W. P. Carey & Co. LLC, the global investment management company that provides long-term sale leaseback and build to suit financing for companies, today announced that one of its publicly-held, non-traded REIT affiliates, CPA®:17 Global, has acquired the headquarters of Distribuidora de Television Digital S.A.U. (DTS), the largest provider of digital pay television in Spain, for a total consideration of approximately 86 million (US $113 million), including fees and expenses.
DTS is a subsidiary of Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (PRISA) and operates the group's Pay TV production and distribution activities. PRISA is listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange and is the largest media company in the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.
Located in Madrid, constructed in 2008 and comprised of both office and television production space, the facility has been leased back to DTS under a 20-year triple-net lease. The DTS headquarters is a critical asset for PRISA's Pay TV business.
The transaction was completed as part of PRISA's restructuring and debt reduction efforts, which includes the sale of a 22% stake in the Pay TV business to Telefonica, Spain's largest telecommunications company, and Telecinco, the largest private, Free-To-Air TV network in Spain. In addition, PRISA recently entered into an agreement with US-based Liberty Acquisition Holdings Corporation under which Liberty acquired a stake of approximately 30% of PRISA's equity.
W. P. Carey Director Jennifer Lucas said: "W. P. Carey is pleased to be acquiring a critical asset of one of Spain's largest and most prominent companies. We see the current environment as an opportune time to build relationships and provide capital to solid companies in the European market. Our long term partnering approach is appealing to companies such as DTS who are looking to access capital for investment in their current and future core business strategies."
Aguirre Newman was the adviser to W. P. Carey for the transaction and CBRE was the adviser to PRISA.
Source: Pelham Bell Pottinger
