Hammerson agrees £420m bank facility to fund Birmingham acquisitions
RETAIL property investor Hammerson has secured a new £420m bank facility which will be used in part to refinance its latest shopping spree in Birmingham.
The bank facility is thought to be the largest arranged by a UK property company so far this year.
The group is half owner of the Bullring shopping centre and it acquired the new Grand Central scheme above New Street Station in January in a deal worth £335m. It has since sold a half share in Grand Central to its Bullring JV partner, the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board for £175m.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange today, Hammerson said the new unsecured Revolving Credit Facility had an initial margin of 90 basis points and was spread between a syndicate of eight international banks.
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The new facility will refinance the existing £150m RCF which would have matured in April 2017 and which featured a margin of 150 basis points. The latest facility has a maturity of five years which may be extended to a maximum of seven years on Hammerson’s request and on each bank’s approval.
The commercial terms are the same as the £415m RCF signed in April 2015 and include Hammerson’s standard unsecured financial covenants.
The existing £150m facility will now be cancelled resulting in a net increase of £270m of undrawn facilities.
Hammerson said the increase in liquidity would be used to partially refinance the €1.5bn RCF used for recent investments in Ireland and Birmingham.
Following the signing of the new RCF, the total committed financing available to Hammerson is approximately £4.4bn.
Timon Drakesmith, Chief Financial Officer of Hammerson, said: “It is encouraging that the RCF is on the same attractive terms that we set in April 2015 and four new major international banks have joined our relationship group. We believe this bank facility is the largest arranged by a UK property company so far this year.”
Lloyds Bank acted as co-ordinator for the facility and HSBC was appointed as Facility Agent. Bank of China London branch, China Construction Bank Corporation London branch, Lloyds Bank, Mizuho Bank and Wells Fargo Bank International were appointed Mandated Lead Arrangers and Bookrunners. Commitments were also provided by Barclays, Crédit Industriel et Commercial and HSBC.
