Family Firm Sells Stake in 10M SF for $453M

MONTERREY, MEXICO-Locally based FINSA, a real estate development company, has sold a majority stake in its 10.5-million-sf Mexico industrial portfolio to a subsidiary of GE Commercial Finance Real Estate for $453 million. A source with FINSA tells GlobeSt.com that the Arguelles family-owned business retains a minority stake in the portfolio as well as the property management assignment.

The GE Finance subsidiary that invested in the portfolio is Intramerica Real Estate Group. The joint venture is called Intramerica Industrial Properties I. The portfolio has a 95% occupancy rate and consists of mostly tilt-wall industrial buildings built out specifically for certain international manufacturers, and developable land, according to the source. Geographically, the properties are spread out between central, coastal and US border cities.

“Many of them are labor-intensive and capital intensive operations such as Plastic injection molding and metal stamping that require high electric loads,” according to the source. “Some of the properties date back to the Arguelles family start in the business in 1977.”

At lease half of the portfolio was amassed by the Arguelles family through a partnership with AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp. that began in 2000 and included AIG-GREIC buying a stake in FINSA. The Argelles family will use some of the net proceeds to launch a new partnership with AIG-GREIC called FINSA II. The joint venture will start with $100 million of equity, which will be used to develop at least 10 million sf of new industrial real estate in Mexico using FINSA´s available land bank and future new land acquisitions.

FINSA Group is the largest full-service industrial real estate developer in Mexico. GE Commercial Finance Real Estate has been an active player in the commercial real estate market in Mexico since 1994 and now controls $2.5 billion in assets there. AIG-GREIC invests in and manages real estate around the world for unaffiliated clients and member companies of its parent company, American International Group Inc., one of world’s largest insurance companies.