Drago Capital JV buys 50% in EUR 300m RBS portfolio

Spanish private investor Drago Capital has partnered with an unnamed Canadian institutional investor to acquire a 50% stake in a Spanish real estate portfolio owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The package, which includes two assets in Madrid - Gran Vía, 32 and Miguel Yuste, 40 - and one in Barcelona, is said to be valued at over EUR 300 mln.

The deal is the first in Spain for the North American investor and is part of an alliance with Drago Capital to look for investment opportunities in that market. Drago Capital currently manages a EUR 2.7 bn portfolio in Spain, including some 1,300 bank branches leased to Banco Santander and Caja Madrid.

'This is a great quality real estate portfolio that we know very well since we have been managing it for a long time,' commented a spokesperson from Drago Capital.

RBS bought the portfolio in July 2008 in partnership with the Drago Real Estate Partners fund, which is managed by Mare Nostrum Capital Managers. The assets offer some 72,000 m² of space leased to Spain's leading media group Prisa, which uses them as its main headquarters as well as as the editorial offices for El Pais newspaper and Radio Barcelona.

DREP is retaining the other 50% in the portfolio.

Earlier this year Drago Capital teamed up with Atitlan to buy and lease back a portfolio of eight Caja Madrid office properties. In November last year, Drago also bought a portfolio consisting of 97 bank branches for EUR 96 mln in partnership with Cerberus Capital Management.