Spanish Bank Sells to US Investment Firms
Spain's Banco Popular plans to sell its property management business to two U.S. investment firms as a means to strengthen its capital.
Popular will sell the property management unit to Kennedy Wilson and Varde Partners in a deal reportedly worth 800 million euros ($1.1 billion), according to Reuters.
Following the collapse of the Spanish property market, many banks have been disposing of assets to raise money. However, some may be reluctant to sell the property they own to avoid major price cuts for buyers, analysts say.
In this deal, Popular would raise funds by selling the management platform, while keeping the bank's properties on its books.
Popular will keep a minority stake in the business, which services bad loans and repossessed property, Reuters reports.
Popular's property management unit, known as Aliseda, manages approximately 15.8 billion euros of properties and loans, according to Reuters.
U.S. firms Kennedy Wilson and Varde Partners have partnered before to purchase a similar business in Spain from nationalized Catalunya Banc.
Last July, Kennedy Wilson purchased 16 Irish commercial properties for €306 million from defunct developer Treasury Holdings.
According to new research from Daft.ie, Ireland home prices close to DART stations and Luas stops rose again by an average of 4% in the first quarter of 2019 to an average of €512,000 ($571,000 USD).
Rising uncertainty surrounding Brexit and its potential impact on the economy tempered growth in Scottish country house prices over the first three months.
According to Daft.ie's latest quarterly Ireland Rental Report, while residential rents rose nationwide by an average of 9.8% in the year to December 2018.
According to new research by housing platform HousingAnywhere shows an upward trend for rental prices in Q4 compared to the year before for all their major European student destinations.
According to Daft.ie's 2018 Wealth Report, the number of homeowners in Ireland whose property is worth €1m or more - making them "property millionaires" - has surpassed 5,000. The total number of property millionaires now stands at 5,305, a change of 452 or 9% since June of this year.
Residential rents rose nationwide by an average of 11.3% in the year to September 2018. This represents the tenth consecutive quarter in which a new all-time high for rents has been set and also in which annual inflation in rents has been greater than 10%.
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