GLOBAL – Fast-growing Mexican property trust Fibra Uno has bought Banc Sabadell’s Spanish real estate portfolio from Moor Park Capital Partners for €300m in Spain’s biggest property deal so far this year.
CBRE, which advised Moor Park Capital Partners on the deal, said the transaction was evidence of the Spanish property recovery.
The portfolio it has bought consists of 250 retail assets located across Spain, in the form of bank branches let to Banc Sabadell, CBRE said.
Adolfo Ramirez-Escudero, managing director of capital markets at CBRE Spain, said the transaction was the largest in Spain so far this year.
He said it illustrated the recovery of the Spanish real estate market, as well as the consistent interest in this market from Latin American capital.
CBRE said it had also advised Moor Park Capital on the initial purchase of the portfolio back in 2010, when it then comprised 378 branches and cost €403m.
Fibra Uno was established in 2010 as the first Fibra – a new type of Mexican REIT.
In the 12 months to June, its portfolio increased to 316 properties from 42.
Fibra Uno’s stated aim is to invest only in Mexico, and, so far, its portfolio consists solely of Mexican properties.
No one at Fibra Uno was immediately available to comment on the new Spanish investment.
Separately, Clarion Partners said it sold a 22-building Mexican industrial property portfolio to Fibra Uno for $202m (€147m).
In addition to the buildings, the deal included four land reserves totalling 67 acres.
Mexican real estate developer Grupo Garza Ponce contributed another six properties to the deal, bringing the overall value of the transaction to €275m.
The properties are located across the five metropolitan areas of Monterrey, Saltillo, Reynosa, Ciudad Juarez and San Luis Potosí, it said.
Alejandro Cuadros, vice-president at Clarion Partners and head of the transaction team, said: “Rising manufacturing costs in China and investor-friendly legislation in Mexico is encouraging tech, apparel and auto manufacturing firms to re-shore production, which, in turn, has boosted demand for industrial real estate.”
