A joint venture of US private equity firm Global Asset Capital (GAC), AGC Equity Partners and Cruz Capital is close to inking the acquisition of bank Santander's head office in Madrid, in what is expected to be Europe's largest single asset deal of the year.
A joint venture of US private equity firm Global Asset Capital (GAC), AGC Equity Partners and Cruz Capital is close to inking the acquisition of bank Santander's head office in Madrid, in what is expected to be Europe's largest single asset deal of the year.
The Spanish lender's headquarters in Madrid's Boadilla del Monte area is understood to be changing hands for as much as €2.8 bn as part of the insolvency proceedings of its owner, Marme Inversiones.
According to Spanish press, other offers have come in from Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, Aabar, as well as from asset manager Azora Capital.
The so-called Ciudad Financiera was originally acquired by Marme, a joint venture of UK investor Propinvest and Ireland's Derek Quinlan, in 2008 in a sale-and-leaseback deal worth €1.9 bn, reflecting a yield of 4.5%. The deal was nearly entirely financed with debt, granted by a consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland, and including ING and CaixaBank.
Marme became insolvent in 2014 when it could no longer meet debt payments on the asset. RBS is believed to have sold down the debt to a number of opportunistic funds.
The trophy property purchased from Santander totals over 400,000 m2 of building space and consists of nine three-storey buildings, dining facilities, a grand plaza, a training centre, hotel, sports facilities, day-care centre, 18-hole golf course and a 5,000-car parking facility. Santander, which in 2008 signed a 40-year lease agreement, pays an annual rent of €80 mln.
If successful, the deal will only cover the debt on the asset, which is believed to currently amount to as much as €2.7 bn.
