Refinancing

RNS Number : 4495P

Big Yellow Group PLC

19 August 2014

 



19 August 2014

Big Yellow Group PLC

Refinancing

Big Yellow Group PLC ("the Group" or "Big Yellow") announces that it has completed the refinancing of its existing 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 to 7.8 years.

The Group has signed a five year £145 million loan facility with Lloyds Bank plc and HSBC Bank plc, expiring in August 2019.  50% of the bank facility is term and 50% is revolving.  The term loan attracts a margin of 175bps and the revolving loan a margin of 150 bps, reflecting a reduction of 75bps from the previous facility.  On completion the £145 million five year bank facility has £72 million drawn. 

In addition, the Group has signed a new £70 million facility with M&G Investments Limited, the term of which will be seven years from the date of drawdown which can occur at any time in the period up to 29 June 2015. The loan will be secured over a portfolio of 15 freehold self storage centres.  50% of the seven year loan is fixed by way of a forward start interest rate derivative, the balance of the loan is variable based off three month LIBOR plus margin. The average cost of the M&G loan at the current rate of LIBOR will be 3.75%.

The Group has also agreed a short term bridging facility of £70 million with Lloyds Bank plc, which is repayable immediately on the drawdown of the M&G loan.

The Group bank facility requires us to have 50% of all borrowings fixed.  The Group has cancelled £40 million of its existing interest rate derivatives at a cash cost of £1.4 million.   

John Trotman, Chief Financial Officer of Big Yellow commented, "We are delighted to have refinanced our core bank facility and further diversified our lending pool through the new loan from M&G.  These committed facilities, coupled with our existing £95.7 million loan from Aviva (remaining term 13 years), have significantly increased the average unexpired term of our debt facilities to 7.8 years.  In total we now have £238 million drawn out of our total committed facilities. 

As a result of this refinancing, and prior to the drawing of the M&G facility, our average cost of debt decreases from 4.6% to 3.7%.   Following the M&G facility being drawn and the Lloyds bridging loan being repaid we would expect the average cost to be approximately 4.2%, based on the current levels of LIBOR."  

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	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 78 stores, including 10 stores branded as Armadillo Self Storage.  We own a further three Big Yellow self storage development sites, of which two have planning consent. Of the 81 total stores and sites, 91% are held freehold and long leasehold; with the remaining 9% short leasehold.  The maximum lettable area of this platform is 4.7 million sq ft.  When fully built out the portfolio will provide approximately 4.9 million sq ft of flexible storage space.

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.

 

END

 

 

MSCUWSNRSSAWAAR