Spain’s Sanahuja family on Thursday ceded control of Metrovacesa to creditors, less than two years after completing a highly-leveraged buyout of one of Spain’s biggest property companies.

The Barcelona-based family, which controls more than 80 per cent of the capital, told regulators it would exchange a 54.75 per cent holding in the troubled group for the cancellation of €2.1bn of debt. The family will also receive a small cash sum.