Spain’s state owned SEPI (Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales) gives in to the pressure from the IE Business School and studies the sale of their Campos Velázquez office complex in Madrid for between €350M and €400M.
The IE business school already own three of the six buildings in Madrid’s Campos Velázquez area and have submitted offers in the past albeit to no avail. The new president of SEPI, Vicente Fernández, has requested that their property subsidiary, Sepides, carries out a study to determine the value, as well as an analysis about the different legal requirements necessary to proceed with a divestment without having to carry out a public process.
This decision has generated a great deal of controversy in the Spanish property market as it coincides with IE’s hiring of Spain’s new first lady, Begoña Gómez, as director of the business school’s Center for Africa.