Kingbook inversiones Socimi, Spain's first ever petrol station real estate investment trust, has become the 36th REIT to list in Spain.
Kingbook began trading on Madrid's Mercado Alternativo Bursátil (MAB), a submarket of the Spanish stock exchange and its alternative listing venue, on Tuesday.
The company specialises in the acquisition and leasing of assets for use in the retail fuel distribution business. Up until now, Kingbook has been trading as a limited company.
At present, Kingbook has 57 petrol stations, a hotel in Miranda de Ebro and an industrial unit in Jaén. It has an agreement with the operator of petrol stations, Petrocorner, and other companies of the Allocate Inversiones group.
Chaired by Antonio Eraso Campuzano, the company told the Spanish media that despite starting out with a petrol station focus, it has a 'general profile', and 'does not rule out investing in other sectors in the future'.
The reference value set by the company's board of directors for its shares is €4.78, making its overall value €23.9 mln. In documents sent to the MAB pre-listing, the firm stated it was currently negotiating new financing for a debt of around €42 mln, 84% of the value of its assets.
The company’s trading code will be 'YKIB'. Deloitte is acting as registered adviser and Renta 4 Banco as liquidity provider.
New market entrants
Spanish newspaper El Pais estimates that at least five more Socimis will list on the MAB before the end of the month, due to a recent easing of regulations regarding minority shareholders, which becomes effective as of August 1st.
Spain's REIT regime obliges companies to have at least 80% of its assets under management in real estate or related qualifying equity investments. They can be listed on either the main board of the Madrid Stock Exchange (XMAD) or on the MAB.
The first major Spanish listing was the IPO of Grupo Lar (€400 mln) in March 2014. A week after Grupo Lar’s listing, Hispania Activos Inmobiliarios raised €550 mln. Today, Hispania is the largest hotel owner in Spain.
Merlin is the largest Spanish SOCIMI overall, and one of the eight biggest REITs in Europe, after taking over peer Metrovacesa in 2016 to create a company with €9.3 bn real estate assets under management. Its €1.5 bn flotation on the Spanish stock exchange in 2014 was the largest IPO of a REIT ever registered in the EMEA region.
Office investor Axiare Patrimonio Socimi is the other name in Spain's so-called 'big four', with €872 mln of AUM at end-February 2016. Axiare recently became the first Spanish Socimi to join the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
At the start of 2017, shopping centre specialist Sonae Sierra launched ORES Socimi in collaboration with Bankinter on the MAB after raising €196.6 mln. It plans to spend around €400 mln on commercial real estate, particularly hypermarkets, retail parks and high street retail in Spain and Portugal.
Just last month, Madrid-listed Inmobiliaria Colonial initiated plans to convert the company to a Socimi, to position the Colonial Group as an office REIT, with a portfolio valued at €8 bn at end-2016.
