Mexican group Cojaswinvest approached Sanahuja to take over their star shopping center in Barcelona | Companies

The Sanahuja family is on the verge of losing one of their crown jewels, the Màgic Badalona shopping centre. He family office The Mexican company Cojaswinvest, from the Cochab family, acquired the debt of the company operating this asset during bankruptcy proceedings since this summer. The Aztec Group intends, as part of the bankruptcy process, to convert this liability into capital in the near future and thereby take possession of the property.

This family office The Mexican recently entered the Spanish market and has launched a major offensive in recent months. Last year it also acquired the second largest shopping center in Pamplona, ​​Itaroa, as well as three other shopping centers previously in the hands of Patrón Capital, including Mirador in Cuenca, Alzamora in Alicante and Odeón de Narón in A Coruña. .

The firm has now agreed to purchase €40 million worth of Màgic Badalona’s debt. The group’s intention is to begin negotiations with Sanahuja to convert debt into equity. If this is not possible, the new owner of the liabilities is considering using the new bankruptcy law, which allows him to impose a plan to restructure the liabilities and force the Catalan family to transfer their shares to them.

LYL Abogados advised the buyer and Perez Lorca advised the seller from a legal perspective. Alvarez&Marsal advised the German bank on the transaction.

The Sanahuja family from Barcelona is one of the major real estate sagas of recent decades. This family made a fortune building cheap houses in Barcelona during the Franco-developmental era. Roman Sanahuja, who led the second generation, later became one of those known as the brick lords during the housing boom at the beginning of the century, and a regular fixture in rankings of Spain’s richest people.

Through the family company, Sacresa gained control of the then main developer Metrovacesa, for which it submitted a takeover bid in 2006. In 2007, it even paid $1.5 billion for HSBC’s London headquarters. After the real estate bubble burst in 2008, Sacresa entered bankruptcy with $1.8 billion in debt, one of the largest bankruptcies along with Martinsa-Fadesa and Habitat. Since then there have been recent consequences: last week the Supreme Court sentenced Sanahuja to pay 210,000 euros for the takeover of Metrovacesa for confidential information.

Various family affiliates currently share Indicesa, which last year had $33.6 million in sales and $13.7 million in profits. The family’s properties also include L’Illa Diagonal, a shopping center and offices on Diagonal Avenue.

The family controls the Màgic shopping center business through Vila Badalona, ​​which filed for bankruptcy in June. Sanahuja built this structure in 2008 next to the Juventut de Badalona pavilion and with a bright orange dome in the shape of a soccer ball. basketball. This company had a turnover of $6.1 million and earned €742,484 in 2022, the last year its Commercial Register accounts are available.

Màgic is a large center with a total leasable area of ​​almost 44,000 meters. It has hundreds of shops and more than 1,200 parking spaces. Brands represented include H&M, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Springfield, Stradivarius, Sprinter, C&A, Benetton and Mango and others, as well as the Mercadona supermarket and cinemas.

After the company went bankrupt, the real estate market speculated on Sanahujas’ options in Magica. The most striking of them was the sale of real estate. But since Cojaswinvest has assumed Vida Badalona’s debt, the solution now is that the Mexican family group will take over the property, taking advantage of its position as a creditor thanks to bankruptcy law.