Amendment and Extension of Bank Facilities

RNS Number : 3819V

Safestore Holdings plc

07 August 2015

 

7 August 2015

Safestore Holdings PLC

Amendment and Extension of Bank Facilities

Safestore Holdings PLC ("the Group") announces that it has completed an amendment and extension of its existing bank facilities, the key terms of which are as follows:

·      UK and Euro facilities are extended by two years from June 2018 to June 2020,

·      The facilities will consist of

o  a £126m fully drawn term loan,

o  an £80m revolving facility of which £30m is currently drawn and,

o  a €70m revolving facility of which €45m is currently drawn,

·      The margin, as compared to our current facilities, reduces by 75 bps from 225 bps to 150 bps,

·      Similarly, the non-utilisation rate on the undrawn facilities reduces from 1.0% to 0.6%,

·      Removal of £30m of mandatory repayments of £5m every 6 months starting on 31 October 2015 through to 30 April 2018 previously required under the facilities,

·      The Group also has the option to increase the quantum of the sterling revolving credit facility by £60m.

Based on the current level of borrowings and hedge rates, and taking into consideration the amortisation of initial fees, the Group's annual interest charge will reduce by c. £1.4m and the Group's overall cost of debt, including the existing $113m US Private Placement Notes, will reduce by c. 50 bps.

The hedging in relation to the above amendment and extension will be completed in the coming weeks and an update will be provided in the Group's third quarter trading update on 3 September, 2015.

Andy Jones, Chief Financial Officer of Safestore, commented:

"We are pleased with the improved cost effectiveness, debt maturity and balance sheet flexibility that the Amendment and Extension of our bank facilities gives the Group and appreciate the ongoing supportiveness of our lenders".

For further information, please contact:

Safestore Holdings PLC

Frederic Vecchioli, Chief Executive Officer	0208 732 1565
Andy Jones, Chief Financial Officer

www.safestore.co.uk

Instinctif Partners

Mark Reed/ Guy Scarborough

Tel: [phone]

Notes to Editors

·	Safestore is the UK's largest self-storage group with 120 stores, comprising 96 wholly owned stores in the UK (including 57 in London and the South East with the remainder in key metropolitan areas such as Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool and Bristol) and 24 wholly owned stores in the Paris region. In addition, Safestore has 12 Space Maker stores under management in the UK.
·	Safestore operates more self-storage sites inside the M25 and in central Paris than any competitor providing more proximity to customers in the wealthiest and densest UK and French markets.
·	Safestore was founded in the UK in 1998. It acquired the French business "Une Pièce en Plus" ("UPP") in 2004 which was founded in 1998 by the current Safestore Group CEO Frederic Vecchioli.
·	Safestore has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007.
·	The Group provides storage to around 48,000 personal and business customers.
·	Safestore (excluding Space Maker), at 30 April 2015, had a maximum lettable area ("MLA") of 5.03 million sq ft (excluding the expansion pipeline stores) of which 3.47 million sq ft was occupied.
·	Safestore employs around 525 people in the UK and France.

 

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