Roberto Bergonzi presents the Arenal Beach campaign

Transcript

Joël Duysan

Welcome to the BeeBonds podcast, the crowdlending platform. My name is Joël Duysan and I'm the founder of BeeBonds. In each episode we'll be introducing you to the people behind the projects we're funding, and we'll be unveiling their vision and background. We'll also look at the issues involved in financing companies and investment strategies to boost public savings and company cash flow. We look forward to hearing from you!

Elisa

Hello everyone and welcome to the BeeBonds podcast. For this episode, we are pleased to welcome Roberto Bergonzi, CEO of Azur Estates, a real estate investment and development group that focuses on high-quality, exclusive projects in Spain's coastal real estate markets. We are also joined by Joël Duysan, CEO of BeeBonds. And if you're here with us today, it's to tell us about a new campaign. And what a campaign it is! We're talking about the Arenal Beach project on the island of Menorca. But before we talk about the campaign, Roberto, I'd like you to introduce yourself in a few words.

Roberto Bergonzi

Well, quickly, I can tell you that I've been a property developer for over 40 years on the Spanish coast and have always been dedicated to the middle and top end of the market in Northern Europe and especially the markets of Holland, Germany and England. This has been our speciality ever since, and we're still going in that direction, always with the aim of offering our customers a top-of-the-range project with a high level of quality in our products.

Elisa

Thank you, Roberto. We're here, of course, to talk about the Arenal campaign run by your group, Azur Estates. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and your business sector.

Roberto Bergonzi

I work on the second residence, the holiday homes for Northern European customers, where we have built between three and four thousand units over the last few years. We made a decisive choice about ten years ago, which was to focus a little less on volume and a lot more on quality and the top end of the market. That's why we chose the Balearics as our first point of departure. Above all, we worked very hard on Ibiza and recently we went to the little sister island of Espana, in Ibiza, as it's called, which is called Menorca, above all because we can see that the property market is coming of age. And in Ibiza, there's a lot of pressure; and the prices, I think we've reached a level that's quite difficult for the majority of people to attract a second home property. On the other hand, Menorca is an island that's bound to expand a lot over the next few years, so we've been thinking about this and I think we're probably the only ones to have a programme of, let's say, new projects, because there are lots of opportunities to buy on Menorca, but it's always houses that have been built a long time ago, so they're houses that need to be renovated. Most of our customers don't like to undertake this kind of exercise, which isn't easy when you're away in Germany, Holland or England. So let's just say that in terms of new projects, we're probably the one and only project that's currently underway. And that's our track record and the continuity of our vision of giving our customers projects, especially, if you look, the situations we choose are always front-line situations, objectives. We've acquired, let's say, a fairly good knowledge of this area so we can choose the ideal location. I think that Arenal Beach is a project that meets all these conditions, as is the island of Menorca.

Elisa

We now turn our attention to the Arenal campaign. Can you tell us about it?

Roberto Bergonzi

Look, Arenal Beach is a 32-unit project; all two- to three-bedroom units, all with sea views. Each unit also has its own garage, and I think the difference that sets this project apart from the others is that we've created an area with a jacuzzi, a spa and a fitness centre. There's an office on site, a small business centre, because we've been through a lot in the post-Covid situation, where we've seen that people like to find a second home when there are problems of any kind, and where they can always go back to, get some exercise in a work area. So we've moved on to this business centre, which is also a physical maintenance centre. The project is ideally located. We're just 150 metres from a superb beach. A beach of fine white sand. So I think all the conditions are there. There will also be a management company on site, which will look after lettings and provide a return for buyers.

Elisa

Have any flats already been sold? Where are you in the process?

Roberto Bergonzi

Yes, we've already sold several units and we have several units under study at the moment with customers. Our aim was to raise the funds we needed to get the work under way as quickly as possible. Because you know, on the Balearic Islands, we only work 6 or 7 months a year. During the summer months, we can't carry out any work because of the noise and tourism. So, really, the winter campaign that's coming up from now on, from October until the end of May, is essential for us to make very rapid progress with the work. And it's also an argument that helps sell the development. Let's see if we can deliver a few units next summer.

Elisa

And what is the feedback from customers? How has the project been received?

Roberto Bergonzi

We get a lot of visits. People love the project because it's so idyllic. It's difficult to explain in just a few words, you really have to be there and be present to understand it properly.

Elisa

Joël, you are the CEO of BeeBonds. Why did you agree to propose this project to investors?

Joël Duysan

So thank you Elisa. As far as BeeBonds is concerned, and the proposal of this project to investors, there are several elements that are very positive: 1. the location, and the chance to go and see the project; 2. the history of the promoter and various projects, including one in Ibiza; and finally, what was really important for us was to be able to offer investors a return of 10 % which has been validated by our partner PWC, with regard to the analysis of the project's financial and accounting data. But also to be able to provide guarantees that reduce the risk of the project and the financing. We worked with Deloitte Spain to put in place three types of guarantee: a pledge of 100 % of the company's shares, a pledge on the company's receivables, and finally the payment of the proceeds of sales into an account (???). All of this has been put in place by our various partners and means that we can be reassured that the return of 10 % will be paid annually and that there will be a repayment at the end of the project, i.e. in 24 months. We have also been able to convert the shareholder advances of around €2 million into equity, which will only be repaid to shareholders once the BeeBonds have been repaid.

Elisa

So, Roberto, back to you. Why is it worth investing in a property project on the island of Menorca?

Roberto Bergonzi

It's not an island where speculation has already arrived like Ibiza, so there's still a range of prices and margins that will prove attractive to buyers in the future. We've experienced this a lot. When we started 20 years ago in Ibiza, I can tell you that our customers who bought at the time doubled and sometimes tripled the purchase price of their property in ten years. And I'm convinced that this phenomenon is going to happen in Menorca, because look at our price range: we're talking about flats between €300,000 and €700,000. If you take the same flat in Ibiza today, we're talking between, I don't know, €700 and €1.5 million, so we're already more than double that. And finally, yes, there's an Ibiza branding, but there are also a lot of people looking for peace and quiet and the island of Menorca. It's an island, I think, that's a bit more ordered than Ibiza. It hasn't suffered from, let's say, everything that's happened in recent years on Ibiza, where there's been a lot of pressure to build and buy. At least we at Azur are convinced of Minorca. It's our first project. We have other projects already underway and we're going to make slow progress, but on Menorca.

Elisa

Why are you raising this capital and what's in it for you?

Roberto Bergonzi

You know, we build for six months of the year, so the financial resources we have allow us to move much faster, to have more teams on site and also to get better prices. After all, we've seen a huge inflation in the purchase of materials. We've managed to keep a fairly tight rein on that. On the other hand, I think that at the moment, cash payments are helping us a great deal to control prices, which is why we've raised so much money to give us this boost in construction, as I mentioned earlier; and especially in the coming months, from the end of May onwards, we'll be able to work at a rate of, let's say, no more than 10 to 15 %.

Elisa

Why did you call on crowdlending and BeeBonds for this project?

Roberto Bergonzi

Listen, BeeBonds, because we've met Mr Duysan on a number of occasions, and we've seen that we understand each other's aims, and that together we can work on this line. And the reason for BeeBonds and crowdfunding is that, in Spain, there is no bank financing at the moment, only bank financing for the final buyer. So basically, either you do it with your own funds, or you have to work with structures that are up to date at the moment, crowdfunding, crowdlending, and I think that Spain is a country that will be very conducive to this in the future.

Elisa

Roberto, if you had a message for BeeBonds investors at the end of this episode, what would you like to say to them?

Roberto Bergonzi

Well... invest, invest, invest with us! I think this really is a great project, a great opportunity, and it's the beginning. There's a relationship that's going to develop in the future. We have other projects, of course, and we also hope to be able to present them to BeeBonds, which will in turn be able to present them to its investors. So all we can say is, "Welcome", and that's it!

Elisa

So that's the end of this episode. Thank you all for listening. And above all, thank you to Roberto Bergonzi for accepting our invitation. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Go to BeeBonds.com to create your free investor account. BeeBonds allows you to invest directly in companies via bond issues without intermediary fees. You can earn an average gross annual interest return of 7.7 %. The bonds offered are debt instruments. Lending to SMEs exposes you to the risk of losing all or part of your investment. For individuals resident in Belgium for tax purposes, the interest received is subject to a withholding tax of 30 %. Before investing, please read the information note relating to the project. Finally, for each campaign, BeeBonds sponsors a beehive to support biodiversity.