So what is it this time? A fresh bid arriving on the Blackberry of chief executive Mariano Miguel? A resurrection of Dubai’s interest? Foreclosure by Goldman Sachs? Seizure of shares pledged as collateral.
Whatever. Shares in Spanish property muddle Immobiliaria Colonial were suspended once again on Wednesday on the Madrid bourse. The company was reportedly due to meet creditor banks in London this week amid speculation that one or more of its lenders - RBS, Eurohypo and Caylon, as well as Goldman - was about to trigger conversion terms in Colonial’s covenants, turning outstanding debt into outright control.
But the immediate focus was on Banco Popular and La Caixa, who lent some €526m to Colonial’s former chairman Luis Portillo and who were reported by El Economista to have now seized stock pledged as collateral. Jointly, that would make these two banks Colonial’s biggest shareholder.
Such a move would probably come as a relief to Colonial’s followers. The company is in the novel position of having two layers of leverage, in that its major shareholders are simply too indebted to help Colonial out of its own debt quagmire.
Numerous parties have made tentative takeover approaches, including General Electric’s European real estate arm, Gecina of France and Dubai’s SWF - who showed the most substantive interest, only to withdraw when Colonial’s creditors refused to consider a relaxation of terms.
When Dubai backed off last month, Mr Miguel told Bloomberg TV:
