US venture capital firm Bain Capital has closed the purchase of Catalan developer Habitat Inmobiliaria.
The amount of the operation could be around €220 million, according to sources close to the operation, who have indicated that other funds, such as Oaktree or Apollo, had also been interested in the developer.
The operation gives an important boost to the positioning of Habitat within the Spanish market of residential development. Since it was founded in 1953, Habitat has built more than 60,000 properties and has one of the largest housing portfolios in development in Spain. The company also has a land bank of 2.5 million m2, ready to build.
Bain Capital Credit has positioned itself very significantly in Spain, where it has acquired NPL loans (non-performing loans), leases and real estate assets valued at more than €3,500 million since 2014. Its goal is to create a large real estate platform from the business of Habitat. Bain Capital Credit announced in October 2017 that it is the majority owner of a joint venture that controls and manages a portfolio of real estate assets from Liberbank. The company began to acquire NPL loans, leases and real estate assets in Europe in 2011, and has since acquired assets in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Source: Iberian.Property