Neinor Starts Buying “Non-Finalist” Land

23 February 2018 – Expansión

With its first birthday as a listed company just around the corner, Neinor is making a strategic shift. It is negotiating the acquisition of “non-finalist” land (plots that require urban planning management to become developable) to maintain its pace of development once it has reached its cruising speed in 2020. Specifically, the property developer, which has plots of land on its radar worth €500 million, is holding negotiations with banks, private investors and institutional funds regarding the possible completion of three land purchase operations involving “non-finalist” plots for around €200 million. They will allow for the construction of around 1,000 homes spread over various cities, including Madrid and Barcelona.

Under the framework of the negotiations, Neinor plans to make an initial payment of almost 10% of the total price to take control of the “non-finalist” land and to pay the remaining balance once the plots have been granted their corresponding urban planning permits, within a period of between three and five years. “My concern now focuses on acquiring a land bank to put into production from 2022 onwards”, explains the CEO of the company, Juan Velayos (pictured above).

The real estate firm, which announced results yesterday, closed last year with losses of €4.6 million but expects to become profitable in 2018. If we take into account the incentive plan for directors amounting to €19 million – of which €10.6 million corresponded to the CEO – paid in its entirety by the fund Lone Star, and the costs associated with the stock market debut,  then the property developer lost €25.9 million last year.

In 2017, Neinor generated revenues of €225 million, of which €77 million proceeded from its property developer business. It also recorded cumulative pre-sales of €746 million. The company, which delivered 313 homes in 2017, expects to hand over 1,000 units in 2018. It then plans to double that figure in 2019, to 2,000 units; and reach its cruising speed from 2020 onwards with 4,000 units. That would represent the high end of the range announced initially, although it will do so with an evolution in “more conservative phases to protect margins, improve the quality of revenues and deliveries”, he said.

Neinor owns 1.5 million m2 of developable land with capacity for the construction of 12,500 homes and a gross asset value (GAV) of €1.7 billion. The company, which invested €286 million in land in 2017 for the development of 3,100 units, plans to disburse another €200 million on purchases this year. Neinor’s share price closed trading down by 4% yesterday at €16.66.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake