Consortium Antin Infrastructures- Icamap-BG Asset Management (Borletti Group) won the auction for GS Retail with a 953 million euros bid, Grandi Stazioni Group‘s shareholders Ferrovie dello Stato and Eurostazioni (Edizione srl, Vianini lavori, Pirelli and Sncf) announced yesterday. The other final bidders were Altarea-APG-Predica and private equity funds managed by Lone Star and Deutsche Asset Management.
GS Retail is engaged in the renovation enhancement and management of Italy’s 14 largest railway stations, two railway stations in Czech Republic and one commercial gallery in Naples and had been valued between 700 and 805 million euros by investors when they had put forward their non binding bids last March (see here e previous post by BeBeez). So the price paid by Antin and Borletti Group is quite higher than those valuations and higher than the bids put forward by the other bidder partecipating the final phase. MF-Milano Finanza actually writes today that Altarea offered 806.5 million euros, Lone Star 800 millions and Deutsche Bank 744.5 millions.
The sale procedure started in November and saw partecipation by 60 international industrial and financial operators, with 17 consortiums that had expressed interest, 9 of which put forward non-binding bids. Last March 5 consortiums entered the dataroom out of seven selected (see here e previous post by BeBeez and the press release).
The final closing of the deal will follow approval by the Boards of Ferrovie dello Stato ed Eurostazioni. The shareholders of Grandi Stazioni decided to implement a corporate reorganisation programlast year aimed at separating retail activities from the real estate activities, infrastructure business and core services related to the railway transportation. Following a non proportional demerger, retail lease management activities, media & advertising activities, the management of some services to customers, the supervision of facility management activities and the management of two Czech stations will be transferred into a NewCo, Grandi Stazioni Retail spa, participated by Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane and Eurostazioni with a stake of 55% and 45% respectively.
Concurrently, Grandi Stazioni will remain engaged in the facility management activities, the office lease management, car parks and Italian railway operators’ ticket offices management and the engineering services and will be retitled as Grandi Stazioni Rail spa, while the real estate assets1 will be contributed into a newco, Grandi Stazioni Immobiliare spa.
GS Retail will operate under long-term concessions with FS Group up to 2040 for the exclusive commercial exploitation of retail areas and advertising spaces of the major 14 Italian railway stations.
Gianni Origoni Grippo & Partners and Legance were legal advisors to the sellers, while studio Tremonti and studio Foglia e Cisternino were fiscal advisors. Leonardo&Co.-Houlihan Lokey supported Antin and Borletti Group as for the financial issues while they were advised by Gatti Pavesi Bianchi, BonelliErede and Cerina law firms as for the legal issues.
Q1 2016 saw a growth in consolidated revenues to 55.4 million euros for Grandi Stazioni Retail (+15% from Q1 2015) thanks to commercial real estate rents (26.7 millions, +9%), with 13.6 million euros of ebitda (+32%) and a net financial debt up to 198.5 millions from 187 millions at the end of December 2015.
GS Retail reached 231 million euros in consolidated revenues in FY 2015 (+10 % from 2014) of which 107 millions were from commercial real estate rents (+7%) while ebitda consolidato was 58 millions, the same as in 2014.
