Värde hires Deloitte to sell stake in Spanish office REIT

Värde’s 38% stake in La Finca Global Assets SOCIMI S.A., owner of the eponymous business park, is up for grabs. The American fund is currently the Spanish REIT’s largest shareholder, followed by Yolanda García-Cereceda, with a 23.1% stake, Susana García-Cerceda (18.7%), Eduardo García-Cercedo, (6.9%) and the company’s administrator (2.5%).

The Spanish REIT owns a portfolio of eleven office assets in prime locations in Madrid, as well as the La Finca business park in Madrid’s wealthy northern suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcon. According to latest reports, the company’s valuation amounted to €790 million euros as at the end of 2019.

The US fund, also owner of the Spanish real estate developer Vía Celere, intends to achieve capital gains with its sale and compensate for the complex market moment its residential development business is facing.

The SOCIMI has attracted interest from investors such as Allianz and Starwood Capital who have both demonstrated their appetite and capacity to deploy capital in this segment. Allianz recently paid €250 million to Canadian pension fund manager PSP and Drago for the office building on Madrid’s Castellana 200. Starwood Capital, on the other hand, bought Las Mercedes business complex for €200 million from BentallGreenOak (formerly Green Oak), as well as the Heritage portfolio from Freo Group and Oaktree for €151 million.

The Cereceda family’s holding company restructured its business in 2016 enabling the incorporation of new capital partners such as Värde who bought its stake for €130 million. The REIT’s main asset is its 20-building La Finca business park with a total area of ​​129,141m². The buildings, built between 2003 and 2005, are leased to large corporations such as Microsoft, Orange, Santander and Accenture.

In addition, La Finca Global Assets has a property located on Cardenal Marcelo Spinola street – a business center consisting of seven buildings with a height of seven floors – another complex in Martinez Villergas, made up of three buildings; and nine other assets, all of them in Madrid, located in calle Pez, Alvarez de Baena, Serrano, Almagro, Castello, and in the plaza of Jose Maria Soler.

The Spanish REIT closed the first half of 2019 with revenues of €24.9 million, 8.9% higher than the same period the year before, and shot up its net profit by 24%, to €5.5 million.