Amendment and extension of bank facilities

RNS Number : 1528C

Big Yellow Group PLC

14 October 2015

 

14 October 2015

Big Yellow Group PLC

Amendment and extension of bank facilities

Big Yellow Group PLC ("the Group" or "Big Yellow") announces that it has completed an amendment and an extension of its existing £170 million Group bank facilities.  As a result of this refinancing, Big Yellow will benefit from both a lower average cost of debt and an increased average unexpired term of its debt facilities.

The key changes are as follows:

-       The expiry of the loan has been extended from August 2019 to October 2020, with an option to extend for a further year to October 2021

-       The margin payable on the income cover ratchet has reduced by 25 bps on both the term and the revolving debt.  The revolving debt will now pay a margin of 125 bps and the term debt 150 bps.  Were the term and the revolver to be fully drawn to £85 million each, the weighted average margin would be 137.5 bps.

-       The Group has an option to increase the amount of the revolving loan facility by £80 million during the course of the loan's term.

-       Following this amendment, the Group's average cost of debt is 3.7% and the average unexpired term of its debt facilities is 7.0 years

John Trotman, Chief Financial Officer of Big Yellow commented, "We are pleased to have extended the term of our loan and reduced the cost of our debt, whilst also giving us further capabilities to fund future growth opportunities."

For further information, please contact:

Big Yellow Group PLC James Gibson, Chief Executive Officer John Trotman, Chief Financial Officer	01276 477811
Pendomer Communications Ben Foster Rosie Oddy	020 3603 5220

Notes to Editors 

Big Yellow Group PLC is the UK's brand leader in self storage.  Big Yellow now operates from a platform of 84 stores, including 14 stores branded as Armadillo Self Storage, in which the Group has a 20% interest.  We own a further five Big Yellow self storage development sites, of which two have planning consent. The current maximum lettable area of this platform is 5.1 million sq ft.  When fully built out the portfolio will provide approximately 5.4 million sq ft of flexible storage space. Of the Big Yellow stores and sites, 96% are held freehold and long leasehold (by value); with the remaining 4% short leasehold.

The Group has pioneered the development of the latest generation of self storage facilities, which utilise state of the art technology and are located in high profile, accessible, main road locations.  Our focus on the location and visibility of our Big Yellow stores, coupled with our excellent customer service and our market leading online platform, has created the most recognised brand name in the UK self storage industry.

 

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