Socimis to Account for 66% of Listings on Spain’s MAB by July

25 June 2019

Three socimis, Millenium, Inbest and La Finca, will begin trading on Spain’s Alternative Stock Market (MAB) in the near future. After they do, socimis will account for 69 of the 103, listed companies on the exchange, equal to two-thirds of the index.

The MAB was created in 2006 and opened to small and medium-sized companies in 2008. The platform is a good vehicle for such companies since trading is normal and the market is well-regulated, but the bureaucratic hurdles to list a new company on the exchange are less intimidating.

The Spanish government approved the regulatory framework for socimis in 2012, and Entrecampos and Promorent first went public in 2013. General de Galerías Comerciales, GMP Property and Testa Residencial are the three largest listed socimis on the MAB.

To join the MAB, companies must have fully paid-up capital, audited accounts and list through an initial public offering with a minimum free float of 2m.

Original Story: ABC – Moncho Veloso

Santander Sells Another 10.6% of Testa to Blackstone for €201M

21 November 2018 – Expansión

Santander has sold another 10.62% of the share capital in the Socimi Testa Residencial to Blackstone for €201 million, whereby reducing its stake in the rental home Socimi to 18%. Meanwhile, the US fund now controls 80.63% of the entity’s shares.

The bank chaired by Ana Botín has added this sale to another one involving 7.76% of share capital that it already agreed with the US fund. The new sale from Santander came about after Blackstone launched an offer to purchase any Testa shares owned by minority shareholders, a total of 702,508 shares, representing 0.53% of its share capital, according to reports filed by the fund with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

Blackstone offered the owners of those shares €14.32 per share, the same price it paid Santander, BBVA, Merlin and Acciona for the stakes that those companies and banks sold it, which together amount to the aforementioned 80.63% stake. The offer price is 3% higher than the listing price (€13.90) at which Testa debuted on the MAB at the end of July and represents a market valuation for the company of €1.895 billion.

The amount is also higher than the €14.10 price at which the firm was trading when Blackstone launched its offer in the middle of last month, but below the price at which the Socimi’s shares are currently trading. The offer by the fund to Testa’s minority shareholders, estimated to amount to €10.06 million in total, began yesterday and will last for a month until 20 December.

Blackstone has convened two consecutive extraordinary shareholders meetings for Testa to be held on 18 and 21 December with the aim of closing the operation to purchase this Socimi and restructure its Board of Directors.

With this operation, the fund from the USA is strengthening its position as the largest owner of rental homes in Spain, with a portfolio of around 24,000 properties, and is ratifying its position as one of the largest owners of all types of real estate assets, given that it now holds assets worth more than €20 billion in its portfolio.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Crowns its Position as the Largest Property Owner in Spain

18 September 2018 – Cinco Días

Blackstone likes Spain. And specifically, the Spanish real estate market. In recent years, the fund manager has made several large purchases linked to property in the country, displaying its enormous financial capacity to handle operations of any size.

In fact, the fund has now become the largest real estate owner in Spain, where it owns assets worth more than €20 billion, according to the figure compiled by Europa Press, placing it well ahead of the largest Socimis, such as Merlin (€11.785 billion) and Colonial (€11.19 billion).

The fund quickly saw an opportunity with the Testa operation, given that some of the shareholders wanted to exit the company, such as the clear case of Merlin, and the willingness of Santander and BBVA to sell.

The acquisition of 50.01% of Testa Residencial from Merlin, BBVA and Santander for €948 million – an operation that is still open to the other shareholders – followed the very recent purchase of the Socimi Hispania, a transaction worth more than €1.9 billion. Initially, Blackstone agreed to acquire the 16% stake owned by the investor George Soros, and then it launched a takeover bid for the rest of the company. In that case, it acquired 46 hotels, which were added to the 15 it had already acquired from Sabadell and whereby the largest owner of rooms in Spain was born.

In July, Blackstone acquired a logistics portfolio from the Socimi Lar España for €120 million. And recently, it was revealed that Blackstone and Centerbridge had teamed up to submit an offer for Santander’s headquarters in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) amounting to €3 billion, in a bid that ended at midnight yesterday.

In Spain, Blackstone’s largest operation was undoubtedly the purchase from Santander of 51% of Popular’s real estate business for €5 billion. But that was not its only bank-related deal. It also acquired the portfolio linked to the property of the now extinct entity CatalunyaCaixa. The fund created the company Anticipa Real Estate to manage those toxic assets and it has been putting some of those foreclosed homes up for rent through its various Socimis: Albirana and Torbel (flats acquired from Sabadell), which are both listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

Moreover, one of Blackstone’s first operations was also one of the most contested politically by the leftist groups, when in 2014, it acquired 1,800 social housing properties from the Town Hall of Madrid for around €130 million – those homes currently form part of the portfolio owned by the Socimi Fidere.

Blackstone entered the property market in Spain in 2014 on the hunt for bargains following the crisis, firstly focusing on bank portfolios. But the recent acquisitions of Hispania and Testa take the US giant in another direction. There is enormous liquidity in the market, which has given a great investment capacity to these funds. Now, it is sounding out opportunities in which to invest in through its funds in real estate as an alternative to public debt with higher returns.

This New York-based firm, which is led by Stephen Schwarzman (pictured above) as its President and CEO, is the largest manager of real estate funds in the world, with $19.4 billion in assets under management, according to its results for the first half of the year.

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake

Testa’s Sales Soar But Profits Fall Due to Extraordinary Expenses

7 September 2018 – Expansión

Testa – the residential rental Socimi – has closed the first quarter of the year with a net profit of €8.94 million, down by 81% YoY, due to extraordinary expenses, such as the €107 million it paid to Merlin for the cancellation of management contracts. Excluding those extraordinary items, and others such as variations in asset values, the funds generated from operations (FFO) – equivalent to the firm’s operating cash flow or the recurring profit – increased by 60% to €19.58 million.

In terms of gross revenues from rental income, the company generated €36.98 million, which represented an increase of 69% with respect to the same period as last year. That increase was due to an improvement in the occupancy rate, growth in the number of homes in the portfolio and an improvement in annualised rents (GRI). On a like-for-like basis, revenues grew by 9%. Net rental income, after deducting direct operating costs, amounted to €28.47 million, up by 75%.

Testa Residencial, which had initially scheduled its stock market debut for June, decided to delay its listing plans for the main stock exchange and debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) instead. The company, in which Santander (36.9%), BBVA (25.2%), Acciona (20%) and Merlin Properties (17%) all hold stakes, owns 10,615 homes with a gross asset value (GAV) of €2.637 billion. Moreover, it recently agreed the purchase of a group of 549 rental homes in the province of Madrid for €66.8 million.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Spain’s Four Largest Socimis Already Control €30 Billion of Real Estate

8 August 2018

The largest of these real estate companies multiplied their assets fourfold since their first major acquisitions in 2015. Axiare left the continuous market and Hispania will soon follow as the sector undergoes a period of concentration.

The success of the socimi regulatory regime since its launch in 2013 is reflected in the gigantic portfolio of assets that these real estate companies have amassed in the last few years. The four largest listed companies have already accumulated portfolios of properties worth nearly 30 billion euros in three or four years of operation, according to the companies’ financial reports for the first quarter of 2018.

The development of a regulatory regime for these listed real estate investment companies was helmed by the then Minister of Finance Cristóbal Montoro, as these companies were exempted from paying corporate taxes in exchange for obligations such as having to distribute at least 80% of their dividends (which is taxed) and a listing on the stock exchange, guaranteeing transparency, among other requirements. The regulatory regime followed the example of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trust), which have a long history in the US and Europe.

These companies are focused on the property business, and they lease their properties, which are principally offices, shopping centres and commercial premises, hotels, rental homes and logistics warehouses.

The launch of the regulatory regime coincided with the recovery in international confidence in Spain (after the sovereign debt crisis and doubts about its financial system) as some foreign firms (mainly investment funds and later institutional capital such as insurers) that returned to the market, betting on a recovery in the reactivation of the Spanish real estate market. Moreover, socimis have been one of the principal channels for investing these international flows of capital in this type of asset.

At Least €15 Billion More on the MAB

Spain’s Alternative Stock Market. The MAB found a way to grow through the socimis. 59 of these real estate companies have already listed on the market, often as purely tax vehicles, with no major movements in their limited free float and which also do not carry out large purchases. Among them, three big ones stand out: GMP (owned by the Montoro Alemán family and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC), Uro Property (with Santander’s banking offices) and General de Galerias Comerciales (owned by the executive Tomás Olivo). At the end of last year, there were 44 of these companies in the MAB, with a value of 12.221 billion euros (+60% y-o-y), according to data from Armabex, a registered advisor.

Testa Residencial. Among the 15 socimis that joined the MAB in the last months, Testa, which is owned by Santander, BBVA, Acciona and Merlin, stands out. Testa debuted at the end of July with €2.275 billion in rental housing. Along with other companies that launched on the market this year, there are now 59 firms with at least €15 billion in property. Initially, Testa had planned to debut on the continuous market, but market doubts in June led the company to opt for its plan B. The company still plans on a move to the continuous market in the future.

Records for investments in this type of property were broken in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In the past year, 13.99 billion euros were allocated to acquisitions, according to the real estate consultancy JLL, with international funds and socimis as the main players.

The growth of these companies over the last three years has been spectacular. In the first semester of this year, when the socimis published updated property valuations, the big four had €27.336 million in their portfolios (up 3% compared to the end of 2017). The four include Merlin Properties, Colonial, Hispania and Lar España. Taking the first quarter of 2015 as a baseline, when the largest of these companies were already active and began to make their large purchases, these same companies had a total of €6.691 billion. That is a fourfold increase in three years.

If one takes into account that Colonial had not yet become socimi that year (the developer changed status in 2017), the jump is even greater since, at the time, Axiare (absorbed a few months ago by the Catalan company) is one of the top four, with only €465 million in its portfolio. At that point, Merlin, Hispania, Axiare and Lar España had total assets of €4.2 billion, 6.5 times less than at the present date.

The success of these companies has led them to be targets of large corporate operations in the sector in recent months, in a period of concentration that experts believe will continue for the time being.

The largest then, as now, is Merlin (listed on the Ibex-35), which has Ismael Clemente as its CEO. The socimi already owns properties worth €11.755 billion, mainly offices and shopping centres and commercial premises, although with increasing investments in the thriving logistics warehouse sector. The company was launched after convincing investors, mainly Americans, to acquire the so-called Árbol (Tree) portfolio and its 800 BBVA banking branches.

The socimi debuted on the stock exchange in 2014 and grew rapidly with the acquisition of Testa from Sacyr in 2015 (€1.8 billion cost) and the integration of Metrovacesa’s tertiary assets (buildings valued at €1.67 billion) in 2016. At this point, Santander became its largest shareholder, with 22.6% of the capital. The rest is highly diluted, with large international funds as the most common investors. Its flagship buildings include the Torre Agbar, where Facebook will open an office (through the CCC outsourcing company) to monitor and control harmful content on the social network.

Merlin is closely followed by Colonial (Ibex 35), which has assets valued at €11.19 billion, compared to €2.185 billion in 2015. The historic real estate company began operations in Barcelona in 1946 and decided to become a socimi last year for the tax benefits. It has made major strides through its investments, including its recent takeover of Axiare, for which it paid €1.7 billion, giving Madrid a greater weight in its portfolio. The portfolio, mainly offices (91%), includes properties controlled by its French subsidiary SFL, with buildings in Paris (33% of the total value). The core of Colonial’s shareholders includes the Mexican investor Carlos Fernández González (18.3% of the capital), the Qatar Investment Authority (10.6%), the Colombian group Santo Domingo (7.3%) and the perfume family Puig (5.1%).

The other major socimi that has been the protagonist of a recent corporate deal is Hispania, listed since 2014, which was recently taken over by the giant American fund Blackstone. In fact, Blackstone has controlled 90.5% of the socimi since the end of July and is expected to abandon the socimi tax regime in the coming weeks. The company has €2.185 billion in real estate, 66% of which corresponds to hotels. The US fund plans to use Hispania’s assets to create a large hotel platform after having also acquired the HI Partners from Sabadell for €630 million.

After the acquisitions of Hispania and Axiare, the only large company that will remain on the continuous market is Lar España, which is managed externally by Grupo Lar, with the Pimco fund as its main shareholder (19.6%). It was the first socimi to make the jump to the stock market and has assets of €1.58 billion, of which 82% are shopping centres, following its strategy of focusing on the retail sector. With that in mind, the company announced the sale of its logistics park to Blackstone for €120 million at the end of July.

Original Story: Cinco Días / El País – Alfonso Simón Ruiz

Translation: Richard Turner

Haya Real Estate Negotiates Contracts with Sareb & BBVA Ahead of its IPO

31 July 2018 – Europa Press

Haya Real Estate, the Spanish real estate servicer owned by the US fund Cerberus, has linked its possible IPO in Spain to the “visibility” that it obtains over the negotiations that it is holding to renew its contract to manage the real estate assets of Sareb and to take over the contract of BBVA.

That is according to the firm’s Finance Director, Bárbara Zubiria, speaking during the presentation of the servicer’s half-year results.

With respect to Sareb, Haya Real Estate is currently offering the bad bank various alternatives ahead of the termination, in mid-2019, of its contract to manage some of the bad bank’s assets.

In terms of BBVA, the firm is waiting for the entity to decide whether to award it the management of the assets that it is going to transfer to a joint venture owned by the bank together with Cerberus.

For the time being, during the first half of the year, Haya Real estate saw its revenues rise by 20% to €130.2 million, boosted by an “increase” in the commissions that it charges for its activity and management.

Meanwhile, the EBITDA grew by 16% to €64.9 million, according to reports from the company.

During the first half of the year, the servicer led by Carlos Abad managed assets amounting to €38.8 billion, on which it closed transactions worth €2.4 billion, up by 58% YoY.

In financial terms, at the end of the period, the firm had corporate debt amounting to €463 million.

Spain’s first listed servicer

Haya Real Estate is continuing to weigh up the pros and cons of its leap onto the stock market even though two of the three real estate companies that had announced their debuts, Azora and Testa Residencial, postponed their own IPOs and have opted to list on the MAB instead.

In the event that it does make its stock market debut, the firm led by Abad will become the first of its kind to list on the stock market in Spain and one of the first in Europe.

The servicer of Cerberus is not a real estate company, but rather a company that manages and develops real estate assets for third parties, in this case, primarily assets that were foreclosed by the financial institutions during the crisis.

Constituted in 2013, the firm currently manages loans and real estate assets worth almost €40 billion. Some of the entities that have entrusted the firm with the management of their assets include Cajamar, Liberbank, BBVA, Sareb and Bankia, amongst others.

Original story: Europa Press

Translation: Carmel Drake

Testa Residencial Debuts on the MAB with a Share Price Rise of 1.44%

26 July 2018 – La Información

The shares of Testa Residencial have made their conclusive debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) with a rise of 1.44% to €14.10 per share. The Socimi made its stock market debut at a price of €13.86 per share, which meant that the company became the second largest on the MAB by trading value, exceeding even some of the entities listed on the Ibex such as Indra and DIA.

The Board of Directors had established a reference price for its shares of €6, which represented a market valuation for the company as a whole of €204 million. The company’s trading code is going to be “YCPS”, Renta 4 Corporate is the Registered Advisor and Renta 4 Banco is acting as the Liquidity Provider.

Testa Residencial is the leading private company in the residential rental market in Spain (excluding portfolios owned by financial institutions). It is owned by Santander (36.8%), BBVA (25.6%), Acciona (20%) and Merlin Properties (17%).

The Socimi operates in the residential segment in Spain and has a portfolio comprising more than 10,000 homes. Its assets are primarily located in Madrid, although it also has a presence in San Sebastián, Barcelona, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca and Valencia. Its properties were valued at €2.276 billion by Savills Aguirre Newman at the end of 2017 and the majority of them, 77.5% of the GAV, are located in premium locations.

In addition, over the last year, the combined value of its properties has increased by almost €73 million, according to the latest data.

Testa had initially planned to make its IPO on the main stock market in June this year. The rental home Socimi wanted to make its debut through a public share sale offer (OPV) and a public subscription offer (OPS) of new shares, the latter for €130 million, both aimed at institutional investors. In the end, in light of the political situation, the firm in which Merlin Properties holds a stake decided to delay its debut until now and change its course towards the Alternative Investment Market.

Original story: La Información 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Just Four Socimis Own Almost 20,000 Rental Homes in Spain

22 July 2018 – El Diario

The debates over rental housing, rising prices and the risk of a new real estate bubble are all continuing to rage. Whilst Pedro Sánchez’s government has started to outline its new policy to avoid a hike in prices, investors are not letting up in their frenzy to take positions in the sector. Proof of that is the continuous trickle of new listed Socimis specialising in the residential rental sector.

One of the latest entities to hit the headlines in this regard is Testa Residencial, whose General Shareholders’ Meeting approved its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) this week. That secondary market, specialising in Socimis and companies with smaller market capitalisations, will have 19 companies that either specialise in housing or own a significant portfolio of rental homes. Together they own a volume of assets that now comprise almost 24,000 homes, with a combined value of just over €4.1 billion.

Specifically, Testa is going to make its debut on the MAB as the largest rental home real estate company on the secondary market. Following its most recent operations, the Socimi now has 10,573 homes. The entity is owned by BBVA, Santander and Merlin, amongst other shareholders. It is followed, in terms of the number of assets owned, by Albirana, Fidere and Torbel, the three residential Socimis owned by the vulture fund Blackstone, which together own more than 9,300 homes.

Those four companies alone own almost 20,000 rental homes, according to data registered by the companies themselves in their issue brochures or annual accounts. That figure coincides with the plan outlined by the Minister for Development, José Luis Ábalos, which includes the creation by the Government of a stock of public housing for rent over the next four to six years.

Another of the most important Socimis in this field is Témpore, a subsidiary of the bad bank, Sareb, in which the company that owns the toxic assets of the rescued savings banks has placed some of its best homes and which made its stock market debut in March. It owns almost 1,400 homes and announced recently that it will be increasing its portfolio with new assets from Sareb.

Madrid is the province that is home to the most homes owned by the almost twenty Socimis that are listed on the MAB, accounting for 47% of the total (…). It is followed by the province of Barcelona, with 22%, and to a lesser extent, Valencia, with just over 4%. Together, those three provinces account for almost three-quarters of the assets owned by those entities.

Rising yields

The real estate consultancy firm JLL justifies this interest from the Socimis in rental housing by the significant returns that they generate. According to that firm, over the last year, rental homes generated a yield of 11.4%, compared with 10-year public bonds, for example, which generated a return of 1.6%. “Our forecasts indicate that yields will grow by 6.1% over the next three years”, they add, although they highlight that there are differences by region.

JLL specifies that the market is “highly fragmented” despite the “profound transformation” that is happening in the rental housing sector due to the development of Socimis and the arrival of institutional investors. The consultancy firm points out that these types of real estate investors are faced with the limitation of a shortage of entire buildings available for rent, a model that they prefer because it allows for a more efficient management. For that reason, they say that investors such as Testa and Azora are looking to grow their portfolios by building new rental homes in collaboration with property developers and construction companies.

Another noteworthy point about this growth in the number of Socimis dedicated to rental housing is the ownership of the companies. Almost half of the real estate companies that are listed on the MAB, eight to be precise, are controlled by companies that have their headquarters in Luxembourg. Such is the case of Albirana, Elaia, Elix Vintage, Fidere, Hadley, and Torbel, a company that is also indirectly controlled from the Cayman Islands. Another of the companies is located in The Netherlands (Barcino) and two others, Galil and VBare, are linked to Israeli investors (…).

Original story: El Diario (by Diego Larrouy)

Translation: Carmel Drake

MAB Approves Testa’s Stock Market Debut with Market Capitalisation of €1.83bn

24 July 2018 – Eje Prime

Testa is getting ready to refinance its debt. The Socimi in which Santander, BBVA, Merlin and Acciona Inmobiliaria hold stakes has included the refinancing of its liability on its roadmap, given that 91% of the firm’s gross financial debt is due to expire in 2022, according to an information document prepared for its incorporation onto the Alternative Investment Market (MAB), which was published yesterday.

As at 31 March, Testa’s gross financial debt amounted to €475 million, whilst the net financial debt amounted to €415 million. In addition, in order to finance the purchase of the BuildingCenter, the company took out two more loans amounting to €230 million.

As the company explained, of the total gross financial debt, €431 million (91%) expires in 2022. The company plans to refinance its debt by resorting to different instruments.

Testa’s plans following its debut on the MAB involve continuing with its purchase process, which involves acquiring between 1,000 and 2,000 apartments each year. According to the document, the Socimi has a pipeline with a GAV of around €539 million, which represents around 2,959 apartments.

As at 31 December 2017, Testa’s portfolio comprised 9,244 homes, 295 retail premises, located in the same buildings as the homes, and an office building and parking lot in Plaza Castilla, with a combined market value of €2.276 billion. Nevertheless, that data does not include the BuildingCenter portfolio.

In March, Testa signed an agreement to acquire the residential portfolio of the real estate arm of CaixaBank, comprising 1,458 homes. To date, according to the MAB document, Testa has acquired 1,450 apartments from that portfolio for a price of €226 million.

By geographical area, the Community of Madrid accounts for approximately 65% of the gross value of the portfolio, followed by San Sebastián, with 7.2%; Barcelona, 4.1%; Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2.9%; Valencia, 2.5%; Toledo, 2.4%; Pamplona, 2%; Valladolid, 1.9%, and Oviedo, 1.5%.

The company, in which Santander holds a 36.8% stake; BBVA a 25.6% stake; Acciona a 20% stake and Merlin Properties a 17% stake, will make its debut on the stock market with a capitalisation of more than €1.83 billion. The company’s stock market debut has suffered several delays, but yesterday it received the green light from the MAB.

Original story: Eje Prime (by P. Riaño)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Testa’s Shareholders Approves its Debut on the MAB

16 July 2018 – Expansión

The General Shareholders’ Meeting of Testa Residencial has approved its debut on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB), which will likely happen before the end of this month (July) through the listing system, according to reports from sources at the company speaking to Europa Press.

The rental home Socimi in which Santander and BBVA hold stakes, had initially planned to make its debut on the main stock market in June, but delayed that move until the end of September due to the political and stock market uncertainty. It has now decided to make its debut on the MAB at the end of this month to comply with Socimi regulations. In this way, in order to not lose its status as a Socimi, which establishes a period of two years from constitution to debut on the stock market, Testa Residencial will list on the MAB before the end of this month, although it does not rule out making the leap onto the main stock market in a second phase.

Through the listing system, the company can request access to trading without the need to launch a public sale offer (OPV). This formula gives its shareholders the opportunity of having their shares trade on an organised market without having to place the shares with new investors. Also, there will be no reference price, but rather the price will be determined based on the purchase and sales orders received during the adjustment period.

Testa Residencial became the second company after Azora to decide to delay its planned debut on the stock market, although in the case of the real estate asset management company, the delay was motivated by the takeover bid that Blackstone formulated for Hispania, one of its main clients.

In the case of Testa, the firm had initially planned to start trading on the stock market during the second half of June, and one of its possible IPO dates was 22 June. At the end of May, and due to the political and stock market uncertainties, the firm decided to delay that debut until the end of September (…)

Other firms in the sector that had also planned to make stock market debuts before the summer, such as Vía Célere and Haya Real Estate, the servicer owned by the US fund Cerberus, may now wait until a window of opportunity opens in October, depending on the conditions of the market. In the case of Haya, the firm’s debut is currently conditional upon the signing of asset management contracts that it is negotiating with BBVA and Sareb.

In terms of Testa Residencial, by virtue of the OPV, the Socimi Merlin Properties had also planned to exit its share capital, with the placement of the entire 17% stake that it held in the firm.

The market also expected Santander and BBVA to sell some of their stakes in the rental home company, which amount to 37% and 26%, respectively. Acciona, for its part, had still not taken a decision about its 20% stake in the company.

Testa Residencial is one of the largest rental home companies in the country, given that its portfolio contains 10,700 homes and is worth €2.275 billion.

With its debut on the MAB and its likely subsequent debut on the main stock market, the firm seeks to consolidate its position as a new, unprecedented real estate giant in the country, given its specialisation in primary residences for rent, at a time when that sector is experiencing a real boom.

Original story: Expansión 

Translation: Carmel Drake