Tag: Thor Equities

ECI Puts Logistics Assets Worth c.€300M Up For Sale

10 August 2016 – Expansión

The distribution giant El Corte Inglés has engaged Morgan Stanley to find investors who may be interested in acquiring assets worth between €200 million and €300 million, according to real estate sources.

Specifically, the company chaired by Dimas Gimeno intends to divest 33 assets, which have a surface area spanning more than 500,000 sqm, as well as five plots of land.

The assets on the market include rental contracts guaranteed for five, ten, fifteen and twenty years; and the deadline for submitting non-binding offers will close at the end of September.

Sources consulted indicate that some of the warehouses included in the sale are not sufficiently tall enough to meet with current demands from investors for this type of asset, which has forced them to adjust the duration of their contracts, as well as the rental prices.

The batch for sale, which comprises 38 assets in total, including the plots of land, contains: El Corte Inglés’ logistics centres in Bisbal del Penedès (Tarragona) and on La Peluquera industrial estate in Madrid. It also includes other assets on Las Atalayas industrial estate (in Alicante) and the Goro en Telde estate (in Gran Canaria).

By contrast, El Corte Inglés has not included any assets currently considered to be strategic in the batch. Thus, for example, the jewel in its logistics assets crown will not be included: its mega centre in the south of Madrid.

Reduce debt

The company, which seeks to reduce its debt balance with these divestment operations, may consider selling other types of non-strategic real estate assets in the future, as Expansión revealed in March.

These real estate asset divestments follow others completed by El Corte Inglés in recent years. In this way, in the summer of 2013, the distribution group completed the sale of a building next to Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona to the fund manager IBA Capital.

Months later, it sold another property to the same investor on Calle Preciados in Madrid.

Other divestments

Last December, the chain sold another building in the iconic Puerta del Sol in Madrid for €65 million to the US fund Thor Equities. At the time, the group agreed to continue to occupy the building, which houses its book store and is located in one of the most important shopping areas of the capital, for another year.

Similarly, in February, the group sold the building that it had acquired ten years ago on Calle Fontanella in Barcelona for €17 million to a Russian investor, which plans to convert the property into a hotel.

By contrast, El Corte Inglés has also completed several important asset purchases in recent years. In this way, the company acquired a plot of land from the railway infrastructure manager Adif, right on Paseo de la Castellana for €136 million in 2014. This plot of land is located next to one of the company’s main shopping centres in the capital, in Nuevos Ministerios.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

El Corte Inglés Sells Building In Sol To Thor For €65M

24 December 2015 – Expansión

The operation has been closed for almost €65 million and reflects ECI’s strategy to selectively divest real estate assets to reduce its debt.

El Corte Inglés is continuing with its policy to selectively sell its real estate assets to reduce its debt. The company led by Dimas Gimenos has sold one of its properties in the Puerta del Sol in Madrid to the US fund Thor Equities for almost €65 million, according to market sources.

The building, which houses a bookstore, is located in one of the most important retail areas in the capital (on the corner with Calle Preciados) and has a total surface area of 1,344 m2 spread over three floors. El Corte Inglés has agreed with the fund Thor that it will continue to occupy the building as the tenant for one more year.

The department store group has a large portfolio of properties, worth almost €15,800 million, according to appraisals performed by Tinsa in 2014. Two years ago, it begin its new policy to divest its non-strategic assets with the sale of a building located next to the Plaza de Cataluña to the fund IBA, which also acquired another property from ECI on Calle Preciados in Madrid a few months later.

But not all of its activity involves property sales. Last year, the company acquired a plot of land that Adif had put up for sale on the Paseo de la Castellana. The plan is to expand the shopping centre that the distribution group has in that area, which is the great jewel in its asset portfolio.

The fund Thor made its first investment in Spain in September, with the acquisition of a property, also in Puerta del Sol, worth €9.5 million, which was previously owned by Kutxabank. It has also purchased number 16 Calle Fuencarral. In all three operations, Thor has been advised by the real estate consultancy firm Knight Frank.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Kennedy Wilson & Renta Corporación Buy ‘Puerta del Sol, 9’ For €30M

18 May 2015 – El Mundo

The real estate group Restaura closed the sale of the building at Puerta del Sol, number 9, for more than €32.2 million on Wednesday. The ground floor of this historic property houses Casa Labra, the famous restaurant-cafeteria where Pablo Iglesias founded the PSOE on 2 May 1879.

A consortium created by the US fund Kennedy Wilson and Renta Corporación acquired the main property for €30 million; meanwhile, the owners of Casa Labra paid €2.3 million to purchase the ground floor, according to reports published yesterday by the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia. The property, which occupies 4,000 square metres, is currently in the process of obtaining a licence to accommodate shops; it is located in one of the most important retail areas of Madrid, next to El Corte Inglés and the Apple store.

The bid submitted by Renta Corporación and Kennedy Wilson beat those presented by other funds, including Axa Real Estate, Meyer Bergman and Thor Equities, which is some cases offered more money but with less immediate payment conditions and, therefore, less attractive for Restaura. Allegedly, the real estate consortium chaired by Xavier Solana needed immediate liquidity to meet the obligations arising from its bankruptcy – it owes Sareb €14.2 million, the Tax Authorities a further €6.2 million and Barclays another €3.7 million. As one of its creditors, Sareb tried to foreclose the mortgage and repossess the building.

Renta Corporación and Kennedy Wilson have created a company that has starred in some very important real estate transactions in Madrid and Barcelona (in recent months). Most notably, it purchased an office building in the district of Chamberí, which is going to be converted into luxury homes.

Original story: El Mundo

Translation: Carmel Drake