IBA Capital Partners has clinched its second investment in Spain with the purchase of the ABC Serrano shopping centre and a 20,000 m2 office building in Madrid for a price believed to be around €100 mln.

IBA Capital Partners has clinched its second investment in Spain with the purchase of the ABC Serrano shopping centre and a 20,000 m2 office building in Madrid for a price believed to be around €100 mln.

IBA closed the purchase with a Madrid bankrupcy court after having signed a preliminary agreement in September last year. The vendor is the bankrupt Spanish real estate group Reyal Urbis, the mortgage loan being previously purchased by German lender Eurohypo, currently known as HypothekenBank Frankfurt.

The bank had provided a €160 mln loan in 2008 to Reyal Urbis, the scheme's owner at the time, and later took control of the complex after the developer failed to meet its debt payments. Reyal Urbis put the retail scheme on the market in 2008 through Aguirre Newman for as much as €130 mln.

'We are going to create a new benchmark for Madrid retail life, transforming an obsolete mall at this highly
commercial pitch between Paseo Castellana and Calle Serrano,' commented Thierry Julienne and Sergio Garcia, managing partners of IBA.

The investor has selected Atelier L35 to undertake a repositioning of the shopping centre to improve the retail offering and the mall's visibility.

Located strategically between both the Paseo Castellana and the Serrano fashion avenue, the retail element of the 20,000 m2 scheme is being acquired for €60 mln. It was formerly the headquarters of Spain's daily newspaper of the same name and was purpose-built in 1926 by architect Anibal Gonzalez, also responsible for the Plaza España centrepiece in Seville.

The 20,000 m2 office building, which is being purchased by IBA for another €40 mln, houses the headquarters of the Union Editorial publishing group on avenida de San Luis.

IBA Capital Partners was advised by lawyers Gomez Acebo y Pombo.

The deal represents IBA's second acquisition in Spain as part of a €500 mln investment spree in the country. In July last year, IBA bought El Corte Ingles Plaza de Cataluña department store on Barcelona’s main square for €100 mln.

IBA Capital Partners, founded by Jesús Valderrama and Thierry Julienne, two directors of Abedo Asset Management, and Sergio García of the Swiss Batex multi-family office, clinched the acquisition of No. 23, Plaza Catalunya on an all-equity basis in a sale-and-leaseback with El Corte Inglés, which is the sole tenant.

The company said it has received a number of instructions from private investors, largely from Western Europe and South America, to invest between €400 and €500 mln in the Spanish property market. It has already deployed nearly €400 mln, according to founder Thierry Julienne.

'The timing is perfect to invest in Spain on an all-equity basis. The banking sector is not in good shape and we can take advantage of the limited competition in the market. We have just purchased other two buildings in Madrid - an office and a retail asset, and we are in advanced discussions on a sizable portfolio in need of redevelopment,' he told PropertyEU.