Spain’s Sanahuja family on Thursday ceded control of Metrovacesa to creditors, less than two years after completing a highly-leveraged buyout of one of Spain’s biggest property companies. The family will also receive a small cash sum. The creditors are Spanish banks BBVA, Banesto, Banco Popular, Banco de Sabadell, Banco Santander and Caja Madrid. They have also agreed to buy an additional 10.7% stake in a side deal with mainly institutional investors, which the family has the option to buy back within four years. The company, which is saddled with about €7bn of corporate debt, last week agreed to sell back to HSBC the UK bank’s London HQ for £838m, £170m less than it paid in a record-breaking deal 18 months earlier. A month ago, it renegotiated terms on £240m owed to Legal & General, the insurer, for a London site earmarked for commercial development.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 5:29 and is filed under Capital markets, People. Tagged with metrovacesa, Sanahuja. Edit this entry.