Tag: testa

2018: The Year that Blackstone was Crowned the King of the Spanish Real Estate Sector

17 December 2018 – Eje Prime

Blackstone wants it all and it wants it now. That is the sensation that the US investment fund, the new king of the Spanish real estate market, is transmitting throughout the real estate sector. Its portfolio is worth more than €20 billion after an accelerated period of purchases during 2018.

One of the objectives of the US fund manager has been, precisely, to expand its network in the Spanish real estate sector by entering markets such as the logistics segment. At the beginning of December, the company closed its latest operation in the country with the purchase of a logistics portfolio from Neinver for €300 million.

Nevertheless, the deal involving the giant Neinver is by no means the most significant operation that Blackstone has undertaken this year. Over the last twelve months, the group has taken control of Hispania, to grow in the hotel sector; it has acquired 80% of Testa, to manage thousands of rental homes, and in the logistics sector, it has accumulated 1 million m2 of space with the 55 assets from Neinver and the purchase of an industrial portfolio from Lar España.

Blackstone has disbursed almost €4 billion in the Spanish real estate sector this year, a figure that far exceeds the €127.5 million that it spent on its first investment in the domestic market in 2013. Moreover, that debut was not free from controversy, given that the group purchased 18 residential developments, containing 1,860 social housing units, which the Town Hall of Madrid sold the fund through the Municipal Housing and Land Company of Madrid (Emvsa).

Five years later, Blackstone is one of the largest owners of residential assets in Spain and the leader of the hotel sector. It leapt to first position in the hotel market ranking this year following its successful takeover of the Socimi Hispania. The company paid €1.99 billion for that vehicle, managed by Azora. With that operation, the fund added 46 assets and almost 13,150 rooms in Spain to a portfolio that it started to grow in 2017 with the purchase of HI Partners, the hotel arm of Banco Sabadell, for €630 million. In total, the manager owns 63 assets and almost 18,000 hotel rooms across Spain.

Hispania also provided Blackstone with residential assets worth €230 million, as well as 25 office buildings whose market value exceeds €600 million. Also in that segment, the company added the iconic Planeta office building in Barcelona to its portfolio during 2018, which it purchased from the Lara family in July for €210 million.

Spain, 20% of its global portfolio

Today, Spain accounts for 20% of Blackstone’s global investment. In total, the US firm owns property worth almost USD 120,000 million (€105,387 million) around the world. This real estate giant has become the largest unlisted real estate company in Spain (…).

The superiority of Blackstone’s portfolio in Spain with respect to those of the large domestic real estate firms is clear. The two largest players, Merlin and Colonial, are ranked within the top 15 Socimis in Europe and, yet, their portfolios are worth just half of that of the fund, at €11.785 billion and €11.19 billion, respectively.

Santander’s best friend

As well as mixing with other real estate players, Blackstone has made friends with some of the Spanish financial institutions. The banks, big losers in the previous real estate cycle, have worked hard over the last two years to place their property with the highest bidder, taking advantage of the new boom in the residential market.

In this way, in 2017, Banco Santander agreed with Blackstone the largest operation involving the sale of toxic assets from the real estate sector in the country. The fund manager purchased 51% of Popular’s property, a portfolio with €30,000 million in assets.

The relationship with the bank owned by the Botín family has been strengthened in 2018 with Project Quasar, the real estate firm created by the financial institution and the fund. The joint venture received a capital injection amounting to €300 million in May. Through this vehicle, the transfer of Popular’s assets is being carried out.

In order to place this property into circulation, as part of the operation in 2017, Blackstone also acquired the bank’s servicer, Aliseda, led by Eduard Mendiluce (…), who also manages the Socimi Albirana.

Albirana Properties is one of four residential Socimis that Blackstone currently has listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB). The others are Fidere Patrimonio, Corona Patrimonial and Torbel Investments.

Original story: Eje Prime (by Jabier Izquierdo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Obtains a c. €2bn Mega-Loan for Testa

19 December 2018 – Expansión

The Socimi Testa held an extraordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting on Tuesday, where it reduced the number of members of its Board of Directors from 11 to 5. The new governing body includes three people proceeding from the new majority shareholder, the investor group Blackstone.

Testa Residencial is going to sign a mega-loan amounting to €1.943 billion, which it had already agreed in principle after the US fund Blackstone takes control of the rental home Socimi with the purchase of 80.6% of its share capital within the next few days.

The loan, equivalent to the amount that the purchase of the firm has cost the fund (around €1.52 billion) along with the debt held by the Socimi, has been agreed with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Société Générale and Santander itself, Blackstone’s partner in Testa with 18% of its share capital.

This bank financing was agreed during the first meeting of Testa’s new Board of Directors following the restructuring of the management body conducted hours before, at the General Shareholders’ Meeting, when entry was granted to Blackstone.

By virtue of this restructuring, Testa’s Board has been reduced to five members, from the previous number of eleven. The fund has appointed three representatives to the Board, one of which, Diego San José, will also be the President of the Socimi, a role held until now by Ignacio Moreno.

The other two chairs at the table will continue to be occupied by the current CEO, Wolfgang Beck, and the director Miguel Oñate. In this way, the Board seeks to ensure continuity in the management of the real estate firm and to continue benefitting from Oñate’s experience and knowledge.

New strategy

Despite this continuity in management, at the first meeting of Testa’s Board, with Blackstone in the driving seat, a resolution was taken to approve a new strategy for the company, which had been planning to invest €550 million in the purchase of new rental homes to add to its existing portfolio of 10,700 flats.

The new strategy involves “analysing the eventual purchase of new homes depending on the circumstances at play in each case”. Moreover, Blackstone has raised Testa’s current leverage limit, situated at 35% of its asset value, and has reduced the dividend payment to the “legal minimum”.

In terms of the super-loan, it is being guaranteed by the assets of the Socimi itself, worth €2.3 billion in May when it was considering making its debut on the main stock market, and which will be signed with a two-year term, with the possibility of three annual extensions.

Dividend

Before changing the dividend policy, the Board also agreed to distribute a payment to the shareholders leaving the Socimi as well as to the new shareholders.

Specifically, it is going to pay €7.612 per share to the shareholders that leave the company after selling their stakes to Blackstone, in other words, to BBVA, Acciona and Merlin and to Santander for the proportion of shares that it has also sold.

Moreover, Testa will pay €0.035 per share to those players that will be its shareholders once the sale and purchase agreement has been signed within the next few days, in other words, to Blackstone and Santander, as well as to a group of minority shareholders who own 0.5%.

With the acquisition of this Socimi, Blackstone is strengthening its position as the largest owner of rental homes in Spain, with around 24,000 homes through its various firms and Socimis. Moreover, it is consolidating its position as one of the largest real estate owners in the country, with an asset portfolio worth more than €20 billion.

Original story: Expansión

Translation: Carmel Drake

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

5 Investors are Interested in Buying Sareb’s Rental Home Socimi Témpore

5 November 2018 – Cope

The bad bank has given interested parties until the middle of this month to submit their offers.

Sareb has received expressions of interest from five investors for the purchase of Témpore, its rental home Socimi, the third largest in the market by number of homes, given that it will have 3,357 homes once the bad bank has transferred it 850 homes in December.

That is according to Témpore’s CEO, Nicolás Saldaña (pictured above, right), who said that the firm has opened its books to those investors, who have until the middle of November to submit their offers.

According to Saldaña, one of those five investors is a firm that already operates in the rental home sector, whilst the others are specialist investment funds.

The eventual sale of Témpore by Sareb will serve as an alternative to the plan that it designed for the Socimi when it launched it at the end of last year, which involves leaping from the MAB to the main stock market “as soon as possible” to whereby exit its capital and “liquidate” the homes on its balance sheet.

Nevertheless, although the Socimi is up for sale, Témpore is going to maintain the condition of an additional liquidation channel for the portfolio of homes from Sareb with which it was constituted.

That is going to be possible given that, although Sareb is not the main shareholder of Témpore, the agreement that the two entities have, whereby the bad bank transfers assets to the Socimi, is going to continue to be valid until it expires in November 2020.

For the time being, once Témpore adds the 850 homes that Sareb is going to transfer to it in December, in what will constitute the first operation under the framework of that agreement, the Socimi will have a stock of 3,357 homes worth around €325 million.

According to its data, these figures make it the third largest rental home firm in the country after Blackstone, which after purchasing Testa, now owns a stock of 24,000 homes, and Azora, with 7,000 homes.

Original story: Cope 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Cerberus & Blackstone Compete to become Largest RE Firm in Spain

16 October 2018 – Expansión

The US funds Cerberus and Blackstone are battling it out for first place on the podium in the Spanish real estate sector. Cerberus, which has just completed the purchase of 80% of BBVA’s real estate business, has invested more than €10 billion in real estate transactions in the country over the last year. Specifically, Cerberus will now control 80% of Divarian Propiedad, the company to which BBVA has transferred its real estate business and in which the bank will retain the remaining 20%. The groups have not disclosed the price of the transaction or the value of the assets included in Divarian, although the bank did indicate at the time that its intention was to transfer assets with a gross accounting value of approximately €13 billion at an estimated price of around €4 billion.

Anida’s workforce

Divarian, which is going to be managed by Cerberus, will incorporate the specialist staff from BBVA’s former real estate platform, Anida, comprising 400 professionals, into its team.

In addition to this operation, known as Project Marina, Cerberus reached an agreement with Santander in the middle of September to purchase a portfolio of residential properties for around €1.535 billion comprising 35,700 properties, including parking spaces and storerooms. This transaction followed Project Jaipur – a portfolio of property developer loans also acquired from BBVA -; the portfolios Challenger and Coliseum, with a combined gross value of around €9.1 billion, acquired from Sabadell; and Ágora, the portfolio that Cerberus purchased from CaixaBank.

In addition to the purchase of real estate portfolios, Cerberus is the owner of: Haya Real Estate, the largest independent Spanish servicer with €40 billion in assets under management; the property developer Inmoglacier; the online real estate agency between individuals Housell; and Gescobro, the debt recovery company.

The fund, which has not specified how much it has invested since it arrived in the country, has become, together with Blackstone, one of the most active players in the purchase of doubtful debt portfolios (NPLs) and foreclosed assets (REO) with real estate collateral, and has closed more than 30 transactions in Spain over the last five years, even before the recovery of the sector.

Testa

Meanwhile, Blackstone has acquired around €20 billion in property since 2012, to which the Socimi specialising in residential rental assets, Testa, must be added, given that the US fund now controls 70% of that firm’s share capital. The fund marked a milestone last year when it purchased 51% of Banco Popular’s real estate business from Santander, with a book value of around €10.3 billion. To group together the assets, Blackstone and Santander created Project Quasar Investment, a company that includes Aliseda.

The fund is also the largest owner of hotels in Spain through HI Partners and Hispania, one of the leaders in the logistics and office ownership market in Spain.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Negotiates a €1.6bn Loan for Testa & Hispania

12 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Blackstone is getting straight to work to start to generate returns from its two new investments. The US fund is in the first phase of negotiations with several financial institutions to obtain a loan amounting to €1.6 billion for Testa and Hispania.

The real estate giant has set itself the objective of closing the operation this year. Blackstone has already made contact with its most trusted banks, including Banco Santander and the French institutions with a presence in Spain, according to reports from Expansión.

The intention of the fund is to maximise the returns of its investments in a joint way and place both Testa and Hispania in a strong position to continue growing and increasing their presence in the country.

Nevertheless, the property of Banco Popular will be left outside of the transaction. The US fund and Santander already agreed a syndicated loan in March amounting to €7.3 billion for the joint company that owns the real estate assets of Popular and in which Blackstone owns a 51% stake.

The investment firm has acquired both of these Spanish Socimis this year. Before the summer, Blackstone completed the takeover of Hispania and turned it into the largest hotel owner in Spain with 46 assets and more than 13,144 rooms. After returning from vacation, the US giant set its sights on Testa Residencial, the largest rental home company in the country, in which it now controls a 70% stake.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Who are Spain’s Largest Residential Landlords?

11 October 2018 – El País

Every month, they receive rent from thousands of tenants who live in the thousands of flats that they own. They are the large landlords of Spain, although it is worth noting one important point: even though between them, they own more than 120,000 residential rental assets, that figure accounts for just 5% of all of the homes on the rental market. In Spain, the stock of rental housing – which exceeds 2.3 million properties, according to calculations from the Ministry of Development – is still dominated by individuals above all. At the other end of the spectrum, that of companies, it is not easy to draw a clear map of who’s who in the Spanish market. There are banks, investment funds, Socimis, real estate companies, servicers, managers…the difference is substantial: some are owners of houses whilst others specialise only in administering the properties.

The properties intersect between these two larges groups. The homes of a bank may belong to a real estate company owned by the entity itself and be administrated by its manager, which in turn, may be responsible for the houses of other companies. Or a fund may own several servicers, the name given to the platforms that, since the crisis, have absorbed a large proportion of the toxic assets (both properties and mortgages) owned by the banks, and that in turn, may be entrusted with the administration of some of the homes by the banks. The examples are simpler if we look at specific cases. What follows is a portrait of the main protagonists of the residential rental market in Spain. Seven companies that control portfolios that come close to or exceed 10,000 assets each, according to figures facilitated by them and by other sources in the sector.

Blackstone. This real estate investment fund is well on its way to becoming the largest owner of rental housing in Spain. It entered the market in 2013 with the purchase of a portfolio of social housing properties that the Town Hall of Madrid, led at the time by Ana Botella, put up for sale. Those 1,860 homes were just the start of a portfolio that now contains around 32,000 properties. Since then, Blackstone has acquired thousands of toxic assets from entities such as Banco Popular and Catalunya Caixa. From the real estate arm of the latter, CX Inmobiliaria, a subsidiary of the US fund emerged, which is now responsible for managing most of its rental homes. Anticipa is a specialist servicer in what is known as “fragmented management”. Its 15,000 homes do not form part of blocks of buildings, but rather they are scattered all over the country. In addition to that portfolio, Fidere manages 6,200 properties. That Socimi (…) was created specifically after the operation was closed with the Town Hall of Madrid and then continued to add other residential assets to its portfolio, which unlike Anticipa’s form part of blocks and urbanisations. The latest blow, in terms of the effect on the market, came last month, with Blackstone’s agreement to purchase 70.01% of Testa. With the control of that Socimi – which until then belonged to Santander, BBVA, Acciona and Merlin – around 32,000 rental assets are now under the orbit of the US fund, making it the largest landlord in Spain.

CaixaBank. Until recently, the Catalan entity was the largest owner of rental homes and it is still in the top three. Unlike the other banks, which succumbed to the pressure to sell to interested investors, the former Caixa owns 27,557 residential rental assets through its real estate arm Building Center. The entity’s own manager, Servihabitat, is responsible for managing those assets, and its portfolio also includes assets entrusted by other owners, taking its total to 42,163 assets. Of those 28,549 are homes (and the remainder are storerooms and parking spaces).

Banco Sabadell. A very similar example to CaixaBank. In this case, the entity’s own servicer, Solvia, is responsible for managing its residential rental assets. Its rental portfolio comprises around 32,000 residential assets and, of those, 74% belong to Sabadell, making it the third largest landlord in Spain with around 23,600 assets.

Haya. In fourth place on the list is the servicer owned by Cerberus. The investment fund created it after acquiring some of Bankia’s real estate portfolio. Then it increased it with purchases from other banks such as Santander. At the end of 2017, based on the most recent data provided by the company, it managed around 14,100 assets.

Azora. This manager administers around 11,000 homes on behalf of other companies and Socimis. Its main clients include Lazora, a company recently recapitalised by CBRE GIP and Madison, which owns 6,800 assets, and Encasa Cibeles, which has 2,500 assets and is owned by the investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Sareb. The (…) bad bank concentrated more than €50 billion in toxic assets during the crisis, including both mortgages and properties. Its objective was, and still is, to divest them, but in the meantime, it has been capitalising what it can. One of the ways is placing some of its properties up for rent. It has more than 10,000 in its portfolio, but it does not manage them directly: it has distributed the management of 5,223 units between Altamira, Haya, Servihabitat and Solvia. The 1,383 that form part of Témpore, a Socimi owned by Sareb, are administered by Azora. Finally, it has around 4,000 that it is reserving for social housing rentals and that it is handing over on a piecemeal basis as one-off agreements are reached with autonomous regions and large town Halls.

Altamira. Another servicer, which belongs to Apollo and Banco Santander. Its rental portfolio comprises 12,500 properties including tertiary assets. Most, around 9,700, are residential assets and belong to Santander or Sareb.

Original story: El País (by José Luis Aranda)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Acciona Sells its Stake in Testa to Blackstone for €379M

8 October 2018 – Eje Prime

Blackstone is continuing to increase its stake in Testa. After acquiring the majority of the company in September, by purchasing the shares owned by Merlin, BBVA and Santander, now the US fund is buying the 20% stake that Acciona owns in the rental home Socimi for €379 million, according to a statement filed by the company with Spain’s National Securities and Exchange Commission (CNMV).

The closure of the operation, which has not been formalised yet, is conditional upon the completion of the sale of 50.01% of Testa’s share capital, which Blackstone agreed with Merlin, BBVA and Santander for €948 million. The fund will pay the real estate arm of Acciona €14.32 for each share that it owns in the Socimi, whereby assigning the company a total value of €1.895 billion.

Testa, which has been listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) since July, owns a portfolio of assets containing more than 10,700 homes, which gave the company a market capitalisation of €1.833 billion on the day that it made its stock market debut.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Will Pay Merlin, Santander & BBVA €948M for 50.01% of Testa

18 September 2018 – Cinco Días

Another major movement in the real estate sector and with the same star as the buyer: the US giant Blackstone. After acquiring the Socimi Hispania, which specialises in hotels, the fund has now set its sights on Testa, the largest owner of rental housing in Spain.

Blackstone has already agreed to purchase 50.01% of the Socimi (…) from three of Testa’s largest shareholders (Merlin Properties, Santander and BBVA), according to a statement filed by the real estate company with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) on Monday. Nevertheless, Acciona, the other major shareholder, has not sold its stake. The US fund manager is carrying out the operation through the company Tropic Real Estate Holding and is paying €948 million, whereby valuing Testa at €1.895 billion.

Blackstone is paying €14.327 per share. The company’s closing price at the end of trading on Friday was €14, representing a premium of just over 2%.

Blackstone is keeping the offer open for the other shareholders. In fact, the document sent to the exchange by Testa explains that the bidder “has committed to buying all of the remaining shares in the company” under the same conditions.

Testa’s shareholders regard this operation as an exit following their failure to launch a major IPO in June, when the political uncertainty, above all surrounding Italy, caused a surge in the markets. The intention of Merlin, Santander and BBVA (and to a lesser extent Acciona, which wanted to remain as an industrial partner) was to divest their stakes with that great stock market debut. Now they have found an escape route with Blackstone as the buyer.

Merlin also reported on Monday that with this operation, it will raise €321.2 million in exchange for its 16.95% stake in Testa. The funds obtained by Merlin will be used to reduce its debt in line with the objectives set out in the company’s business plan.

BBVA, which owned 25.24% of Testa has also sold all of its shares. Meanwhile, Santander sold just 7.82% of the 36.87% that it held in Testa, which made possible the operation that has given Blackstone control over the entity.

The new Testa Residencial is a listed real estate investment company promoted in 2016 by the banks and Merlin. The latter company had been left with homes following its purchase of the former Testa from Sacyr in 2015; meanwhile, Santander and BBVA contributed rental homes from the property developer Metrovacesa. Finally, last year, Acciona incorporated more than 1,000 homes, worth €340 million, to close the current alliance between the four shareholders.

Testa is currently the market leader in the residential rental sector in Spain. It has a portfolio of 10,615 units, worth €2.675 billion, mainly private housing, with annualised gross rental income of €85 million and an occupancy rate of 91.4%.

Original story: Cinco Días 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Buys 50% of Testa from Merlin, Santander & BBVA

17 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Blackstone is strengthening its commitment to Spanish property. The US fund, which has been very active in the domestic real estate market in recent years, has just completed the purchase of 50.01% of Testa from Merlin, Santander and BBVA, according to a statement issued by the parties.

Testa is the largest manager of rental homes in Spain, with 10,615 real estate assets in its portfolio and a turnover of €85 million in annualised gross income. Most of the shares of the Socimi, which has been listed on the Alternative Investment Market (MAB) since July, will now be owned by Tropic Real Estate Holding, a company managed by Blackstone.

One of the largest shareholders of the company, the real estate firm Merlin, has pocketed €321 million from this operation, which means valuing the own funds of Spain’s largest Socimi at €1.895 billion. With the funds obtained, the company led by Ismael Clemente plans to reduce its debt, within the framework of the company’s objectives.

Following Merlin’s exit from the company, Acciona Inmobiliaria, the real estate investment arm of the energy firm, has been left as the main domestic shareholder of the listed company.

Testa’s homes are primarily located in Madrid, although the firm also has a presence in other major cities in the country such as Barcelona, San Sebastián, Valencia, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Valencia and Palma, amongst others.

Testa, created in 2001 by the construction company Sacyr, invested €228 million in March in the purchase of 4,500 homes from the BuildingCenter, the real estate arm of CaixaBank. Moreover, following its incorporation onto the MAB, one of its largest shareholders, Acciona Inmobiliaria studied the possibility of becoming a reference shareholder of the Socimi.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake