A consortium of 7 banks has advanced a new 7 year, £525 million (aaprox. 603 mln.) loan facility to refinance the Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock. Lakeside is owned and managed by Capital Shopping Centres, the leading UK prime regional shopping center owner, manager and developer owned by Liberty International PLC. Opened in 1990, Lakeside is one of the UK's leading regional shopping centers providing 1.43 million ft² (132,400 m²) of retail floorspace.
The proceeds of the loan are being used together with the group's cash resources to redeem in full the current total outstanding loans of £545.8 mln. secured on Lakeside otherwise repayable in July 2011, including the redemption at par of the £445.8 mln. of associated CMBS notes.
The existing loan has a current funding cost of about 5.5%. The hedging arrangements of the new loan require progressively greater levels of interest rate protection over time. Based on the current yield curve, Capital Shopping Centres should see some interest savings during the initial years of the new loan. The funding was arranged by WestImmo and Eurohypo and the lenders are DekaBank, Eurohypo, Helaba, Lloyds, Pfandbriefbank, Santander and WestImmo. Eurohypo is facility agent and WestImmo was documentation agent.
The borrower was advised by Linklaters LLP and the lenders by Allen & Overy.
Liberty International's Finance Director, Ian Durant, commented "Liberty International is pleased to have agreed a significant long term bank financing and this speaks well of the quality of Lakeside and the strong support that the group enjoys from its banking relationships. This 7 year loan substantially improves the group's overall debt maturity profile and refinances one of the group's largest debt maturities, leaving 2015 as the next significant date for repayment of CMBS related debt."
Source: Hudson Sandler
