Tag: transaction

Permira Buys Laureate Education’s Portfolio of Universities in Spain & Portugal for €770M

12 December 2018 – El Confidencial

The fund Permira has purchased a portfolio of institutions in Spain and Portugal from the company Laureate Education, which owns the Universidad Europea de Madrid and is a specialist in the university sector, for €770 million.

In a statement, both parties detailed that, in addition to the Madrilenian branch, the transaction includes the campus of the Universidad Europea in Valencia and the Universidad Europa de Canarias, both in Spain, as well as the Portuguese Universidade Europeia in Portugal and the Portuguese Institute of Marketing Administration.

The most senior executive of Laureate, Eilif Serck-Hanssen, said that he feels “very proud of our institutions in Spain and Portugal and of what they have achieved”. Moreover, he considers that under the umbrella of the fund Permira “they will be well positioned and supported” to continue offering high satisfaction to students.

The head of Permira in Spain, Pedro López, said in a statement that these schools “will maintain their focus on high-quality education and on offering new and innovative educational experiences”.

The transaction is expected to be completed during the first half of 2019, although it is subject to approval by the competition authorities and educational agencies.

Original story: El Confidencial 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Grupo Zriser Sells the Alameda Building in Valencia

2 October 2018 – Valencia Plaza

Grupo Zriser, the investment arm owned by Ana and Pablo Serratosa, has sold the Alameda Building, located on Calle Antiga Senda de Senent in València. The buyer is the fund Loreto Mutua, previously known as Montepío Loreto, and linked to workers in the aviation sector, and a historical shareholder of the now extinct Banco Valencia.

The building, which was acquired by Grupo Zriser from Acciona Inmobiliaria in December 2009, has a surface area of more than 11,000 m2 dedicated in its entirety to offices and parking spaces. The building is fully occupied and is located in one of the premium areas of the city for business activity.

This operation, which according to real estate sources has been brokered by Olivares Consultores, forms part of Grupo Zriser’s strategic plan, which considers both the selective divestment of buildings and corporate stakes, as well as the acquisition of industrial companies, real estate assets and technologies.

“The Alameda Building is one of the most iconic office buildings in Valencia, located in one of the best business districts”, said Pablo Serratosa, Chairman of Grupo Zriser. “Moreover, it has a very well-diversified tenant base by solvency and commitment to the building; it is undoubtedly a great asset” (…).

In recent years, Grupo Inmobiliario Zriser, founded in 2007 following the departure of Ana and Pablo Serratosa from Nefinsa, has become one of the major real estate companies in the city by volume of gross leasable area. Its tenants include local companies and multinationals alike (…).

Original story: Valencia Plaza (by Estefanía Pastor)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Blackstone Puts 2 million m2 of Popular’s Residential Land up for Sale

1 October 2018 – Cinco Días

Now that the banks have offloaded their real estate portfolios onto the opportunistic funds that acquired them, it is time for the next move. Those buyers are going to see at first hand whether property developers are interested in buying plots on which to homes can be built all over Spain. The first player to test the market is Blackstone, which has placed a macro-portfolio of land spanning 2 million m2 from Popular on the market; according to market sources, it has the capacity for the construction of more than 18,000 homes.

The operation is being carried out through Aliseda, a company controlled by Blackstone (51%) and Santander (49%). The value of the plots is almost €500 million, according to sources at Aliseda. That real estate firm already revealed, at the start of September, that a sales process was in the pipeline relating to so-called Project Origin (…).

This land proceeds from the toxic assets of Popular, after Santander sold 51% of the property-linked portfolio to Blackstone last year for €5.1 billion. In that portfolio, there were doubtful loans and foreclosed assets, including both homes and land linked to property developers. Of those assets, 42% corresponded to land and work in progress projects. In that operation, the servicer Aliseda was also transferred. That entity is now responsible for managing those assets, recovering doubtful loans and, when recovery is not possible, foreclosing the properties and putting them on the market, like in  the case of this macro-operation.

The details of the operation

The details of the operation reveal a gigantic portfolio. The land portfolio spans 2.05 million m2 for residential use, specifically for the construction of 18,299 homes, on plots located in 43 provinces, but excluding Madrid and Barcelona. In total, 270 assets have been put up for sale.

Blackstone and Santander, through their servicer Aliseda, are giving companies the option of bidding only for the plots that are of interest to them. The real estate firm has opened an online store in which it says around 1,000 interested investors are participating.

Local property developers are expected to be the players most interested in these plots. In fact, Blackstone has decided to put plots on the market in locations where demand has reactivated a bit later, whereby backing the recovery of the property sector across Spain. The fund has entrusted this transaction to the real estate consultancy CBRE.

The portfolio is divided into four categories, based on the type of land. Specifically, 158 assets (58% of the total) corresponding to 888,364 m2 of land, are finalist plots (which can be built on right away) with capacity for 8,691 homes. It has also put some work in progress projects up for sale, in other words, developments that were left unfinished. In that case, there are 39 assets, spanning 174,034 m2 and corresponding to 1,549 homes.

Aliseda is also marketing 33 assets for which the urbanisation process has been started, with capacity for 4,603 homes and another 42 assets without any licences for 4,772 homes.

In terms of the locations, Andalucía, Levante and Galicia account for the majority of the assets. The 10 provinces with the most homes in the portfolio are Murcia (14%), Málaga (12%), Castellón (7%), Valencia (5%), La Coruña (5%), Alicante (4%), Asturias (4%), Navarra (4%) and Zaragoza (3%).

Property developers interested in bidding for one or more of the plots will have until the end of October to do so and Aliseda expects to close the operations during December.

To put the gigantic size of the portfolio being marketed by Aliseda into context, it is worth comparing it with the land banks owned by some of the large listed property developers. Only Metrovacesa (in which Santander and BBVA hold stakes) owns more land. It currently owns plots for 38,000 homes, with a gross value of €2.686 billion, according to its most recent accounts. In the case of Aedas, it has a landbank for 14,521 homes and Neinor has land for another 13,500 units (…).

It remains to be seen whether the appetite of property developers for these locations outside of Madrid and Barcelona, the most active markets, is sufficient and whether they will be capable of swallowing up this supply. It is the first time that interest in the market for land proceeding from bank assets has been tested on such a large scale (…).

Original story: Cinco Días (by Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Tauro Real Estate Buys Torre Ámbar in Madrid

3 July 2018 – Eje Prime

The new Tauro Real Estate is rearing its head in the Spanish residential market. The fund, which is now under the mandate of Globe Invest, the Israeli company that acquired the firm in April by paying €180 million to its former shareholders, has recently purchased Torre Ámbar in the centre of Madrid.

In the middle of May, Globe Invest, owned by the multi-millionaire Teddy Sagi, acquired the rights to purchase the residential block from the Inveriplus group. The tower comprises 64 prime homes very close to Paseo de la Castellana, according to confirmation from sources involved in the operation. The amount of the transaction has not been revealed. The vendor in this operation, Inveriplus, is a group dedicated to investment in real estate assets for their subsequent management and value generation. The company, which is headquartered in Madrid, is led by Óscar Bellette.

The asset has been acquired after the clean-up that Inveriplus conducted of the tower. It, in turn, had purchased the homes during the crisis from several merchants of the Proinlasa real estate group. For the last few years, the manager has succeeded in leasing the block in its entirety.

Torre Ámbar is one of the skyscrapers that comprises the residential area of Isla Chamartín, located to the north of Madrid. The building, whose first homes were handed over in 2009, was designed for sale, but the change in economic cycle forced a change in the objectives and it was put up for rent in 2014.

The sale was signed “at market price”, according to sources close to the operation speaking to Eje Prime. “The returns that the property could generate are of much greater interest than the purchase opportunity”, say the same sources.

Torre Ámbar comprises luxury one and two bedroom homes, as well as several studios. The urbanisation is private and has security gates, a swimming pool, garages and storerooms, a padel court and private green spaces, according to Proinlasa’s corporate website.

The owner of the property has real estate assets for sale and rent in Madrid, Valladolid, Palma and Córdoba. In its property development plan, the group says that, in addition to residential land, it is also backing the tertiary and industrial market.

The owner of Camden Market’s commitment to Spain

Teddy Sagi is an Israeli multimillionaire and owner of the renowned Camden Market in London. The businessman, through Tauro Real Estate, has acquired 600 homes spread between Madrid and Barcelona.

Tauro has fattened up its portfolio in less than four years with the purchase of assets, primarily from banks, involving the investment of up to €160 million. In Madrid, it owns 350 homes and in Barcelona, it has another 250 properties. In the Catalan capital, it owns tourist apartments, which comprise 30% of the assets that Tauro owns in the city (…).

Original story: Eje Prime (by J. Izquierdo & P. Riaño)

Translation: Carmel Drake

M&G Real Estate Purchases 3 Commercial Premises in Madrid & Granada

29 May 2018 – Eje Prime

M&G Real Estate is continuing its shopping spree in Spain. The real estate division of the British fund M&G Investment has acquired two commercial premises in Madrid and a third in Granada. Moreover, the firm has also added two industrial assets in the Spanish capital to its portfolio.

The commercial premises in Madrid are located at number 68 Gran Vía, whilst the asset acquired in Granada is located on Calle Reyes Católicos, where the Swedish fashion retailer H&M recent opened a store. In the Spanish capital, the tenants of the retail spaces are the restaurant chain Tony Roma’s and the financial entity Banco Sabadell, which will open its flagship branch in the premises soon.

Meanwhile, in the logistics sector, the real estate investment firm has purchased a logistics platform in Corredor del Henares, which is leased to Teka, and an industrial complex in Getafe. In total, those two assets span a surface area of more than 55,000 m2.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

UBS Euroinvest Fund Acquires Core Madrid Office Asset

6 March 2018 – Property Funds World

UBS Real Estate has acquired the Titán 8 office asset in Madrid on behalf of the UBS (D) Euroinvest Immobilien fund. This transaction represents Euroinvest’s debut investment since the fund’s recent strategic relaunch.

Titán 8 is a prominent office asset in the south of Madrid comprising 18 storeys spread across 10,633 sqm and including 228 underground car parking spaces. The imposing tower has been acquired in Grade A condition having been completed according to the highest quality, efficiency and design standards in 2008 and well-maintained since. It features a glass curtain wall façade that offers impressive views from upper levels. Main tenants are from the financial business, the energy and service provider industry.

The asset is strategically located in Madrid’s business district of Méndez Álvaro, in the south of the city centre, and benefits from strong transport links, positioned adjacent to the M30 ring-road, providing access to Madrid’s international airport in just 15 minutes and with the capital’s main train station, Atocha, nearby. With highly constrained supply in the area and resilient occupier demand, Méndez Álvaro office rents have demonstrated buoyant performance over recent years.

Euroinvest comprises an EUR820 million portfolio of predominantly core office assets located across key European cities. Following a strategic review of the Fund, Euroinvest has strengthened its core-profile through the disposal of non-strategic assets and delivered a strong performance of 4.4 percent for its investors (as of 31 December 2017), outperforming its benchmark (MSCI OFIX Europe) by 260 basis points. The Fund’s management team is actively seeking further attractive investment opportunities that are in line with its strategy across top performing European markets.

Alexander Isak, Fund Manager of Euroinvest, says: “As the fund’s maiden investment since relaunching, Titán 8 is a perfect illustration of the high quality and resilient assets that we are targeting, benefitting from an excellent location which is proven to generate robust occupier demand and offering further upside as the Spanish economy strengthens.”

“We are pleased to be in a position to prudently invest in new attractive opportunities that we are identifying in the market, following a disciplined programme of non-strategic disposals and the extensive management of the Fund’s assets that has delivered a viable core European real estate portfolio for our investors.”

Euroinvest was established in 1999 as the first open-ended public fund focusing primarily on institutional investors, with this category of investors currently holding more than 95 percent of the Fund’s units. Its investment strategy is focused on core office properties located in the strongest European cities, demonstrating resilient occupational demand.

Original story: Property Funds World

Edited by: Carmel Drake

Kutxabank Prepares the Sale of Residential Land Worth €700M

26 February 2018 – Eje Prime

Kutxabank is awakening from its lethargy in the Spanish real estate sector. The Basque bank, which resulted from the merger of three savings banks from the region (Kutxa, BBK and Caja Vital), wants to get rid of 40% of its portfolio of toxic assets, which would mean launching onto the market a portfolio of land and promotions worth between €500 million and €700 million.

This operation will be the second most important divestment to be undertaken by the financial entity, after it sold its real estate arm, Neinor Homes, to the fund Lone Star, back in 2015 for €930 million.

The objective of the bank is to take advantage of the good times that the residential market in Spain is currently enjoying to place its assets with international funds and new property developers, according to Vozpópuli.

This option that Kutxabank is considering comes at a time when the sector is complaining about the lack of developable land, which means that it is likely that the bank will easily find groups interested in acquiring its land. The plots are largely inherited from the merged Cajasur, a Cordoban entity that BBK integrated in 2010.

If it carries out the transaction, Kutxabank would join Santander and BBVA on the roadmap of Spanish banks with respect to real estate. The sale of a large part of the property held by two of the country’s major financial institutions last year, both to US funds, set a course that other smaller banks are now starting to follow.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Savills Aguirre Newman: Tertiary RE Transactions Soar in January to Reach €910M

6 February 2018 – Eje Prime

The sales of the Parque Corredor shopping centre in Madrid and the 16 Inditex stores in Spain and Portugal have boosted the sector, which has already registered 40% of the total amount invested during the first quarter of 2017.

Operations in the retail segment have stepped up a gear. The Parque Corredor shopping centre in Madrid, and the portfolio of stores that Inditex put up for sale in Spain, represented a boost for the investor boom in the sector during the first month of the year. In total, those two operations accounted for €660 million of the €910 million that was spent on the sale and purchase of non-residential real estate assets in Spain during the month of January.

For the Inditex portfolio, which contained 16 stores located across Spain (14) and Portugal, the German fund Deka paid more than €500 million. That transaction was followed by another major retail deal, specifically, the purchase by the joint venture between Ares and Redevco of 70% of Parque Corredor, whereby absorbing the 40% stake in the centre that Sareb held, for €140 million.

Thanks to those two sales and others that were closed during the first month of 2018, the investment quota for the year has already reached 40% of the total figure spent during the whole of the first quarter last year, according to data from Savills Aguirre Newman.

Following a month of considerable activity, the forecast for the rest of 2018 is optimistic. Sources at the consultancy firm predict a year of “significant investment”. In this way, the volume of operations forecast for the office sector could exceed €2.0 billion, after investment in that segment amounted to €210 million in January.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Sabadell Seeks Investors to Develop More Than 2 million m2 of Land

28 December 2017 – Expansión

The bank, through Solvia, has spun off the management of assets worth €600 million into a new company, which will be headquartered in Madrid.

Solvia, the real estate management company of Sabadell, wants to replicate the operation that it carried out in the hotel sector earlier this year, when it sold its hotel business to Blackstone for €630 million, generating profits of €55 million.

As such, the entity has decided to carve out its activity relating to the development of land into a new company called Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios. That company will manage 2.22 million m2 of land in total, equivalent to almost 300 football pitches. The construction of 4,000 homes, across more than 84 developments, is already underway.

The portfolio of assets under management amounts to €600 million, equivalent to approximately 15% of Solvia’s total income. That size places it in the second division in the sector, just behind the listed real estate companies, led by Metrovacesa, Neinor, Aedas and Vía Célere. The largest owner of land in Spain is Sareb.

This new company will be headquartered in Madrid and will be led by Francisco Pérez, former CEO of the Catalan property developer Vertix. “The idea is to grow hand in hand with the large overseas investors that are looking for high returns in Span, but which do not have any structure here. Most of the funding will come from outside of the country”, explains Javier García del Río, CEO of Solvia (pictured above).

The plans

Solvia Desarrollos will develop not only Sabadell’s land – the bank owns 83% of the portfolio – but also plots owned by family offices that the bank manages and the developments that Sareb is granting it. Solvia was one of the four entities chosen by the bad bank in 2014 to help it sell its homes to the general public. Specifically, it took over the problem loans proceeding from Bankia, Ceiss and Banco Gallego.

Sabadell has been developing land since 2013 and has grown a considerable business in that time. It was the first bank to get back on the horse after the real estate bubble burst. “Land is behaving magnificently, although we do not expect to see any abrupt growth. Areas that were very risky in 2013, such as Huelva, are no longer”, said García del Río.

The experts in the sector endorse his opinion. “The turning point in this market came in 2015 and 2016. This year has been exceptional, with more than 20,000 transactions involving land”, explains Samuel Población, National Director of Residential and Land at the consultancy firm CBRE. He calculates that property developers are capable of generating margins of between 18% and 22% from the construction of private housing blocks in Spain.

“The funds that left Spain have returned and investors are interested in buying land”, says José García Montalvo, Professor of Economics at the Universidad Pompeu Fabra and an expert in the real estate sector.

Solvia manages a portfolio of 148,000 real estate assets, whose value exceeds €31 billion. Last year, it generated a gross profit of €57.8 million and brokered the sale of 20,321 properties. Between 2011 and 2016, it sold more than 91,000 assets.

Sabadell granted new financing of €1.35 billion to property developers in 2016, up by 56%. Last year, it started granting property developer loans again in CAM’s area of influence after four years of restrictions imposed by Brussels.

Original story: Expansión (by R. Lander)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Vukile Buys 2 Shopping Centres in Spain for €65.2M

7 December 2017 – Business Live

Local real estate investment trust (Reit) Vukile Property Fund closed weaker on Wednesday, following an announcement that it was acquiring two more shopping centres in Spain.

Vukile said it was set to buy the Alameda Shopping Centre and Retail Park in Pulianas, Granada for €54.5m and the Pinatar retail park in San Pedro del Pinatar for €10.7m. Vukile’s Castellana subsidiary, in which it holds a 98.3% stake, would conclude the transaction.

Vukile announced in July that Castellana had acquired a portfolio of nine retail parks in a €198m transaction and also established an in-country management team and operational platform. The acquisitions allowed Vukile, via Castellana, to leverage its operational platform and grow its Spanish portfolio of retail parks.

The territories in which Castellana operates, continue to experience strong demand for space with limited prime retail park availability, which will enhance Castellana’s retail offering, Vukile said.

Vukile was down 3.3% to R19.72 (equivalent to approximately €1.23 on 7 December 2017). It has gained 5.57% in 2017.

Vukile is the only South African-based Reit with noteworthy exposure to Spain. The other listed players that have a small exposure to the region include Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust, Greenbay Properties and Intu.

Vukile is following in the footsteps of many local property groups by diversifying from local operations into international assets, predominantly in eastern Europe.

Catalyst Fund Managers investment analyst Mvula Seroto said local Reits have been affected by the lacklustre economic environment. “We see the potential for negative earnings surprises in some listed funds.”

Despite this, most South African-focused listed property firms were trading at discounts to their net asset values. This puts management teams in a tough position to raise new equity to fund acquisitions.

Original story: Business Live (by Maarten Mittner)

Translation: Carmel Drake