More money for Liberty Int-related project

A consortium of 7 banks has advanced a new 7 year, £525m loan facility to refinance the Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock.  Lakeside is owned and managed by Capital Shopping Centres, the leading UK prime regional shopping centre owner, manager and developer owned by Liberty International PLC (JSE:LBT).  Opened in 1990, Lakeside is one of the UK's leading regional shopping centres providing 1.43m sq. ft. of retail floorspace.

The proceeds of the loan are being used together with the group's cash resources to redeem in full the current total outstanding loans of £545.8m secured on Lakeside otherwise repayable in July 2011, including the redemption at par of the £445.8m of associated CMBS notes.

The existing loan has a current funding cost of about 5.5%. The hedging arrangements of the new loan require progressively greater levels of interest rate protection  over time. Based on the current yield curve, Capital Shopping Centres should see  some interest savings during the initial years of the new loan.

The funding was arranged by WestImmo and Eurohypo and the lenders are DekaBank, Eurohypo, Helaba, Lloyds, Pfandbriefbank, Santander and WestImmo. Eurohypo is facility agent and WestImmo was documentation agent.

The borrower was advised by Linklaters LLP and the lenders by Allen & Overy.

Liberty International's Finance Director, Ian Durant, commented " Liberty International is pleased to have agreed a significant long term bank financing and this speaks well of the quality of Lakeside and the strong support that the group enjoys from its banking relationships. This 7 year loan substantially improves the group's overall debt maturity profile and refinances one of the group's largest debt maturities, leaving 2015 as the next significant date for repayment of CMBS related debt. "

LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL PLC is one of the UK's largest listed property companies and a constituent of the FTSE-100 Index of the UK's leading listed companies. Liberty International converted into a UK Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) on 1 January 2007.

Liberty International owns 100 per cent of Capital Shopping Centres ("CSC"), the premier UK regional shopping centre business, and of Capital & Counties, a retail and commercial property investment and development company.

At 30 June 2009, Liberty International owned £6.1 billion of properties of which UK regional shopping centres comprised 73 per cent and retail property in aggregate 86 per cent.  Adjusted, diluted shareholders' funds amounted to £2.6 billion.

CAPITAL SHOPPING CENTRES has interests in 14 UK regional shopping centres amounting to some 13 million sq.ft. in aggregate including 9 of the UK's top 30 regional shopping centres with a market value of £4.4 billion at 30 June 2009.  CSC's largest centres are Lakeside, Thurrock;  MetroCentre, Gateshead;  Braehead, Glasgow;  The Harlequin, Watford; and Arndale, Manchester.  CSC has a 50 per cent share in the extension of St David's, Cardiff, which opened in October 2009.

LAKESIDE, THURROCK, which opened in 1990, was one of the first out-of-town regional shopping centres in the south of England and, together with the adjoining retail parks, is at the centre of Europe's largest aggregation of retail floor space. Lakeside is located on the eastern perimeter of London's M25 orbital motorway and offers approximately 1.4 million sq. ft. of retail and leisure space. It has a catchment area of over 11 million people within 70 minutes' drive time. Lakeside is one of the country's top shopping centre destinations, with over 250 shops, including four large anchor stores, a nine-screen multiplex cinema, a range of restaurants and cafés and parking space for 13,000 cars.

Get commercial property news by email

Free alerts when we publish — pick a focus or get everything, unsubscribe in one click. Subscribe »