Mexican billionaire to take control of Spain's Realia at a discount

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's property group Inmobiliaria Carso is buying a 25% stake in Spanish indebted property firm Realia at a major discount and said it plans to launch a full takeover offer within nine months.

Slim, who is buying the 25% share from bailed-out lender Bankia, is paying €44.5 mln for the shares, or €0.58 a piece, representing a discount of nearly a third to Realia's closing price on the day prior to the offer.

Slim is already a major investor in Realia, having recently acquired the majority stake in construction company Fomento de Construcciones & Contratas (FCC), which owns a 37% share in Realia.

Slim's Carso said it plans to launch a full takeover bid for Realia later this year at the same price.

Realia owns a 420,000 m2 commercial portfolio, consisting largely of office buildings including Torres Kio in Madrid and Torre Realia BCN in Barcelona.

Bankia and FCC hired Goldman Sachs in late 2013 to market their joint stake in Realia. The shares had been on the market for around a year, but last month FCC said it would abandon the sale of its 37% share shortly after Slim took control of the Barcelona-based group.

In November last year Realia received a takeover offer of €0.49 per share from Spanish REIT Hispania after the investor reached an agreement with Realia's creditors, which include Goldman Sachs Group, Fortress (through the Aneto unit) and King Street (Puffin Real Estate).

Hispania offered €150.6 mln, or €0.49 per share, for Realia, representing a 28% discount to the trading price of Realia shares before the announcement and a discount of roughly 50% to the average price of €1.1 a share held in November.