The Barcelona-based company has been expanding its holdings in Madrid since its flotation last year
Inmobiliaria Colonial, founded in 1946, is a leading Spanish property company with its head office in Barcelona. Its principal activities are commercial investment, and development for sale of residential properties. Its principal shareholder is La Caixa, the Barcelona-based savings bank, which holds some 48% of the equity.
The office portfolio is situated mainly in the central business districts of Barcelona and Madrid. The largest part of its residential developments is in eastern Spain, and in greater Madrid. The company’s current chairman is Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee.
On 31 December 1999, Inmobiliaria Colonial had some 636,309m2 of investment properties, and residential developments under construction of 250,350m2. Its land stock for future development exceeds 700,000m2. The company’s rental holdings represent around 70% of its total assets. Profits on rentals account for 61% of its total revenues, and profits on development activities for the other 39%.
Over the last five years the company has reduced its holdings in volume terms, in favour of a concentrated, high-quality portfolio. Total rents rose from €41m (Pts6.8bn) in 1995 to €48m (Pts8bn) in 1999, and vacancy levels have dropped from 12% in 1994 to 3.6% at the end of 1999.
More recently, Inmobiliaria Colonial has increased its residential development programme in response to favourable conditions in the housing market.
In 1999 the company invested some €222m (Pts37bn) in acquisitions. These included five office buildings in Madrid and a logistics centre in Coslada near Madrid. Earlier this year, it paid around €63m (Pts10.5bn) for the Madrid headquarters of Citibank, at the Moraleja business park north of the city centre.
In June, the company agreed the purchase of a development site in the centre of the city from Mahou, the Spanish brewing company. Colonial will buy the office part of the site, where it plans to develop an office park of 40,000m2, while residential developer Reyal will acquire the housing element of the scheme.
Inmobiliaria Colonial has stated its intention to invest around €300m (Pts50bn) with the objective of continuing to build up its holdings, especially offices, in the Madrid and Barcelona regions.
The company was floated on the Madrid stock exchange in November 1999, at a share price of €15.2 (Pts2,529), in line with La Caixa’s strategy of only owning stakes in quoted companies. The shares have consistently traded below their launch value; in mid-July, they were priced at €13.2 (Pts2,196).
Observers believe that two main factors are responsible for this: the launch price was set above market level; and property shares in general are not greatly sought by international investors in Spain.
There have been rumours in the Spanish markets that Inmobilaria Colonial may seek to ally itself with another company; French property company Unibail, for instance.
Meanwhile, Inmobiliaria Colonial is growing rapidly on its own. For the first three months of 2000, net profits exceeded €18m (Pts3bn), and the company sold residential properties worth some €102m (Pts17bn).
|
ALIGN=”CENTER”>1999 |
ALIGN=”CENTER”>1998 |
|||
|
€m |
Pts bn |
€m |
Pts bn |
|
|
Rents received |
48.1 |
8.00 |
42.6 |
7.09 |
|
Development sales turnover |
109.4 |
18.21 |
99.0 |
16.47 |
|
Net profit |
41.4 |
6.89 |
29.0 |
4.82 |
Inmobiliaria Colonial
Av. Diagonal, 532
08006 Barcelona,
Tel 34 93 404 79 00
Fax 34 93 404 85 40
www.inmocolonial.com
