News - Page 4 of 7 - Altria Corpo

Altria Corpo boosts its presence in Madrid and strengthens its corporate finance area with three new hires

23 June, 202223 June, 2022

Rubén Huertes, Federico Suárez and Álex Pardillos, new consultants with proven experience to continue leading the sector.

Altria Corpo has just reinforced its team in the Corporate Finance Area with two professionals who will drive the business from its Madrid office. Rubén Huertes and Federico Suárez have a recognised track record in the financial sector and have in-depth knowledge of the corporate finance business in the medium and large company segment.

Rubén Huertes has spent 12 years managing corporate banking clients at Banco Santander and AKF Bank, where he was responsible for the factoring business. He holds a degree in Business Administration and Management from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid and a Master’s Degree in Commercial Banking from the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.

Fede Suárez joins Altria Corpo after more than 20 years of successful career at Banco Santander and Banco Sabadell, where he held senior positions in the corporate business. In recent years he has promoted the management and financing of real estate assets at Aliseda and has advised on the financing of companies and real estate projects. He holds a degree in Business Studies from the San Pablo CEU University in Madrid and has complemented his training with a Master’s degree in Finance and several specialised courses in corporate financial advice.

In addition, the Barcelona team, which already had 14 people between consultants in the corporate area, the analysis team and a team specialised in external financial management and turnaround processes, incorporates a new consultant. Álex Pardillos has more than 7 years of professional experience in different roles in financial and strategic consultancy as well as in the management of Corporate and Business Banking in entities such as Banco Santander or Targobank. Álex holds a degree from the University of Barcelona and has complemented his academic training with certifications in the financial field at the University of Cantabria, IE Business School and EADA.

We welcome these new additions and wish them every success at Altria Corpo.

Altria Corpo is a financial consultancy for medium and large companies, founded in 2014 by Albert Gumà and with offices in Barcelona, Madrid and Luxembourg. Its main services are advice on debt and equity financing, and access to more than 160 financial providers including banks, alternative financing, debt funds and other instruments. In its 8 years of existence, Altria Corpo has positioned itself as a benchmark in the search for financing for medium and large companies, with an accumulated amount of more than 350 million euros and more than 500 operations financed. The scope of the companies advised covers the whole of Spain, with a concentration in Catalonia, which represents 75% of the total amount advised.

SPACs, innovative vehicles to go public quickly and cheaply

25 May, 202225 May, 2022

In June 2021, Wallbox, the Catalan electric car charging systems company, announced its intention to list on the Nasdaq using an investment vehicle called SPAC. This SPAC provided $270 million to Wallbox for future investment and international expansion, and allowed the company to go public only after a few months, in October 2021.

What is a SPAC?

In recent years, a new investment and financing vehicle has emerged that has captured the attention of the media by allowing technology projects with high growth potential to go public. This is known as SPAC, for Special Purpose Acquisition Company.

A SPAC is a vehicle that is listed on the market without any business activity and with the sole purpose of raising funds for the acquisition of a company and making the operation profitable. The necessary capital is raised through an initial public offering (IPO).

The SPAC is a kind of simplification of the classic Initial Public Offering through which a company goes public on the stock market. In the SPAC, simplification is achieved by eliminating intermediaries and financial agents, shortening the time and cumbersome processing of an IPO.

How does a SPAC work?

The SPAC is created by a team of investors (usually hedge funds or private equity firms), and the management team are the so-called sponsors. The SPAC raises capital and in the meantime scans the market for a private company looking to go public.

Once this target company has been identified, all shareholders must agree to the deal. After the acquisition, shareholders have the option of either redeeming their shares in exchange for their initial investment or exchanging their SPAC shares for shares in the acquired company.

Sponsors have a maximum of two years after the IPO to find a target company. If unsuccessful, the SPAC is liquidated and shareholders receive their initial investment plus interest.

If the SPAC is successful, the sponsors have the opportunity to take a 20% stake in the pre-acquisition SPAC with very little money out of pocket. The promoters’ capital covers the costs of the IPO and the salaries of the team while they search for the company to be acquired and raise the money. On the side of the IPO investors, they usually receive a commitment to buy back their shares and a guaranteed interest on the amount invested as well as free options.

Pros and cons of SPAC

Among the advantages of SPAC are:

A cheaper, simpler and faster process for businesses
SPAC investors can redeem their shares if they disapprove of the takeover
A fixed valuation is agreed between the SPAC and the target company, limiting price volatility.

There are also negative aspects to consider:

“Blind spots”: when investors buy the SPAC IPO, they do not know which company will be bought and must rely on the sponsors.
Opportunity cost of being able to have uninvested money within a maximum period of two years
Difficulties in finding a target company
Historically lower returns: despite some great success stories, it is generally difficult for SPACs to beat the market. On the other hand, both promoters and shareholders who separate at the time of the merger with the acquired company tend to perform very well.

Talk by Eloi Noya at Acció: “From crowdfunding to tokenization”.

15 May, 202215 May, 2022

Our Managing Director, Eloi Noya, was invited by Acció – Agència per la Competitivitat de l’Empresa, the Catalan Government’s agency dedicated to promoting innovation and internationalization of Catalan companies, to give a presentation on the different alternative financing instruments available to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The presentation, entitled “From crowdfunding to tokenization”, took place on 26 April and was attended online by more than 200 companies who were able to learn first-hand about the many solutions that exist on the market and which Altria Corpo allows access to.

Among the most relevant instruments that Eloi Noya explained are some that are still largely unknown by the owners and financial directors of small and medium-sized companies, such as the following:

investment crowdfunding or equity crowdfunding, which allows capital to be raised for start-ups or companies that need equity to undertake strong growth.
private debt funds or direct lending for the medium-sized segment of companies that want to make investments with more flexible repayment financing adapted to expected cash flows.
balance sheet asset-backed financing, with imaginative solutions ranging from the use of existing fixed assets for a rent-back, to a loan secured by inventory, to the more familiar factoring or the use of customer receivables as collateral.

Eloi Noya used the last minutes of the presentation to explain the tokenization of assets, a new concept that, through digital assets, allows the ownership of assets such as real estate, art or shares to be fractioned, so that they can be used for the transmission of these assets in a blockchain environment, or to obtain financing and liquidity in a more agile, efficient way and without intermediaries.

You can see the whole speech in the following link (speech in Catalan):

Altria Corpo and PKF Attest support companies in applying to the COFIDES Recapitalisation Fund

12 January, 202212 January, 2022

The COFIDES Recapitalisation Fund aims to quickly and effectively strengthen and restore the solvency of medium-sized companies (between 10 and 400 million euros in consolidated turnover) in any sector which, having no viability problems prior to the COVID-19 crisis and being viable in the medium and long term, are being affected by the effects of the pandemic.

In addition, those companies that exceed 400 million euros and justify not having been able to access the SEPI Support Fund, because they do not reach the minimum amount of support provided for in this fund, may also apply for and be beneficiaries of the Cofides Recapitalisation Fund.

Maximum total amount to apply for:
- Large Enterprise: between EUR 4 million and EUR 25 million per beneficiary.

Type of instruments:
1. Equity instruments and/or equity hybrids (participating loans): the minimum amount necessary to ensure viability and not to improve the capital structure at 31/12/19 (measured as Equity / Net Financial Debt).
2. Other additional credit facilities (normally ordinary loans): the most favourable amount for the company resulting from (i) 2 x annual wage costs 2019, (ii) 25% total turnover figure 2019

Term:
- Equity instruments and/or equity hybrids: maximum 8 years (up to 2029)

Remuneration (margin):
- Equity instruments and/or equity hybrids:

Beneficiary type	Year 1	Year 2 and 3	Year 4 and 5	Year 6 and 7	Year 8 ff
SMEs	2.25%	3.25%	4.50%	6.00%	8.00%
Large companies	2.50%	3.50%	5.00%	7.00%	9.50%

Other complementary credit facilities:

Beneficiary type	Year 1	Year 2 and 3	Years 4, 5 and 6	Minimum
SMEs	0.25%	0.50%	1.00%	6.00%
Large companies	2.50%	3.50%	5.00%	7.00%

Such aid may be granted until 30 June 2022.

In the next post we will detail the eligibility criteria.

Real estate financing pills (1): forward purchase vs. forward funding

20 October, 202120 October, 2021

In this article we explain two terms that are becoming increasingly common in the structuring and financing of real estate projects: forward purchase and forward funding.

“Forward purchase” is a contract for the purchase of a future building, by virtue of which the developer-seller undertakes to promote the construction and marketing of a real estate project within a certain period of time, and the investor-buyer undertakes to pay a price for this real estate project that has already been marketed, and which guarantees him a certain profitability. The consummation of the purchase is subject to a deadline and to the fulfilment of the stipulations of completion of the project and marketing.

It is clear, therefore, that this formula has advantages for the investor-buyer, as he does not have to cover the construction/insolvency risk of the developer, less knowledge of the project development is required and the purchase agreement is much simpler, while on the other hand, the participation rights in the construction/rental phase will be less extensive and the purchase price will probably be higher. Sometimes a down payment of 5% is also agreed at the signing of the contract.

Forward funding, on the other hand, is a contract for the purchase of a future building or the purchase of a future thing, whereby the developer-seller undertakes to promote the construction and marketing of a real estate project within a certain period of time, with financing to be provided by the investor-buyer.

In a forward funding transaction, the parties enter into a purchase and sale agreement with development obligations of the seller at an early stage, often before development work has started and sometimes even before the project has been secured. However, the purchase price, in contrast to the forward purchase, will be paid in instalments depending mainly on the progress of construction (but sometimes also depending on other requirements, such as obtaining the licence, entering into lease agreements, amendment of the building permit, etc.). The last instalment will usually be paid after the usual requirements for the purchase price to be due (registration of the priority notice of transfer; removal of encumbrances from the land, etc.) and after the (main) tenant has taken over the object of the lease (and preferably paid the first rent without reductions) have been fulfilled.

In this case, the developer has the advantage that he needs little or no bank financing, while the buyer – in addition to a higher return – assumes the risk of insolvency and the general risk inherent in construction.

To minimise the risk on the buyer-investor side, not only the due diligence process has to be more detailed but also the sale and purchase agreement has to provide for certain security mechanisms: the seller’s insolvency risk has to be covered; termination rights, if possible, backed by guarantees for the repayment of instalments paid so far, etc. and mechanisms have to be in place to ensure that the requirements for the different instalments of the purchase price can be objectively verified.