Merlin Properties €1.79 billion acquisition of Testa Inmuebles en Renta

Overview:

• Merlin Properties has acquired Testa Inmuebles en Renta for €1.79 billion from Sacyr.
• Merlin took a 25% stake in the company via a capital increase and will pay Sacyr €1.56 billion for its 74.6% stake.
• Testa has assets worth more than €3.2 billion and the deal creates Spain's largest real estate company.
• The deal also sees Testa convert to a Socimi (Sociedades Anónimas Cotizadas de Inversión Inmobiliaria) a Spanish REIT.
• To finance the deal Merlin took out a loan facility from a syndicate of banks and issued 129 million new ordinary shares via a rights offering in Spain and a private placements to institutional investors abroad.
• The offering raised gross proceeds of €1.034 billion.
• The company also took out €1.7 billion in financing following the deal to refinance the bridge financing linked to the acquisition. The lenders were Société Générale, Banca IMI, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ING Bank, JPMorgan and Mediobanca.
• Merlin is the largest real estate company trading on the Spanish Stock Exchanges, specialised in the acquisition and management of commercial property in the Iberian region.

Sam Duke - Editor