The holding will be the first shareholder of Colonial
- To increase its stake, CriteriaCaixa will make a monetary contribution of €350 million and also will contribute office and residential assets from its real estate portfolio valued at €272 million.
- After the closing, it is expected that CriteriaCaixa will appoint two directors of Colonial’s board.
Barcelona, May 16, 2024.– CriteriaCaixa, holding company managing ”la Caixa” Foundation’s business assets, will increase its stake in real estate company Inmobiliaria Colonial up to 17% of its share capital. Therefore, CriteriaCaixa – chaired by Isidro Fainé and whose CEO is Ángel Simón – will become the first shareholder of the real estate group, in which it held a 3.25% stake until now.
The deal will be carried out through a capital increase in Colonial. CriteriaCaixa will attend it with a combination of assets and cash investment, according to the agreement reached by both companies. For this purpose, CriteriaCaixa will make a monetary contribution of €350 million and also will contribute 8 buildings from its subsidiary InmoCaixa portfolio in several Spanish cities. The total amount of the deal is valued at €622 million.
Colonial’s capital increase must be approved at an upcoming shareholders’ extraordinary general meeting. After the closing of the transaction, it is expected that CriteriaCaixa will appoint two directors at Colonial’s board.
The assets from InmoCaixa portfolio being part of this agreement are 3 office buildings in Madrid and Barcelona, totalling over 20,000 square meters, and 5 residential rental buildings in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Málaga, amounting more than 700 homes.
The deal is aimed to reinforce Colonial’s leader position in the office rental business in the cities in which it has a presence, and to contribute to its urban regeneration strategy and to reinforce its capital structure to boost its pan European strategy for growth and value creation.
Inmobiliaria Colonial is a SOCIMI (Listed Real Estate Investment Companies) listed on the Spanish stock exchange, leader in the prime office market in Europe, and a world leader also in sustainability. It is present in the main business areas of Barcelona, Madrid and Paris, with an office portfolio totalling over 1.5 million square meters and a market value of over €11 billion.
Reorganization of the InmoCaixa portfolio
Through its subsidiary InmoCaixa, CriteriaCaixa manages a portfolio of real estate assets abroad Spain valued at nearly €2.7 billion, of which 56% are property rentals (residential and offices).
In recent years, the company has been carrying out a reorganization of its real estate portfolio, which will be accelerated thanks to the deal today announced. This reorganization will continue to be deployed in the coming years, increasing the rotation intensity of the current portfolio to accelerate the improvement of its overall profitability.
The deal will consolidate the CriteriaCaixa model, which has built a portfolio over the years with notable shareholdings in strategic industries. This strategy has been reinforced in recent months, with significant deals such as increasing its stake in Telefónica up to 5%, or the entry into the capital of other top-level companies such as Puig (3% stake).
The entry as the first shareholder in Colonial also contributes to ensuring CriteriaCaixa’s capacity to generate the necessary resources to finance “la Caixa” Foundation social action over the coming decades.
