In other words, around 1% of its total equity portfolio. The giant’s latest big move has been in Inmobiliaria Colonial. Norges Bank has for the first time exceeded the 3% threshold in the socimi whose assets were valued at the end of 2020 at 12,020 million euros and which ended last year, marked by the outbreak of the coronavirus, with a net recurring result of 138 million.
Last year was an adjustment exercise in the midst of the pandemic. Colonial’s rental income fell by 3%, mainly due to the impact of divestments of non-strategic assets. But on a like-for-like basis, i.e. adjusting for investments, divestments and changes in the project and refurbishment portfolio and other extraordinary items, rental income was marginally down 1%.
With these credentials, Norges Bank has bought just over 1% of Colonial in the first three months of the year, as it held 1.94% of the shares in its portfolio at the end of last year. These share acquisitions make the socimi the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s biggest stake in the Spanish real estate market, both in terms of the percentage achieved and the stock market value of the powerful package of shares.
According to the 2020 year-end figures on Norges Bank’s website, it held 1.98% of Merlin Properties and 1.57% of Lar, the other two major Spanish socimis in terms of size and liquidity. Colonial and Merlin are the two listed real estate giants of the Spanish market, with a market value of around 4.2 billion euros in both cases. Colonial’s 3% stake is worth around 125 million euros.
Among the developers, Norges holds 2.60% of Inmobiliaria del Sur (which until now was its largest stake in a Spanish real estate company), 2.44% of Neinor, 1.76% of Quabit (in the process of being taken over by Neinor), 1.66% of Metrovacesa and 0.73% of Aedas. Norges is therefore invested to a greater or lesser extent in all the national real estate sector’s heavyweights.
