The real estate consultancy CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has closed the largest real estate transaction to date in Europe: the sale of Banco Santander’s real estate assets in Spain.

Last Friday 25th January the operation was completed with the sale of Santander’s Financial City, which is the bank’s central headquarters in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), to the consortium of investors Propinvest, for a total of 1,900 million euros. This transaction has made the banks central headquarters the most valuable real estate asset in Europe.

The operation began last July in 2007, when Banco Santander awarded CB Richard Ellis the mandate to market the majority of its real estate assets in Spain. Last friday’s sale completed the sale of a total of 1,156 properties which raised a total of 4,398 million euros and had a total area of 1,146,122 metres squared. In total, the bank has accumulated 1,681 million euros in capital gains.

The sale & leaseback format used, will allow Banco Santander to stay in their different headquarters as tenants and in some cases, have the option to buy back the properties after 40 and 45 years.

For Adolfo Ramírez-Escudero, Managing Director of CB Richard Ellis and head of CBRE’s team on the operation, “"Sale and Leaseback operations make alot of sense in times when corporations are looking to release capital and generate alternative sources of financing by optimiziing the value of their assets. We will without a doubt see more of these types of transactions iover the next few years ".