Merlin Features and Inmobiliaria Colonial, two socimis (listed real estate investment companies) in the Ibex 35, are responding to Government plans to eliminate the tax regime for socimis. Both are ready to move their tax headquarters outside Spain Agreement between PSOE and Sumar. On the Merlin side, industry sources assure that Merlin will take this step in order to “protect its business”, which is mainly carried out in Spain, with the rest in Portugal. As for Colonial, it was its own president, Juan José Brugera, who made it clear that if Congress approved tax reform, they would “re-evaluate their investment strategy, operating position and legal structure.”
Merlin, whose largest shareholder is Banco Santander, said in a memo to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) on Tuesday that it had analyzed different scenarios and contingency plans “without excluding any legal possibilities to which it has access.” In particular, the evaluation focuses on calculating the effective impact on the company in the short term. cash flow This offer he predicted would be “limited by the combined effect of various tax rules“.
Measures to be taken to protect the interests of these shareholders, customers and employees in the medium and long term will be determined. The tax agreement between government partners tightens the taxation of SOCIMIs, which are currently exempt from paying Corporate Tax in certain parts. In the text, Merlin explains that SOCIMIs are the equivalent of real estate investment funds (REITs) in Spain and charges that the tax changes introduced in the agreement “represent in practice a suppression of the SOCIMI regime”. A major pan-European investment in the sector data centers.
Likewise, he argues that the Spanish version of the international REIT regime has a “clear” economic justification, based on “the introduction of active business structures into the market with vehicles and personnel directly affected by the activity (as opposed to funds) in different economic sectors (offices, shopping malls, logistics, data centershotels, car parks or cell towers)”.
All of this is combined with “everyday liquidity and as a popular form of savings for individuals and pension funds, mutual funds, mutual societies, insurance companies, family offices and sovereign funds”. In addition, he details that the current tax regime for SOCIMIs eliminates double taxation while also allowing It guarantees balanced, effective taxation at a certain level, timely distribution of benefits and profitability for savers and investors.
“This regime is of great value for the growth of the Spanish economy,” says the company led by Ismael Clemente, criticizing the fact that the connection between SOCIMIs and housing has been repeatedly used as an argument due to price increases or housing prices. Current supply constraint in Spain. “The fact is that neither Merlin nor any of the other three SOCIMIs currently listed on the Continuous Market are operating. housingso do most of the international REITs with which we compete.” In this sense, he emphasizes that the current legislation on the SOCIMI regime “does not even mention the word housing” in its articles, so “It seems clear that the legislature does not want to link this special regime to the housing market.”
‘Very serious’ decision
Colonial president Juan José Brugera, on the other hand, denounced the intention to eliminate the socimi regime in Spain as “very serious” and expressed regret that this measure, if implemented, would make Spain a “prohibited zone” for international investment. .
“The changes proposed by some are very serious. The SOCIMI regime is nothing more than an adaptation of established norms in international markets to the Spanish case. Such changes turn the Spanish market into a prohibited zone for international investment.” In his view, the legal framework should protect companies that choose to attract international investment and align this with the best social objectives.
In any case, Brugera argues that Colonial’s current business model Diversification into different geographies with a relevant presence in the Paris market, which allows the group to “gain great strength in scenarios of fragility of the regulatory framework”“.
