IBA Capital Partners has bought the Torres Agora high-rise office complex in Madrid as part of a €500 mln investment spree in Spain.

IBA Capital Partners has bought the Torres Agora high-rise office complex in Madrid as part of a €500 mln investment spree in Spain.

IBA Capital Partners acquired the head office of the Spanish foreign affairs ministry from local developer Inmobiliaria Colonial. The complex is believed to have been bought for €73 mln, entirely in cash.

Colonial was forced to sell the asset which was on the brink of administration. If not sold by year-end 2013, the property would have been transferred to Spain's bad bank Sareb.

Located on an intersection of the M-30 inner highway and access link to Madrid's Barajas airport, the scheme consists of two buildings linked by a glass atrium totalling 30,000 m2 of space. 'This asset has high upward valuation potential over the short to medium term due both to rent upside and expected market yield compression,' commented Thierry Julienne of IBA.

IBA Capital Partners was advised by law firm Gomez Acebo y Pombo.

IBA's acquisition follows hard on the heels of last month's 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.

Located strategically between both the Paseo Castellana and the Serrano fashion avenue, the retail element of the 20,000 m2 scheme was 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 was purchased by IBA for another €40 mln, houses the headquarters of the Union Editorial publishing group on avenida de San Luis.

In July last year, IBA bought El Corte Ingles Plaza de Cataluña department store on Barcelona’s main square for €100 mln.

IBA was founded by Jesús Valderrama and Thierry Julienne, two directors of Abedo Asset Management, and Sergio García of the Swiss Batex multi-family office. 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 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.