25th Feb 2015 07:26
LONDON (Alliance News) - British Land Co PLC Wednesday refinanced its revolving credit facilities, signing a GBP485 million unsecured revolving credit facility with a syndicate of seven banks to replace a GBP560 million facility that was due to expire in May 2016, a move it said will lower its financing costs.
In a statement, the property developer said the new facility has an initial margin of 90 basis points and has a maturity of five years that can be extended to a maximum of seven years if the company gets the approval of each of the lenders. It is an extension and re-pricing of a GBP310 million facility that was due to expire in May 2018.
The re-arrangement means about GBP400 million of facilities have been cancelled, reducing the overall scale of the company's revolving credit facilities.
"The margin is below that on both previous facilities and holding costs are significantly reduced, lowering our overall financing costs," it said.
"We actively manage our debt portfolio to ensure that our finance is competitively priced and appropriate for our strategy. This facility extends the term of our strong and well diversified portfolio, whilst the GBP400 million cancellation reduces cost and is consistent with our policy of maintaining flexibility and not gearing up on yield shift," British Land Chief Financial Officer Lucinda Bell said in the statement.
The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC acted as documentation and facility agent for the new facility, while RBS, Santander Global Banking & Markets, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Barclays Bank were appointed joint co-ordinators and bookrunners, and were mandated lead arrangers. Commitments were also provided by Bank of China and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, also as mandated lead arrangers, and by Handelsbanken as lead arranger.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
Copyright 2015 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
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