£485 million Revolving Credit Facility Signed

RNS Number : 7737F

British Land Co PLC

25 February 2015

 



British Land signs £485 million Revolving Credit Facility

British Land announces that it has signed a new £485 million unsecured Revolving Credit Facility (RCF) at an initial margin of 90 bps with a syndicate of 7 banks. The facility has a maturity of five years which may be extended to a maximum of seven years, on British Land's request and on each bank's approval for their participation. The terms of the facility include British Land's standard unsecured financial covenants.

This facility replaces the £560 million RCF which would have matured in May 2016 and is an extension and re-pricing of the £310 million RCF which was due to expire in May 2018.  This re-arrangement cancels c.£400 million of facilities, reducing the overall quantum of our RCFs.  The margin is below that on both previous facilities and holding costs are significantly reduced, lowering our overall financing costs. 

The Royal Bank of Scotland plc acted as Documentation and Facility Agent. The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Santander Global Banking & Markets, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Barclays Bank were appointed Joint Co-ordinators and Bookrunners, and were Mandated Lead Arrangers. Commitments were also provided by Bank of China and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, also as Mandated Lead Arrangers, and by Handelsbanken as Lead Arranger. 

Lucinda Bell, CFO, British Land said: "We actively manage our debt portfolio to ensure that our finance is competitively priced and appropriate for our strategy. This facility extends the term of our strong and well diversified portfolio, whilst the £400m cancellation reduces cost and is consistent with our policy of maintaining flexibility and not gearing up on yield shift. We are very pleased with the level of bank support we have received on this transaction, reflected in a margin that is 25bps lower than the comparable facilities we agreed last year."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                     020 7467 2942

Pip Wood, British Land                                                       020 7467 2942

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                                        020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors

About British Land

We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £19.0 billion (British Land share of which is £12.8 billion), as valued at 30 September 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 340 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 54% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across retail parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 46% of our portfolio is focused on London.  We have an attractive mix of high‑quality buildings in well‑managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.9 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier city office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

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

 

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