LAR ESPAÑA REAL ESTATE SOCIMI S.A. (LRE) began to operate as a listed company on the Spanish Stock Exchanges on 5 March 2014, as a SOCIMI (Spanish REIT) with the aspiration to become a reference for asset management in Europe. Lar España’s aim is to generate high returns for its shareholders via its business strategy of owning, operating and renting its Real Estate portfolio, which is mainly focused on Commercial Property Assets in Spain and has expanded in its size currently surpasses the EUR 1.4 billion barrier.
Lar España is investing following a value added approach based on an active management strategy. To do so, the company has raised EUR 400 million in initial capital from its IPO and in January 2015 completed the first bond issue carried out by a SOCIMI in Spain for EUR 140 million. In August 2015 it successfully completed a EUR 135 million share capital increase and another EUR 147 million one in August 2016.
The company is managed by a highly-experienced independent Board of Directors, which combines renowned Spanish and international professionals from the real estate and finance sectors. It is externally managed by Grupo Lar, a family owned, Spanish private Real Estate developer, Investor and Asset Manager with a 40-year track record of international experience. Grupo Lar’s Platform in Spain amounts to 157 employees out of which more than half are dedicated to Lar España.
On 4th June 2015, Lar España was included on the FTSA EPRA/NAREIT Global Index, a select global index designed to showcase the general trends of listed Real Estate companies around the world. The European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) recognized Lar España with their ‘Gold Award’ in 2017, hence turning the firm in the first Spanish firm to receive three consecutive times the most prestigious award in the real estate sector, in a regime of SOCIMI, in recognition of the quality of the information provided by Lar España within the Index standards framework.