Capital & Regional announces that it has today completed the refinancing of the debt on its five wholly-owned Mall properties by entering into new debt facilities totalling €435m (£372.5m), of which £362.5 million has been drawn. Three new facilities have been entered into as follows:
- £165m 10 year loan with Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America with a one year extension option;
- £107.5m 7 year loan with Wells Fargo Bank International Unlimited Company; and
- £100m bank facility of 5 years with two one year extension options with The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. £90 million of this facility has been drawn down with a further £10m available to fund capex.
- The £107.5 million facility is secured on The Mall, Luton, while the other two facilities are secured on the four assets at Blackburn, Maidstone, Walthamstow and Wood Green. The weighted average maturity of the new facilities is 7.8 years, rising to 8.8 years if the extension options are assumed to be exercised. Interest on the new facilities has been fixed resulting in an overall blended rate of 3.27%. This compares to an equivalent rate of 3.52% on the previous facility prior to refinancing and following the sale of The Mall, Camberley.
The repayment of the existing £334.6m debt, which was due to mature in May 2019, has triggered a redemption cost of £7.6m on the fixed rate debt of £233.3m. A further non-cash charge of £3.4m will also be recognised from the write-off of unamortised financing costs on the existing debt. This will result in a total charge of £11.0m being recognised at the 2016 year end, which is equivalent to 1.6 pence per share.
Hugh Scott-Barrett, Chief Executive, commented: “This refinancing achieves the objectives we set out at the time of our half year results announcement in August 2016. It provides the Group with the security of long term funding while also taking advantage of the historic low level of current interest rates. It also diversifies the sources and maturities of our debt, and increases the quantum to fund future capex efficiently at the asset level whilst maintaining significant flexibility for asset recycling.”
