Spanish property developer Llanera has said it is renegotiating a EUR 150 mln loan it secured from Lehman Brothers to partially finance the acquisition of Reva, a Belgium company that owned some 9 million m[sup]2[/sup] of rural land in Valencia. Last week Llanera, which is owned by the Gallego family, also said it was trying to refinance its EUR 304 mln debt with local creditors, Grupo Bancaja and CAM.
Spanish property developer Llanera has said it is renegotiating a EUR 150 mln loan it secured from Lehman Brothers to partially finance the acquisition of Reva, a Belgium company that owned some 9 million m2 of rural land in Valencia. Last week Llanera, which is owned by the Gallego family, also said it was trying to refinance its EUR 304 mln debt with local creditors, Grupo Bancaja and CAM.
Several media sources reported that Llanera was trying to stave off bankruptcy, but CEO Fernando Gallego told Reuters that the firm was merely experiencing a 'temporary liquidity crisis'. Gallego admitted things had become tougher due to the cooling of the Spanish housing boom . According to data published by the Estadistica del Colegio de Registradores on Wednesday, house sales in the country fell by 10.1% year-on-year to 438,356 housing units in the first half of 2007. The sale of new homes dropped by 12.77% to 183,992, while sales of existing houses fell by 8.21% to 254,364 units.
Late last year, Llanera bought Reva, a real estate company which owns rural land in southern Spain and is one of the largest producer of citrus fruits in the Valencia region. Llanera was refused financing for the deal by Banco de Valencia, but eventually got a loan from Lehman Brothers to fund half the transaction price of EUR 300 mln, newspaper Cinco Dias reported.