IBI Lion goes public valued at 28 million euros, backed by a large Israeli pension fund

IBI Lion is the first to debut in BME Growth this year and specializes in logistics, offices and retail. IBI Lion kicks off the stock market listings of new REITs in 2022, making it the first to debut on this market so far this year. The company will debut this June 28th with a price of one euro per share and a capitalization of just over 28 million euros, and has Renta 4 as its registered advisor and liquidity provider.

Founded in January 2021, IBI Lion invests in high-quality logistics, retail and office properties located in Spain’s major cities that generate sustainable income and provide long-term appreciation. In particular, IBI Lion’s investment strategy focuses on seeking investment opportunities in ‘core‘ and ‘core plus‘ assets offering ‘triple net‘ or ‘double net‘ leases, with long-term leases and financially sound tenants.

It currently has two assets in its portfolio. One of them is located in Alcobendas (Madrid), has a surface area of 15,852 m2 and is dedicated to pharmaceutical production, warehousing and offices. According to the published listing prospectus, it is fully leased to Iniciativas del Jarama. Its second property is located in Valencia: it is a logistics asset of some 79,000 m2 with Conforama, Europe’s second largest home furnishings retail chain, as the sole tenant. The consultancy and appraisal firm Gesvalt put the current market value of the portfolio of the REIT IBI Lion at 69.46 million euros.

The company’s main shareholder is the Israeli pension fund Keren Hishtalmut Le’Ovdi Harashuyot Hamekomio, which holds 53.42% of the capital, while Fund for postgraduate in Social Humanities owns 14.25% and the Continuing Education Fund for Administrative and Service Clerk, 7.11%. Of the 34 shareholders, 31 are minority shareholders and hold 24.85%, while treasury stock represents 0.36% of the shares. The company is managed by IBI Investment House Ltd, a listed company and one of Israel’s leading financial institutions, and Lion Investment Group.

As of the date of the information document, the share capital of IBI Lion amounts to EUR 28,077,143, divided into 28,077,143 shares of EUR 1 par value each. All shares are fully subscribed and fully paid up, belong to the same class and series, and confer the same voting and economic rights to their holders. The company’s shares are registered and denominated in euros.

The REIT explains in the document that the main reason it has applied for listing on BME Growth is to meet the requirements for this type of company, which must be admitted to trading on a regulated market or a Spanish multilateral trading system.

In its first year of activity, the company recorded losses of 494,328 euros and has only one employee, who is responsible for assets and operations.

As for investment forecasts, the REIT says it will focus on assets located in the main cities of Spain, although in the future it could analyze acquisitions in other Eurozone countries. For example, supermarkets, distribution centers and head offices, with an average value per asset of approximately 40 million euros.