original story: Expansión (by Marisa Anglés and Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Ayco Buys Residential Land in Sevilla for Construction of 200 Homes

30 January 2018 – Eje Prime

The property developer Ayco has acquired a batch of developable plots in the municipality of Camas (Sevilla). In total, the company has purchased 18,000 m2 of land, on which it plans to build around 200 homes.

According to the company, the acquisition of these plots is motivated by the strategic value of their location, just a few minutes from ‘Isla de la Cartuja’, one of the nerve centres of Sevilla’s business and administrative community.

Francisco García Beato, President of Ayco, has said that the property developer “wants to take advantage of the reactivation of the sector in Spain, and specifically in Sevilla, where there is a scenario of stable growth driven by the positive evolution of employment, as well as of other economic indicators”.

The Spanish property developer has launched a business plan, which forecasts investment of €200 million over the next five years, starting in 2018, when it plans to spend €80 million buying up land for the construction of around 1,000 homes.

Last December, Ayco announced its alliance with Stoneweg for an alternative line of financing amounting to €13 million to allow it to carry out purchases of residential assets in Spain.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg Invests €50M in Alternative Financing in Spain

12 December 2017 – Eje Prime

Stoneweg is betting on Spain for alternative financing. The Swiss fund, which is headquartered in Geneva and led by the Spaniard Joaquín Castellví, is continuing with its purchase in the country through its real estate platform. And now, it has set its sights on alternative financing, where it has already accumulated investments amounting to €50 million. The idea is that the company will reach €100 million in this line of business in 2018.

The fund, which manages a platform from which it has already disbursed €500 million in just two years, is now expanding its range of businesses in the real estate sector with the financing of operations that have short and medium-term value generation processes. “This line of financing is carried out with coverage of the real estate assets, be they hotels, industrial or commercial properties, or even residential assets. The operations have time horizons of between nine and thirty months”, explains the company in a statement.

Stoneweg will place the focus on the search for opportunities in Madrid, Barcelona and other secondary cities, as well as on tourist and coastal destinations.

Currently, the Swiss fund has a presence in Spain, the USA and Italy, and an investment capacity of €750 million. With two in-house teams in Barcelona and Madrid, its platform holds residential and hotel assets spanning 200,000 m2, as well as offices covering 26,000 m2.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Aguirre Newman: Tertiary RE Inv’t to Exceed €10bn in 2017

30 November 2017 – Expansión

After the odyssey experienced during the years of the crisis, with the drastic fall in the volume of investment, the tertiary real estate sector in Spain is now going through a stage of consolidation. As such, for the third year in a row, the volume of transactions involving non-residential assets is going to exceed the €10 billion threshold again in 2017.

According to the conclusions of a seminar organised by Aguirre Newman and KWM, which included presentations from some of the main players in the sector, this positive trend will continue for the next few years, despite certain risks in the environment, such as the political uncertainty, the inevitable rise in interest rates in Europe, the ageing population and the salaries that continue to stagnate.

At the meeting, which was attended by the main executives and directors of listed companies such as Merlin, Neinor, Aedas and Colonial, amongst others, as well as by property developers and investors such as Grupo Inmobiliario Roca, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Grupo Ibosa, ASG Iberia and Stoneweg. Together, they discussed the evolution of the sector and the challenges for 2018, amongst other topics.

“The tertiary investment market is going through a growth consolidation phase after the deep recession that we suffered between 2008 and 2013. According to our estimates, the volume of investment in tertiary assets will exceed €10 billion for the third year in a row in 2017”, explained Susana Rodríguez, Director General of the Consultancy division at Aguirre Newman.

According to data from the consultancy firm corresponding to the first three quarters of this year, hotel assets have been one of the stars of the real estate sector, with investment of €1.9 billion during the 9 months to September, up by 29% YoY. The high street segment also experienced significant growth, of 37%, with an investment volume of €605 million. Whilst, investment in the logistics segment amounted to €665 million, up by 26% YoY. By contrast, investment in offices during the first three quarters decreased by 23% to €1.9 billion and investment in shopping centres decreased by 3% to €3 billion.

Slow down

In terms of the threat of a rise in interest rates in Europe, the experts agree that there will be at least one or two years of stability and that when the time comes for the rate hike, it will be managed in a moderate way: “They do not consider that it will affect the valuation of assets, given that we are in a phase of growing rents”.

Another one of the challenges facing the sector is caused by the political uncertainty generated in Cataluña following 1 October. The speakers agreed that, for another year, the country risk is going to be one of the issues that concerns investors.

Rodríguez said that the figures in the Catalan market are “very positive” at the end of the third quarter. Specifically, the leasing of offices in Barcelona rose by 8% to 265,470 m2 and the average prime rent rose by 9% to €18.25/m2/month.

“It is undeniable that, since October, we have felt a slowdown in the volume of real estate operations. Both business people and investors alike are postponing decision-making whilst they wait to see how the political tensions and uncertainties that are affecting the market today are resolved”, she added.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Operación Neo: Lone Star Negotiates Sale of Former Fecsa-Endesa HQ in Barcelona

28 November 2017 – El Confidencial

Lone Star is on the verge of closing another chapter in its history, with the sale of the last major asset that forms part of Project Octopus, a portfolio comprising more than €4,000 million in real estate loans from the bank Eurohypo in Spain and Portugal, which the US fund acquired three years ago, in conjunction with JP Morgan.

The asset in question is the former headquarters of Fecsa-Endesa in Cataluña, a building with a surface area of 35,000 m2, whose three chimneys form part of Barcelona’s skyline and regarding which, it is holding exclusive negotiations with the joint forces of the Tramway group and the German vehicle Indigo Capital.

The conversations are now in the home stretch and may even be closed this afternoon, according to sources familiar with the process, although they also indicate that a second finalist is waiting in the wings, which could take over if these negotiations do not end up proving fruitful.

This operation marks another step forward in Lone Star’s strategy to unwind its positions in the Spanish real estate market, following the sale of the rest of Project Octopus and of the property developer Neinor Homes. That company debuted on the stock market in the spring and following several share sales, the US fund now only controls a 13% stake. Moreover, it goes against the grain of the current situation in the real estate market in Cataluña, which has all but come to a standstill due to the ‘independentista’ challenge.

This property, which has been empty for five years, has both environmental and change of use problems, which have certainly conditioned its sale. Constructed on the site of an old coal generation plan at the beginning of the 20th century, the subsoil of the plot contains impurities from the former coal and gas operations, which constitute the main risk to this operation and which have convinced other interested parties to withdraw from the process.

Impact of the sovereign challenge

In addition, the property has a key 4 urban planning rating, which restricts its use to public services with a technical component. In fact, its former owner, Grupo Sanjosé, which acquired the building from Endesa in a “sale & leaseback” operation, did not manage to resolve the change of use, which allowed Lone Star to execute the debt linked to the building in 2015.

And so on and so forth, because the sovereign crisis in Cataluña was about to bring down the process, launched in September and managed by JLL, in which firms such as Meridia, Colonial, Oaktree, Tristan, GreenOak, Värde and Stoneweg expressed an interest, according to sources.

In the end, only two candidates have submitted bids, for around €20 million, and the winner will likely have to double that investment figure in order to be able to carry out all of the renovation work that this asset requires to be in a position to generate value again.

Original story: El Confidencial (by R. Ugalde)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg Still Has €200M To Invest In Spain

10 November 2017 – El Economista

The Swedish real estate investment platform Stoneweg, founded at the beginning of 2015 by the Spaniards Joaquín Castellví (pictured below, left) and Jaume Sabater (pictured below, right) in Geneva, has an investment plan for Spain amounting to €750 million. “So far, we have spent €550 million and our intention is to continue looking for opportunities in Madrid, Barcelona and along the coast, to spend the remaining balance that we have left of the €200 million”, explains Castellví.

Both partners left the bank Edmond de Rothschild to embark on this new venture, which, in just two years has established a presence in Italy, the USA and Switzerland, as well as in Spain. In the latter, its strategy is based on property development, including both new build and renovation projects, primarily residential, which currently account for 89.5% of its portfolio. In this way, the firm is currently working on the construction of 1,600 homes and “between October and November, we will be delivering the first units”, said the Director. He added that in the case of Madrid, the firm is looking for opportunities in the centre, in neighbourhoods such as Moncloa and Arguelles, “where there is a latent demand for a type of product that has not been built for many years”.

Stoneweg’s latest project in the centre of the Spanish capital is in the former Provincial Court building in Madrid, located on Calle Ferraz, where it is going to build 25 homes. “We have already started to market the homes and in the first week alone we have sold five units”, said the Director, who points out that the prices in other neighbourhoods, such as Salamanca and Chamberí, do not fit with their strategy, since they are looking for average returns of between 15% and 20%.

In its residential business, Stoneweg is also working by means of one-off partnerships with other property developers. Such is the case of its largest operation in Móstoles, where it has purchased a plot land for 300 homes together with ACR.

Also positioned in offices

The firm also holds positions in the office sector. In Barcelona, in fact, it is working on the largest business development in the city, the Luxa complex, comprising two buildings, which have already been pre-leased to Amazon and WeWork. “We sold those two properties to Catalana Occidente and we are now searching for a tenant for the WIP building, also located in 22@, measuring 4,500 m2. Once it has been leased, we will put it up for sale”.

The Director is optimistic because he acknowledges that “clearly, all the noise and uncertainty that we are currently seeing in Cataluña is not having any effect; we continue to have faith in the fundamentals of the city (…)”.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

ECI Sells Building On Plaza Magdalena In Sevilla To Stoneweg

26 October 2017 – Modaes.es

El Corte Inglés is pushing ahead with the divestment of its real estate. The department store group has sold a building on Plaza Magdalena in Sevilla to the fund Stoneweg for €10 million, according to reports by Eje Prime.

The asset, which used to house one of the group’s department stores, until 2012, was constructed in the 1950s. Stoneweg plans to completely renovate the building and turn it into a hotel, as part of its diversification strategy, whereby adding that activity along with logistics to its residential business.

Comprising five floors, the building was inaugurated in October 1959, as the first headquarters of Galerías Preciados and at the time, it was a pioneer in the new techniques of department store selling in Sevilla. A decade later, it closed its doors for a refit to become a furniture store under the same company, which opened a second building in San Pablo around the same time.

El Corte Inglés purchased both buildings in 1995 as part of the operation to acquire the assets of Galerías Preciados in Spain and it maintained it as a centre for the sale of household products and furniture, until five years ago. The Madrilenian group currently operates from another centre in the same square.

In 2016, El Corte Inglés launched a project to sell some of its properties located in various Spanish cities, with a combined valuation of more than €400 million.

One of the most recent operations carried out by the company in this regard was the sale in September of 40% of the company Iberiafon, owner of Torre Serrano in Madrid, for €50 million.

The group closed 2016 with revenues up by 1.9%, to €15,505 million and a net result of €161.86 million, up by 2.4% compared to the previous year.

Original story: Modaes.es (by C. Pareja)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Stoneweg To Convert Former Provincial Court Building Into Luxury Homes

25 October 2017 – Expansión

The real estate investment platform Stoneweg, led by the Spaniards Joaquín Castellví and Jaume Sabater and headquartered in Geneva, has unveiled a new project in Madrid. The firm, which brings together funds from private and institutional investors across Europe, has acquired a building on Calle Ferraz in the Spanish capital where it plans to create a residential development containing 25 luxury homes. Until recently, the property used to house several departments of Madrid’s Provincial Court.

Located in the Argüelles neighbourhood between Calle Princesa and the exclusive Paseo de Pintor Rosales, the building will contain more than twenty homes, with a surface area of between 150 m2, for the smallest flats, to 176 m2 for the penthouses, with 30 m2 of terrace space and 77 m2 of solarium with a private swimming pool.

Construction work is expected to begin in January 2018, for completion at the end of 2019.

The homes will cost between €935,000 and €2.2 million and will include one or two parking spaces each plus a storeroom. The sale of the homes will be led by the estate agency Gilmar.

This is not the only residential project that Stoneweg is currently working on in Spain. The Swiss manager has 30 developments underway at the moment, located in Madrid, Barcelona, Costa del Sol and Costa Brava.

In total, the company has invested around €450 million in various real estate projects across the country and plans to invest a further €250 million. Besides Spain, the manager also has investments in Switzerland, USA and Italy.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Insur Launches Its Co-Working Business With 1,800m2 Space In Sevilla

17 October 2017 – Eje Prime

Insur is moving into the co-working sector. The Andalucían real estate company has launched an iSspsaces business centre in Sevilla. The building, which has a surface area of 1,800 m2, contains 30 offices, three meeting rooms and one training room with capacity for 80 people. With this move, the group is following in the footsteps of WeWork and Spaces, which have both opened their first centres in Spain in the last month.

This is the first space of its kind in Andalucía, “a place adapted to the new needs of companies that are looking to bring themselves in line with current models of working”, explains the Director of Insur, Alejandro Fernández.

According to Fernández, “the total saving in terms of investment in this business centre compared to a traditional office is 84.7%”. The offices measure 5nm2 each, with space for between one and ten desks.

iSspaces is located in the Edificio Insur, on Avenida de Diego Martínez Barrio 10, in Sevilla, next to some of the city’s strategic transport hubs, such as the San Bernardo metro and train station, several bus stops, the Santa Justa train station and with fast access to the motorways linking with Málaga, Cádiz and Huelva.

The co-working business is entering Spain with a vengeance in 2017, as shown by several investments undertaken in recent months in Barcelona and Madrid. In the Catalan capital in September, the North American multinational WeWork, which specialises in the management of coworking spaces, leased an office building in the 22@ district of Barcelona, thanks to an agreement signed between the real estate developer Grupo Castellví and the real estate funds Stoneweg and 1810 Capital Investments, according to Eje Prime. Moreover, during the same month, the company also signed a lease for another property in Madrid, owned by Colonial, on Paseo de la Castellana.

Similarly, another company in the sector, Spaces, has opened an office measuring 1,500 m2 in the centre of Madrid, on Calle Manzanares, whilst it awaits the opening of its first centre in Barcelona, in the 22@ district.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

International Funds Reactivate RE Sector By Building Thousands Of Homes

2 October 2017 – Expansión

After years of drought, the residential real estate market is starting to show signs of recovery, with a significant increase both in investment in land as well as in the construction of new developments. In this new phase, international investment funds have become a major player, with more than €1,000 million invested in the Spanish residential sector and thousands of homes under construction. “Interest from these types of funds in the residential property development market is the result of the recovery that the segment is experiencing, as a consequence of a clear improvement in the underlying macroeconomic indicators”, says Borja Ortega, Director of Capital Markets at JLL.

For its investments in Spain, large international funds such as Värde, Castlelake, Lone Star and Morgan Stanley have opted for alliances with local operators (…). “This formula (…) is very beneficial for the market as it combines access to capital and international sources of financing with knowledge and experience of the local real estate development sector”, says Ortega.

“In most cases, the international fund provides the bulk of the capital, whilst the local partner participates in each project with a smaller percentage investment, but bringing to the table its expertise in terms of the acquisition of land and the construction of developments”, highlights Samuel Población, National Director of Residential and Land at CBRE España.

Lone Star stands out amongst the major investors. The fund, led in Spain by Juan Pepa, has invested more than €1,000 million in launching Neinor Homes, the first property developer to debut on the stock market in almost a decade. Another key player, Castlelake, is willing to spend a similar figure on the creation of another real estate giant, in this case, Aedas, which will also make its debut on the stock market soon.

Alongside them, Värde, which channels its investments in the residential sector through two companies: Vía Célere and Aelca. These three funds lead the national ranking, with 11,189 homes under construction and almost 5 million m2 of land.

Property developments

The giants Lone Star, Morgan Stanley, Castlelake and Värde are not the only players to be investing in housing in Spain. The German fund ASG is another one of the most active investors. Through its Spanish subsidiary, ASG Iberia, it is currently working on the construction of 2,000 homes, across six sites, including in San Juan (Alicante), Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and Málaga (…).

Other active players include Stoneweg; Harbert Management Corporation (HMC), which has teamed up with the Spanish management company Momentum; the German institutional fund Patrizia; and Pimco, which joined forces with the Socimi Lar España (…).

Other partnerships are purely financial. Such is the case of the agreement between Avenue Capital and Quabit, where the fund has granted two lines of credit, amounting to €100 million in total, to the property developer to buy land.

Pressure

According to CBRE, investment in residential assets exceeded €600 million between January and September. And, according to the experts, that figure is going to continue growing. “We will continue seeing interest from international funds, given that the outlook for growth in the sector is strong for the next three to four years. The funds already present will continue with their activity and it is probable that others (not yet present) will also join in, given that the investment pressure is high”, says Población.

Original story: Expansión (by Rocío Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake