Merry Hill owner agrees new £600m credit facility
THE owner of the Merry Hill and Potteries shopping centres, Intu Properties, has concluded a new £600m revolving credit facility. The new RCF replaces the existing £375m facility that was due to expire in November 2018.
The new RCF has been provided by seven banks including all the providers of the current facility – Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and UBS with Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland now joining.
The RCF facility has a minimum term of five years up to October 2019 with the option to extend this by a further two years subject to certain conditions being met and approvals received.
The margin on the deal, which is linked to different gearing levels, has reduced by between 25 and 50 basis points compared to the existing facility and has an initial margin of 140 basis points over LIBOR.
Intu said that taking into account the lower margin, and a lower commitment fee, the new facility would have a lower all-in cost based on expected utilisation levels despite the larger facility size.
The company said it intended to use the new facility to provide general liquidity for the business.
Matthew Roberts, Chief Financial Officer of Intu Properties, said: “I am very pleased with this successful refinancing, which increases both the size and tenure of committed facilities for Intu.
“Despite the increase in the size of the facility we have been able to reduce margins and fees such that expected on-going costs will be lower than under the previous facility. Intu takes relationship banking very seriously and therefore I am also very pleased that we have been able to maintain, and indeed enlarge, our core relationship banks within this, our principal corporate facility.”
