It was recently reported by Reuters that Martinsa Fadesa needed to refinance around 2 billion euros.
It had disposed of land and hotels and a 50% stake it had in Fadesa Maroc to a local real estate firm Addoha (the largest in Morocco) for 169 million euro. Both companies signed a joint venture agreement back in July 2007 for the creation of a consortium aimed at developing the real estate promotion business that both companies had in Morocco.
Refinancing negotiations began after the Martinsa Fadesa merger was approved in December 17 and were a condition of the company's existing facilities.Martinsa Fadesa originally took a 4 billion euro loan in April 2007 to finance its merger, but the credit was hit by negative sentiment towards the Spanish real estate sector after equity prices dropped in the first half of 2007.
The loan was cut to 3.016 billion in May after raising 850 million euros of equity privately, and was subsequently relaunched in June 2007, having increased the interest margin by 100 basis points (b.p.) to 350 b.p. over EURIBOR. A group of 35 banks signed into the transaction.
The group has a current loan-to-value ratio of 42 percent.