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40 // iberian.propery / 2017
dossier// ISSUE: TOP IBERIAN Investors
Insurance companies are back to buying
«trophy»
assets
Over the past eighteen months, Iberia has been witnessing the
return of insurance companies to capital markets, focusing strongly
on the acquisition of trophy assets in prime locations in the prin-
cipal Iberian cities (table 3). The reason for this renewed interest?
Namely the combination of three factors: the recovery of office
rental prices, weak bond returns and new regulation on capital in
Spain (commonly known as Solvency II).
At the moment, this trend is more evident in the Spanish market,
where little more than a month ago, the real estate division of the
Italian insurance firmGeneralli purchased the Preciados 9 building,
at the centre of Madrid, for 100 million euros. The turning point was
led by Mapfre in 2015, when the Spanish insurance company paid
approximately 82 million euros to become the owner of an iconic
building in Plaza de la Independencia in Madrid. And, little more
than a year ago, we witnessed the return of Mutua Madrilena to
capital markets, after almost a ten year absence, with the purchase
of a building that used to belong to Forum Filatélico, in Madrid,
for 30 million euros. This movement has spread to other smaller
insurance companies as well, such as Santalucia or the mutual
firm PSN, among others.
Albeit less evidently, in Portugal, insurance firms are also taking a
leading role in driving capital markets, in a movement headed by
Fidelidade Properties. This is the real estate division of the Portu-
guese insurance company Fidelidade that, since being purchased
by the Chinese Fosun, has recently shown a solid commitment to
expanding its real estate investment portfolio, emerging as one of
the major asset owners in the Portuguese capital, where it has been
focusing strongly on purchasing derelict assets in the riverfront
area and converting them into office buildings.
In 2017, one of the largest operations closed in the Lisbon market
was also carried out by an insurance firm, but this time in the role
of seller. Namely the Tranquilidade group, which sold part of its
portfolio to the consortiumAnchorage Capital / Norfin for approx-
imately 140 million euros, according to several market sources.
Two of the wealthiest men in the world invest
almost 900 million in one year
Amancio Ortega, the wealthiest man in Spain, and Pierre Castel,
the 6th wealthiest man in France, don’t want to miss out on the
positive climate in this market either. Through their real estate
investment divisions, both multimillionaires have been extremely
active purchasing properties in Spain and Portugal, completing a
set of four operations that total a capital injection of approximately
883 million euros, Iberian Property determined.
Although the final results of Pontegadea’s activity in 2016 are
unknown, it seems that this was a record year for Amancio Or-
tega’s real estate investment firm that, according to several
market sources, invested approximately 1.83 billion euros in asset
purchases last year, in destinations such as London, Miami, New
York, Seoul, Montreal and Madrid. In the Spanish capital alone,
the firm paid approximately 490 million euros to acquire own-
ership of Torre Cepsa, in what was until now the largest deal he
has closed in his home country, where he focuses above all in
the offices and retail sectors.
Indeed, offices are the preferred target of the multimillionaire
Pierre Castel in Lisbon where, after acquiring Torre Ocidente in
2015 for more than 70 million euros, he returned in full force in
2016, undertaking the largest investment operations in office
assets in Portugal that year. Through his firm SG Trust, Castel paid
235 million euros to become the owner of Office Park Expo, also
known as Lisbon’s judicial city; added to another 50 million euros,
which is the estimated amount he paid to purchase the NOS head-
quarters from Blackstone last summer. This French investor also
has business in Spain, where he invested more than 500 million
euros to purchase commercial properties over the past three years
through his socimi Zambal. In 2016, Castel expanded his Spanish
portfolio with the purchase of the building that houses the Gas
Natural headquarters in Madrid, in a sale & leaseback operation
valued at 120 million euros, collecting approximately 138 million
euros from the sale of two retail assets to CBRE Global Investors:
ABC Serrano and Preciados 9, both in Madrid.