One of the world's largest funds completes its first real estate investment in Spain.

The large investment fund BlackRock is preparing to enter the Spanish real estate market. One of the most significant operations of 2023 is the auction of a building located at 50 Maria de Molina Street in the Spanish Madrid, in the Salamanca neighborhood. This is reported by various sources who have exclusively provided information to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA and ACTIVOS, the economic edition of Prensa Ibérica.

In June of this year.

Consiglio de Ministros has approved for the third time the auction (the first two times did not receive bids) of part of the Eurocis building belonging to the Ministry of Finance. The starting price amounted to almost 156 million euros. After the deadline for bids, the government received six bids. The highest bid was made by Barnaby Investments Limited Liability Company, offering almost 205 million euros, exceeding the minimum required amount specified by the Ministry of Finance by more than 30%. Until now, it was only known that Barnaby Investments is a subsidiary of Spanish real estatedeveloper and management company Grupo Lar, owned by the Pereda family and a major player in the Spanish real estate market. However, it was not known which capitalist companion is behind Grupo Lar, and that role will be BlackRock, which will have its first operation in the Spanish real estate market.

Representatives of Grupo Lar and BlackRock declined to comment on this information.

The invasion of the largest investment fund in the world

to the Spanish real estate market is a unique event for several reasons. First, BlackRock is the largest fund manager in the world, managing almost $9.5 trillion, equivalent to more than €8.5 trillion. Despite being the largest shareholder in many of the companies in the IBEX-35 index, including Banco Santander or BBVA, it previously had no real estate investments. However, that changed in May this year when the fund officially announced its strengthening in real estate at the European level, which led to the recruitment of 54 executives in Europe alone. BlackRock's head of Spain has been joined by Adolfo Favieres as chief executive and Jesus Mohler as vice president. Both previously worked at management company Barings, leaving in 2021 to found Neberu Capital. Favieres himself, speaking just a few weeks ago at The District Congress, said that "real estate investment will start to pick up from the first quarter of 2024" and "the third quarter will be a good time to invest," which his company is already following. BlackRock's leading specialist in Spain also noted that opportunities for investment in Spain will arise in the coming months: on the one hand, it is related to the reimbursement by certain funds to their participants, which will necessarily lead to the sale of assets, and on the other hand, it is related to refinancing, where it will be "difficult to find capital" due to the decline in asset values