This coming Monday, Colonial will join the Ibex 35, meaning that Spain’s two biggest socimis will now be represented in the selective index. Merlín Properties has been part of the Ibex 35 since the start of 2016. Whatsmore, the property sector will increase its weighting in this index as it continues to recover. The real estate firm will cover the vacancy in the index left by Banco Popular after it was acquired by Santander. Colonial will join the Ibex 35 just ahead of its AGM on June 29, where shareholders will approve its already announced plan to become a socimi.
Colonial’s market capitalisation will be close to 3 billion euros. Its shareholders include the State of Qatar with 11.7% of the company, Mexican group Finaccess with 12.7%, Colombian firm Santo Domingo with 6.1% and the Puig family with 5.1%.
It has a portfolio of office blocks rented out in Madrid, Barcelona and Paris, with a total leasable area of 866.000 square metres.
Colonial’s incorporation in the Ibex 35 should favour the stock price in the short-term as a result of indexing, according to Banca March analysts.
It will be nine years since the property firm left the selective index in April 2008, at the height of the economic crisis and two years after Inmocaral, controlled by Luis Portillo, launched a takeover bid for the company in which, at the time, La Caixa owned a stake. In 2015, Colonial embarked on a restructuring process, after which it focused on a growth strategy. So its return to the Ibex 35 is the icing on the cake.
Colonial has already invested 1.760 billion euros in various operations, ranging from asset purchases to increasing its holding in its French subsidiary Société Foncière Lyonnaise (SFL), as well as taking a stake in Axiare, another socimi.