South African fund, Vukile, strengthens its position in Spain through Lar España

Vukile Property fund has increased its stake in Lar España from 21.7% to 25.5%, positioning itself as the biggest investor in the company. The acquisition has been carried out by Vukile’s Spanish subsidiary, Castellana Properties, a REIT vehicle that specializes in shopping centers. According to the company’s current listing on the Mercado Continuo, this percentage is valued at around 90 million euros, at market prices. Other notable shareholders include Grupo Lar (10%), Santa Lucía Seguros (5.21%) and Adamsville with 5.2% of the capital. Vukile had already acquired 21.7% of Lar España from Pimco at the start of the year.

Based on the official records from the Comisión Nacional de Mercado de Valores (CNMV), Vukile has acquired 3.2 million shares of Lar España valued at approximately 13.5 million euros, although price is not official.  Shares rocketed by more than 5% once news broke of Vukile’s stake increase reaching 4.2 euros per share in a session where the Ibex fell by 2%.

According to CBRE, the retail sector consolidates its recovery with the first semester closing with greater number of transactions, demand and influx than in last year’s period. This sector has led real estate investment in the Spanish market this semester with a total transactional volume above 2,917 million euros, the best value since 2015 and 8 times greater than in 2021.

The most notable transaction involved BBVA acquiring 629 branch offices for 1,987 million euros from Merlin Properties, this was 70 % of the retail investment. Even excluding this transaction, the total investment volume was 163% higher than in the same period of last year totaling 930 million euros. More specifically, Lar España has managed to close the first semester with net earnings of 54.9 million euros, a value 7 times greater than last year’s result.