International News

GRIT secures largest syndicated sustainability-linked real estate debt facility in Sub-Saharan Africa

Bronwyn Knight, CEO of Grit Real Estate Income Group.

Standard Bank has successfully syndicated a multimillion-dollar sustainability-linked debt refinancing facility for GRIT Real Estate Income Group (GRIT).

Structured and exclusively led by Standard Bank, the sustainability-linked term loan and revolving credit facility, for up to US$306 million, is the largest of its kind to date for Sub-Saharan Africa’s (excluding South Africa) real estate sector.

Standard Bank acted as the sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner for the transaction which covers GRIT’s assets and debt facilities in Mauritius, Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana, and Senegal. The cross-collateralised facility is structured across multiple jurisdictions and ensures GRIT’s debt structures are to have a longer tenor and be more efficient, flexible, and optimally priced. The facility also helps to create pathways to transform assets and lending structures to support GRIT’s sustainability targets, ensuring GRIT’s ability to scale and diversify funding structures and creating a template structure that could be implemented across the rest of GRIT’s portfolio.

Standard Bank previously led the successful US$140 million syndication of GRIT’s Mozambique facilities in October 2019.

Our debt refinance brings enhanced scale, diversification, tenor, and optimal funding costs to our broader debt portfolio. By refinancing almost all our existing debt exposures into a single sustainability-linked facility, we are streamlining our loan management process and bolstering our commitment to our ESG targets, including carbon emission reduction and gender equality,” said Bronwyn Knight, CEO of GRIT.

The transaction is expected to be finalised by the end of October 2022.