Matthew Roberts, Financial Director of Intu Properties.
Intu Properties plc has announced a margin reduction and extension to the £352 million term loan within its Secured Group Structure (“SGS”). Following negotiations with lenders, the margin on the term loan, which is linked to the different tier levels within the SGS, has reduced by between 125 and 150 basis points compared to the existing facility.
The maturity date has also been extended by two years to March 2020, with a further two one year extensions at the lenders’ discretion. This will reduce the Group’s weighted average cost of gross debt to 4.5 per cent (December 2014: 4.7 per cent).
The SGS structure was established in March 2013 as a central source of funding for Intu. At that time four centres with a value of £2,300 million, being intu Lakeside, intu Watford, intu Victoria Centre and intu Braehead, were contributed in to the structure and £1,152 million was raised in the form of secured bonds and term loans. In November 2014, a further two centres, intu Derby and intu Chapelfield, were transferred in to the SGS and an additional £350 million of bonds issued, taking the outstanding debt to £1,502 million against a total asset value at that time of £3,146 million.
Matthew Roberts, Financial Director of Intu, commented: “We have worked closely with our relationship banks on the margin reduction and extension of this loan. We are pleased to have been able to secure these revised terms and I am very grateful for their on-going support of Intu.”