Hispania has become the sole owner of Bay Hotels & Leisure by acquiring Grupo Barceló’s 19.5% of the company for an agreed price of 172,4 million euros, according to a statement filed by the socimi with the Spanish stock market regulator. Hispania is now the largest hotel owner in Spain.
Almost 10 years after the big property bubble burst, Spain is once again showing how emotional it can get it with bricks and mortar in all its forms. And emotional is the word, because the ‘revival’ of the real estate sector – something which nobody was betting on three or four years ago – is so spectacular that not a day passes when there is not some sort of euphoric news emerging about it. Of course figures are figures and these are more than amazing. If we focus on the Socimis, the protagonists of the property market in this current phase, the truth is the numbers are really impressive.
UBS | We remain constructive on the European real estate sector. As a bond proxy with growth , real estate benefits from current central bank stimulus, while it can also gain through rental growth in an inflationary environment, should the stimulus prove successful. For Spain, we upgrade Hispania to Buy and downgrade Merlin to Neutral.