Agustín Cordón makes the leap to the real estate sector with the presidency of Culmia

The venture capital fund Oaktree has signed Agustín Cordón as the new non-executive chairman of Culmia, the former housing developer of Banco Sabadell, previously known as Solvia Desarrollos Inmobiliarios (Sdin Residencial). In addition to Cordón, another renowned senior executive, Mario Armero, will join the new board of directors of the real estate group, assuming the vice-presidency of the company.

Oaktree closed the acquisition of 100% of Sdin Residencial from Banco Sabadell in August 2019 for 882 million euros. Today, rebranded as Culmia, it is one of the main new-generation Spanish developers, with a portfolio of 80 developments in the commercialization phase and more than 5,000 homes delivered since 2013. The current developments total 4,000 apartments located in different municipalities of Catalonia, Madrid, Andalusia, and the Valencian Community. However, the great value of the acquisition made by Oaktree lies in the significant land bank that Sdin possessed, which will allow the current Culmia to develop more than 15,000 homes in the coming years.

Cordón will oversee and lead, together with Culmia's CEO, Francisco Pérez, a strategic growth plan that contemplates an investment of 450 million euros in the next four years to add more than 7,200 new homes to its current portfolio. Culmia's objective is "to occupy a leadership position in the emerging segment of affordable housing, in which it is one of the finalists of the Plan Vive in Madrid."

With this appointment, Cordón makes the leap to the real estate sector, with which he had not been related until now. The executive gained strong notoriety in 2004 when he became the general director of Fira de Barcelona and led one of the most successful and highest growth stages of the fair institution, from which he disassociated himself from management in 2015, although he continues to be part of its board of directors.

Previously, Cordón had developed his professional career at Bimbo, where he was financial director and vice president during the period when the company belonged to Sara Lee. After leaving Fira de Barcelona, the executive joined as CEO of the Zeta publishing group, a position he held until 2019, when the company was acquired by Prensa Ibérica. Last year, he founded the consultancy Anantara Ventures and reached an agreement with Barcelona Global to promote Barcelona & Partners, a program for attracting investments and creating new jobs in the city.

"I assume this new role with an enormous sense of responsibility and with the desire to add value to a top-level management team led by our CEO, Francisco Pérez. The field of real estate development has experienced great professionalization in Spain in recent years, but I am convinced that Culmia brings together all the fundamentals to be at the forefront of it and continue innovating in terms of product, operations, and sustainability not only in what has been its core business, prime for-sale housing, but also in the rental residential or affordable housing segments," Cordón stated after the appointment.

For his part, Mario Armero was the president of the General Electric group in Spain and Portugal until 2008 and since then has worked for companies such as Corporación Llorente or Ezentis, in addition to holding the vice presidency of the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC). Along with Armero, Cordón, and Pérez on the Culmia board will sit Antoni Musolas, Alejandro Cano, and Charles Blackburn.