November 18th, 2011
German investment fund manager Invesco has bought the Titán 4 office building in Madrid for €40m from Pramerica, the real estate arm of US insurance firm Prudential. The sale of the tower, located in the Méndez Álvaro neighbourhood in the south of Madrid, is the largest single-asset transaction so far this year in Spain.
Pramérica bought the tower, which is a recent build, from Nozar in 2008. The building is currently rented to Adif, the railway infrastructure management company, and has a total area of 10,300 square metres and 218 parking spaces, according to the broker for the operation and future manager of the building, Cushman & Wakefield.
“This transaction has been possible thanks to the excellent quality of the building and its privileged location, despite of Spain’s current difficult market situation. A well-known tenant has also played an important role. High quality well- located product such as Titán 4 are the type of asset that international investors are looking for,” according to Jaime Alonso-Allende, Head of Office and Industrial Investment of C&W in Madrid.
For more information on this investment transaction and others in the Spanish real estate market contact | i-comparables.com
Tags: Madrid, office tower, real estate investment, transactions
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November 14th, 2011
Spanish unlisted construction firm SICAD has acquired the Mandarache shopping centre in Cartagena from Perella Weinberg Capital Partners. The asset formed part of a €300m Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) debt package.
SICAD, Sociedad Industrial Cartagenera de Desarrollo, also owns the Parque Mediterráneo mall in the same city. The Mandarache mall, with 26,976 sq.m. of retail accomodation and 1,200 parking spaces, opened in 2006 after a €35m investment but has struggled to achieve full occupancy, with most units now empty. Ownership passed to RBS in early 2009 after the developer, Union y Desarrollos, went into receivership.
The mall was acquired as part of the debt package by Perella Weinberg Capital Partners, a New York-based financial and asset management firm, earlier this year.
For more information on this retail shopping centre investment transaction and other investment transactions in the Spanish real estate market contact | i-comparables.com
Tags: real estate investment, shopping centre, transactions
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November 9th, 2011
The US opportunistic investor Värde Partners is close to finalising the purchase of a retail portfolio across Spain currently owned by APN European Retail Property Group.
The Minneapolis based opportunistic investor is making its first purchase in the Spanish market with the acquisition of four assets. Värde is understood to be paying €70m in cash for the properties. Although there has been comment in the market that Spanish broker Aguirre Newman is advising the buyer and that Jones Lang LaSalle is advising the seller, i-comparables has been unable to confirm this.
The portfolio comprises La Vega retail mall in Madrid; two retail warehouses with three tenants located close to Pamplona, Navarra; the 31,000 m2 Cuadernillos Retail & Leisure Park in Alcala de Henares, Madrid and the Festival Park, factory outlet centre, in Palma de Mallorca.
According to PropertyEU, APN and RBS (the lender) put the assets on the market in May this year. Indicative offers were submitted by June, with three parties selected to make binding bids by end-July. However, due to growing financial market volatility and tighter financing, the vendors decided in September to re-open the bidding process to new buyers, including Värde, which recently emerged as the preferred party.
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Tags: APN European Retail Property Group, real estate investment, shopping centre, Värde Partners
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November 5th, 2011
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold its 50% stake in two Madrid office buildings and one in Barcelona to Madrid-based Drago Capital and a US institutional investor for an undisclosed sum.
The bank, together with Drago, acquired 100% of the assets for €315m in 2008.
The buildings in Madrid, at Gran Vía 32 – which also contains retail units – and Miguel Yuste 40, and at Caspe 6-20 in Barcelona, are all leased by Prisa, Spain’s largest media conglomerate and owner of El País newspaper and Cadena SER radio, which sold the assets in 2008 in a sale-and-leaseback deal. The Gran Vía building also contains ground-floor retail units.
Madrid-based Drago Capital manages a real estate portfolio across Spain and Portugal valued at €2.7bn, including more than 1,200 bank branches of Santander and Bankia.
RBS currently has four shopping malls on the market, located in Madrid, Mallorca and Pamplona, and managed by Melbourne-based APN Property Group, which is withdrawing from the Spanish market.
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Tags: real estate investment, transactions
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November 3rd, 2011
Investors are optimistic of a recovery in Spain’s real estate sector but are avoiding residential, according to a study by realtor CBRE released during the Barcelona Meeting Point expo.
“European investors are showing an absolute lack of appetite for the Spanish residential market, CBRE’s research director Patricio Palomar said. According to the firm’s Barometer of Investment in Spain, only 7% of investors will opt for the residential and hotel sectors, with 50% seeking office and 40% prime shopping centres.
The report, based on a survey of 600 local and international investors, reveals that 73% believe the Spanish real estate sector will recover in the next 18 months and almost 57% plan to invest in Spain over the next six months.
The majority of investment in Spain comes from foreign investors. “Opportunist funds are showing a great deal of interest in Spain,” Palomar said, adding that a lack of deals is due to prices not matching investors’ expectations of reductions, and a lack of financing, the main obstacle to transactions according to 80% of the investors consulted.
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November 3rd, 2011
Spanish hotel chain NH Hoteles has revised downward the price of the sale of a 20% stake to China’s HNA Group, better reflecting NH’s share price, which has tumbled by nearly 50% since January. The deal was originally announced in May.
The Chinese group will now pay €330m for a 20% stake, compared to the €432m originally offered, and based on €5.35 per share against €7 per share, which still represents a 64% premium on NH’s current share price of €3.26, the firm said in a statement.
The Spanish hotel chain will carry out a capital increase, issuing 60m shares at a price of €5.35 per share, which will make HNA the second-largest stakeholder after Hesperia, with 24%, and provide NH with a much-needed injection of liquidity and reducing its debt from €1.1bn to €787m.
The deal foresees the opening of two or three NH-brand hotels in China in 2012, with the Spanish chain keen to open “dozens” of hotels in what is perceived as a high-growth hospitality market over the coming years.
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October 27th, 2011
“The turmoil in the global economy is holding back investment activity in southern Europe and Spain. In 2011 the national market will record its lowest investment volume in a decade. Although there is product available, investors are increasingly conservative and continue to wait for the perfect investment. The increase in the cost of financing and growing problems in gaining access to credit are slowing down sales processes.”
Danny Kinnoch – Director International Investment, Savills. 27th October, 2011.
Tags: real estate investment, Savills, transactions
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October 11th, 2011
Amid belt-tightening measures, Spain’s regional governments are freeing up a large portfolio of real estate assets, with Catalonia and Andalusia selling buildings worth a combined €950m, seeking sale-and-leaseback deals in order to remain as tenants.
Catalonia aims to pocket €550m before the end of the year with the sale of 37 properties, among them the city’s stock market on Paseo de Gracia, one of the most expensive streets for European real estate, and the building housing the agriculture secretariat. Brokers Jones Lang LaSalle and Aguirre Newman are advising the sale.
Andalusia is aiming to pocket €400m with the sale of 76 buildings, including the culture secretariat in Granada and youth centres in Málaga, for which the government will pay up to €30m annually in rent.
For more information on these Spanish office investment transactions please contact i-comparables.com
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October 11th, 2011
Madrid-based unlisted developer Inmobiliaria Chamartín is reportedly considering a €150m offer to buy its Portuguese shopping centre division, comprising 16 malls, from RREEF, the real estate investment management arm of Deutsche Bank.
Chamartín paid €500m in 2006 for Portuguese firm Amorim Inmobiliaria, which it renamed Dolce Vita, from Portuguese mogul Americo Amorim, in a transaction financed by 10 Spanish banks and which included the €800m debt shouldered by the Portuguese firm, which pushed Chamartín’s total debts to €1.7bn.
Chamartín has had interest from 12 investment funds, with RREEF’s offer of close to €150m having prevailed, and the terms of the final transaction are now under discussion, according to Spanish daily El Confidencial. The newspaper quoted an unnamed investor who had bid unsuccessfully as saying, “Portugal is an almost illiquid market and it is almost impossible to secure financing for a real estate investment there.”
The Spanish firm, which in 2010 requested a three-year extension for its debt repayments and in early 2011 postponed a planned IPO, has resorted to the sale because its rental revenues, estimated at €100m annually from its office portfolio in Spain, Portugal and Germany, are insufficient to meet debt obligations. The firm’s largest stakeholder is its CEO Carlos Cutillas, with 42.5%, with 16% owned by Morgan Stanley and the remainder by Spanish savings banks.
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Tags: Amorim, Chamartin, investment, Portugal, real estate, RREEF, Spain
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October 10th, 2011
Madrid-based infrastructure and renewable energy firm Acciona has sold the 54,000 square-metre Splau! mall in Barcelona to French/Dutch real estate investment trust Unibail-Rodamco for €185m, in a sale aimed at cutting debt, according to Spain’s National Stock Market Commission (CNMV).
“The sale is part of our mature asset rotation policy in order to maximize growth potential and returns on investment,” Acciona said in a statement.
Acciona had initially been seeking €200m for the shopping centre, which comprises 160 retail units, including brands such as Zara, H&M, MediaMarkt, an 18-sala cinema and a Mercadona supermarket. Acciona built the mall in conjunction with Grosvenor and Lar Group but took full control of it in 2007.
Jones Lang LaSalle represented the vendor in the transaction.
For more information on this transaction and other retail investment deals in Spain contact | i-comparables.com
Tags: Acciona, real estate investment, retail leisure centre, Rodamco, shopping centre, Splau, Unibail
Posted in Real Estate Transaction news, Spain real estate comps | No Comments »
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