Blackstone has completed refinancing activities tied to its Spanish portfolio, notably extending the obligations of Testa, a subsidiary with a portfolio exceeding 10,000 apartments. The North American investment firm has maintained a presence in Spain since the onset of the real estate downturn in 2008. An agreement finalized with Testa’s lender in 2018 was set to mature in 2024, and the latest move extends Testa’s loan obligations for three to five years, contingent on specific performance conditions being met.
At the close of 2022, Testa reported long-term indebtedness of 1.67 billion euros owed to financial institutions, with total liabilities reaching 1.825 billion euros. These figures reflect refinancing arrangements tied to Euribor-based loans with margins set in line with market conditions, as documented in a formal disclosure to the regulator and outlined in Testa’s public statements.
Testa’s debt trace back to Blackstone’s acquisition of the company from a consortium that included Banque Santander, BBVA, Acciona, and Merlin Properties. Following the transaction, major lenders such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Société Générale, and Banco Santander provided credit facilities totaling around 1.52 billion euros to Testa’s subsidiary. The loan carried an initial two-year maturity, with a potential extension to five years, culminating in a final maturity in February 2024. In recent months, the loan displayed a cash trap profile, meaning creditors were required to reinvest all proceeds from Testa’s asset sales.
Blackstone’s third major refinancing
Beyond Testa, Blackstone also executed the refinancing of Fidere in 2023. This rental property company, smaller in scale but part of the same investment family, announced a debt arrangement in collaboration with Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas, and CitiBank for a facility of 440 million euros. The refinancing arrived after a prior debt rework that began in 2018 and required renegotiation during 2023 and 2024.
Previously, Fidere carried 386 million euros in depreciation before the new financing. The refreshed debt structure spans two to five years and comprises a green syndicated loan of 426 million euros supplemented by 25 million euros in additional tranches, with a small portion around 14 million remaining in reserve. The agreed interest rate anchored to Euribor plus a spread of 2.5 percentage points.
In the first quarter, Blackstone also completed a refinancing of Hotel Investment Partners HIP, another major hospitality asset in Southern Europe under Blackstone’s umbrella. Morgan Stanley and Crédit Agricole provided financing totaling 680 million euros, with a senior debt tranche and an additional split into two portions. Once the liabilities were settled, a stake in HIP was subsequently opened to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, which acquired a 35 percent position late last year. HIP has been central to Blackstone’s hotel strategy in Spain, with market estimates placing HIP at roughly 1.4 billion euros in enterprise value.