Cash-strapped Spanish property company Reyal Urbis has put some of its trophy assets on the market in a move aimed at raising capital and reducing its debt mountain, according to Spanish business newspaper Expansion. The company, which is headed by Rafael Santamaría, has put a number of shopping centres, office buildings and hotel assets up for sale in an effort to close a much-needed refinancing agreement with its creditor banks.
Cash-strapped Spanish property company Reyal Urbis has put some of its trophy assets on the market in a move aimed at raising capital and reducing its debt mountain, according to Spanish business newspaper Expansion. The company, which is headed by Rafael Santamaría, has put a number of shopping centres, office buildings and hotel assets up for sale in an effort to close a much-needed refinancing agreement with its creditor banks.
Among the assets are the ABC shopping centre in Madrid's famous Serrano street, which previously housed the former headquarter of newspaper ABC and the Marcelo Spinola de Madrid office building leased to Vodafone and Packard Bell. Other assets include a number of hotels belonging to the Rafael hotel chain, the Urbis Centre de Pozuelo business park in Alarcón near Madrid and the Torrelaguna office buidling, which houses the Madrid HQ of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The sale process for some of the assets is expected to begin this week. The company has hired Aguirre Newman to sell the ABC mall, although it is not clear which broker has been chosen to manage the other disposals.
Reyal Urbis has been trying to refinance its debt burden for six months. As part of the refinancing of a EUR 3 bn syndicated loan, its creditor banks led by Santander have asked the company to reduce gearing through the sale of a number of properties. The company had total debt of EUR 4.8 bn at end-June 2009.
The developer already reached a refinancing agreement with its creditors in October 2008 but the crisis in Spain's real estate sector has forced it to seek a new deal.
