?200m Raised in US Private Placement Transactions

RNS Number : 3293N

British Land Co PLC

06 September 2013

 



6 September 2013

British Land raises £200 million in US Private Placement transactions

British Land is pleased to announce that it has signed terms with two of its existing US investors for the issuance of £200 million 12 year notes, which will fund in the first quarter of 2014.

The two Sterling fixed rate notes of £100 million each have been agreed with New York Life and Pricoa Capital Group, and swapped to an effective floating rate of 3 month LIBOR plus 103bp.

The attractiveness of this funding opportunity was enhanced by the ability of the US investors to provide Sterling and to defer draw down, enabling the Group to continue to benefit from historical low margin bank facilities. 

On drawdown, in March 2014, it is estimated that the financing will extend the Group's proportionally consolidated weighted average debt maturity by approximately 0.4 years.

The Group has now raised over £2 billion of funding since March 2012.

Lucinda Bell, Finance Director of British Land, said: "This financing, together with the £410 million bank financings earlier in this financial year, builds on our strong liquidity position and demonstrates our ability to access funding on attractive, flexible terms from a range of sources. We are delighted to be able to extend our relationships with New York Life and Pricoa Capital Group."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                    020 7467 2942

Media 

Pip Wood, British Land                                       020 7467 2838

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                        020 7251 3801

Guy Lamming, Finsbury Group

Notes to Editors

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £16.9 billion (British Land share £11.0 billion), as valued at 31 March 2013 but adjusted for recent acquisitions and disposals, notably a major interest in Paddington Central.

Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Following our purchase of Paddington Central, our occupancy rate is 96.2% and average lease length to first break is 10.6 years.

Retail assets account for 58% of our portfolio, around 80% of which are located at prime out of town sites. Comprising around 28 million sq ft of retail space across 79 retail parks, 89 superstores, 17 shopping centres and 13 department stores, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 38% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End. Since 2010, we have committed £1.2 billion to deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space in London by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business and we focus on five areas which matter most to us and our key stakeholders: managing buildings efficiently; developing sustainable buildings; enhancing biodiversity; exceeding customers' expectations and focusing on local communities. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to our corporate vision of building the best REIT in Europe.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com

 

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