Tag: Ziloti Holdings

Uro Properties Sells 14 Santander Branches for €29.5M

6 September 2018 – Eje Prime

Uro Properties is doing business with Lerma Investments. The Socimi, one of the investment vehicles that owns some of Santander’s branches, has sold fourteen of the financial institution’s branches to the company Lerma Investments for €29.5 million, according to a statement filed by the group with the Alternative Investment Market (MAB).

The assets are currently leased to Banco Santander for an average period of 21 years. Following this sale, Uro Properties will have liquidity of €44 million. Moreover, the Socimi will continue to own a portfolio of bank branches with a market value of more than €1.88 billion.

Uro Properties debuted on the MAB in March 2015 at a price of €100 per share and with a market value of almost €260 million. Three years later, its market capitalisation amounts to €206.9 million. The reference shareholders in the company are the firm Ziloti Holdings and Banco Santander itself, which owns 15% of the share capital directly.

Currently, the Socimi’s portfolio comprises 712 properties, which occupy a surface area of more than 330,000 m2. More than half of those assets are located in Madrid, Cataluña and Andalucía.

Original story: Eje Prime 

Translation: Carmel Drake

Citi Seeks New Shareholders For Uro Property

20 May 2016 – Expansión

Uro Property, the Socimi that owns a quarter of Santander’s branch network in Spain, may see a change in its shareholders in the coming months. The company that holds 84% of its share capital, Ziloti Holdings, has given Citi a mandate to study possible shareholder changes.

This mandate comes in the face of interest from some of the current shareholders to exit the company, given that they were forced to acquire shares in the first place when their debt was converted into capital in 2014.

The main shareholders of Uro Property – both through Ziloti and otherwise – are Santander, with 22.7%; Atisha Holding, the former Sun Group, with 18.9%; Phoenix Life Assurance, with 14.6%; CaixaBank, with 14.5%; BNP Paribas, with 9.2%; and other private investors and international entities.

Citi will mainly look for investors amongst the large pension funds, insurance companies and investment funds.

The departure of the shareholders was vetoed until March under an institutional agreement reached following the recapitalisation of Uro.

The renewal of the shareholder base is one of the outstanding milestones for the company, which owns 755 Santander branches in Spain. It refinanced its debt last year and cancelled a swap, whereby reducing the financing costs of its €1,300 million debt from 6% to 3.35%. Last year, the Socimi sold 381 branches to Axa for €308 million, recording a capital gain of €27 million.

Original story: Expansión (by J. Zuloaga)

Translation: Carmel Drake