The portfolio mostly comprises properties in the Economy and Midscale segments and spreads across six AccorHotels brands, representing an asset value of €504 million.
Pursuing the transformation of HotelInvest's hotel portfolio, AccorHotels entered into exclusive negotiations for the sale of 85 owned and leased hotels that it currently operates. The portfolio comprises one Pullman, 19 Novotel, 13 Mercure, 35 ibis, 3 ibis Styles and 14 ibis budget hotels. The majority of these hotels are located in France (61 addresses) or Spain (9 hotels), while the remainder are spread across Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal.
 

Alternative assets fund managers hold a record USD7.4 trillion in combined assets under management (AUM) in 2015, up from USD6.9 trillion a year before, according to Preqin’s 2016 Global Alternatives Reports.

Institutional investors worldwide say it is challenging to find diversification among traditional asset classes, with more than half (54 per cent) saying stocks and bonds are too highly correlated to provide distinctive sources of return.

That’s according to a recent survey by Natixis Global Asset Management, which also finds evidence that alternative assets are taking on new prominence within institutional portfolios to help generate better risk-adjusted returns – the top priority of institutional investors in 2016.

International real estate firm Hines has acquired a prime retail asset in Madrid for €39.5 mln, a week after a similar purchase in Barcelona.

Following a flurry of activity in Q4, a record of EUR85.9 billion of European real estate loan (RE loan) and real estate owned (REO) transactions were completed throughout 2015.

Despite volumes in the first nine months of the year trailing those observed in 2014, the total for 2015 surpassed the previous high of EUR82.1 billion recorded the previous year. This was due to a handful of very large deals in the UK and Ireland towards the end of the year. The final quarter of 2015 saw both UKAR and NAMA complete the sales of their respective circa EUR17.8 billion Granite Portfolio and circa EUR6.3 billion Project Arrow, filling the gap in the market left by the likes of IBRC, Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) and RBS who took centre stage in 2014.
 
More than EUR39.4 billion of transactions closed in Q4 alone, representing 46 per cent of the annual total and the most ever transacted in a single quarter.

Changing occupiers’ demands and “disruptive forces” are permeating the European real estate value chain, according to a sentiment survey by PwC and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

PwC/ULI said technology, demographics, social change and rapid urbanisation were playing a significant role in investors’ decision-making.

Distressed property debt sales in Europe will probably fall this year from a record 85.9 billion euros ($93.5 billion) in 2015 as the mountain of bad loans built up during the financial crisis starts to erode.

Italy will lead the way.

Sales of debt and foreclosed properties will reach 70 billion euros to 80 billion euros, New York-based broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc. said in a report on Tuesday. Sales that are planned or underway total 78.6 billion euros, the broker said. Spain tops the list of expected sales with deals that include Bankia SA’s 4.2 billion-euro loan portfolio code named “Big Bang.’’

Almost €80bn of European live and planned loan portfolio sales are expected to close in 2016, as the loan sales market looks to keep pace with 2015’s record-setting €85.9bn of transactions, a new high watermark of annual trade volumes for the matured investment market.

2015’s annual tally was driven by two mega deals in the final quarter of 2015, both won by Cerberus: the £13bn (c. €17.8bn) Granite portfolio, sold by UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the investment entity which manages the UK government’s ownership of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley; and the c. €6.3bn Project Arrow, the Irish non-performing loan portfolio (NPL) sold by NAMA.

According to a recent survey by global shopping consultants Global Blue, Barcelona and Madrid have been placed in joint second place in the ranking of the best shopping destinations in Europe.

They have both been awarded 67.1 points out of 100, and sit just behind London, which has been ranked in first position with 67.3 points.

Zagaleta Limited has acquired the Valderrama Group, the owner, amongst other assets, of the world famous Valderrama Golf Course, in Sotogrande, San Roque (Cadiz) as well as the Real Estate Project known as Valderrama 2, located nearby in Castellar.

The transaction is valued at EUR40 million and includes, as well as the golf course, a number of development plots located around the Valderrama Golf Course and the registered trademarks.  Price Waterhouse Coopers advised the company for all financial, legal and tax matters.

Market consensus now has equities flat to negative in 2016. Much of it is due to rate hikes and an end to QE in the U.S. After that, China and oil are to blame for everything else. It’s hard to find an equity bull except at the value funds. Bonds? Forget about it. Outside of a handful of emerging market local currency debt managers, global bond funds are bracing for a drought.

“Volatility is likely to rip through financial markets in the first half of 2016. Today’s turbulence is only the beginning,” says Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, a financial advisory firm based in the U.K. “There’s a cocktail of uncertainty, with the main ingredients including China’s economic woes, higher interest rates in the U.S., historically low oil prices, Britain’s referendum on exiting the European Union, and increasing tensions in the Middle East,” he said.

AEW Europe and Kennedy Wilson have bought office and retail assets, respectively, in Madrid.

The companies acquired the Edifico Amura office block and La Moraleja Green shopping centre.

Kennedy Wilson said its purchase was its first in the Spanish shopping centre sector.

AEW Europe paid €37m for the Amura, an 18,178sqm building on the outskirts of Madrid.

There was a great deal of activity in the real estate sector in December as institutional investors and Socimis alike raced against the clock to complete transactions before year-end.

Major purchases were made in every segment and Madrid accounted for a significant volume of the operations, including: Colonial’s acquisition of an office building on c/Santa Engracia for €67M; Thor’s purchase of retail premises in Sol from El Corte Inglés for €65M; and Pryconsa’s acquisition of 14 plots of land in Valdebebas for €57M. Meanwhile, Mazabi acquired two hotels, in Ibiza and Estepona, for €60M; Encore bought the Bilbondo shopping centre in Bilbao from CBRE for €60M and GreenOak bought a building on c/Fuencarral in Madrid for €21M, which it plans to convert into apartments.

This order aims to comply with reforms introduced under the Cadastre Act and the Mortgage Act, which provide for improved collaboration between the Cadastre and the Land Registry. The acts regulate the exchange of information between both institutions, as well as the interoperability between them. 

The European real estate market in 2015 looks exciting. The economic recovery is picking up, total returns have been very strong over the previous two years and a growing number of markets are reaching record-low yields. Is this going to lead to a price stabilisation, a correction, a slump or maybe a crash? While no-one has a crystal ball, we will argue that we doubt there will be any crash. While we accept that some markets may have got ahead of themselves, no bubble situation exists at present, unlike in previous periods. In any case, we believe that plenty of investment opportunities remain, given that fundamentals are more robust than during previous boom periods.

Six years on and the “bad bank” industry is less than halfway through expunging legacy commercial real estate loans. Since the trickle of early loan portfolio sales in 2010, the loan sales market in Europe has undergone rapid expansion.

This has been driven by a perfect storm of regulators and governments pressuring banks to deleverage while global private equity funds — the cornerstone buyers — have operated under a different kind of pressure: to put their opportunistic investment capital to work.

While 44% of insurers are looking to outsource the management of one or more asset classes, the survey revealed concerns about the capacity within the fund management industry and the number of managers able to meet complex insurer requirements.

Stephen Acheson, executive director at Standard Life Investments, said: “European insurers’ business strategies and traditional business models are being fundamentally challenged due to the combination of the long-term low-return environment, Solvency II and the ongoing need to deliver on promised guarantees.

Hispania has executed, on schedule, the Second Phase of the deal signed in April 2015 with Grupo Barceló, by which it was agreed to contribute five hotels to Bay Hotels & Leisure, SA (BAY).

After executing the relevant options, BAY has acquired the four star category hotels “Barceló Fuerteventura”, “Barceló Castillo”, “Barceló Margarita”, “Barceló Lanzarote”, situated in the Canary Islands and the “Barceló Pueblo Park”, situated in Mallorca. With the completion of this transaction BAY is now owner of 16 resort hotels with a total of 6,097 keys spread throughout the main tourist areas of the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands and Andalusia, as well as two shopping centres. Bay has subscribed the respective lease agreements for each hotel with Grupo Barceló.
 
In context of this transaction, Hispania and Grupo Barceló have agreed their final stakes in BAY at 76 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, thus cancelling Grupo Barceló’s option to increase its stake in BAY to 49 per cent.