Spanish residential landlord Testa has decided to postpone its initial public offering initially planned for late June as a result of ‘unstable’ market conditions.
Testa’s largest shareholders – namely banks Santander and BBVA, Merlin Properties and Acciona Real Estate – have jointly decided to reschedule the operation for the end of September, a company spokesperson told PropertyEU.
The Spanish REIT is also believed to be reconsidering the details of the offering. It was initially planning to place 50% of its capital and list its shares on the Mercado Continuo of the Spanish Bolsa, but plans are now to opt for the smaller MAB segment of the stock exchange, which is often used by small to mid-cap, less liquid stocks. A listing on the Mercado Continuo may follow suit, the company said.
Testa, which owns a portfolio of roughly 10,700 housing units valued at €2.3 bn, is required under real estate investment trust regulation to go public within two years from conversion to the tax-efficient regime. In Testa’s case this means that it would need to comply and go public by the end of September 2018.
It is the third Spanish real estate company to postpone its listing so far this year. Last month Azora, a property owner and asset manager, said it would put its IPO on hold due to ‘market uncertainty’. The company blamed Blackstone’s takeover offer on its hotel arm Hispania for the adverse conditions and said it would wait until the bid was completed to go forward with its listing.
Blackstone, which owns a 16.5% stake in Hispania, launched an unsolicited €17.5 a share offer for Hispania in April, valuing the group at €1.9 bn. The bid, which was rejected by Hispania’s management as too low, runs from June 14 to July 13.
Similarly Haya Real estate, which is largely owned by US private equity group Cerberus, has put its IPO on hold until it sees through a number of operations which could potentially have an impact on its stock market valuation. They include the closing by its parent company Cerberus of a €4 bn acquisition of 78,000 residential assets from lender BBVA, first announced last year; closing of a contract to manage Spanish lender Bankia’s non performing assets as well as the renewal of a management contract expiring next year with bad bank Sareb on 24,000 non-performing assets which currently represent 60% of Haya’s portfolio.
Haya's listing was initially planned for early May.
