Troubled Spanish property group denies cash crisis
Despite the share collapse of a large Spanish property developer, the company is still trading. Whether or not this affects the industry we will have to wait and see.
Troubled Spanish property group denies cash crisis
Spanish property developer Inmobiliaria Colonial insisted Wednesday its business was progressing normally after the stock market regulator suspended trading in its shares following sharp losses last week.Shares in Colonial (Madrid: COL.MC - news) , saddled with debt put at 8.9 billion euros (13.1 billion dollars) at the end of September, lost 25.4 percent of their value on Friday after a drop of 16 percent on Thursday amid speculation it was facing problems.
On Friday, company chairman Luis Portillo stepped down, along with several other board members, and earlier this week it announced the sale of land and buildings worth some 308 million euro (451 million dollars) to Spanish groups.
“The company has reached its targets for 2007 and accordingly it is pursuing its projects without any need to take extraordinary measures,” Colonial said in a statement issued through the bourse authorities.The sales on Monday and Tuesday “were part of the normal management of its assets,” Colonial said.Analysts said the disposals were needed to give the company much-needed cash.Colonial also said Wednesday it would sell down its more than 84 percent stake in French unit SFL to below 60 percent in order to meet local ownership regulations.It had taken no decision on its 15 percent holding in infrastructure group FCC (Madrid: FCC.MC - news) , it added.
Troubled Spanish property group denies cash crisis
Tags: spanish, property, developer
