REAL ESTATE - Property investor and manager Corio is to issue €923m senior unsecured notes, to finance debt and pipeline projects.

The issuance – in US dollars - will be made through a private placement to approximately 30 (institutional) investors, it said.

The company made clear that the senior notes will consist of four tranches with maturities of seven, 10, 12 and 15 years, with a weighted average maturity of approximately 11 years.

"The proceeds will predominantly be swapped into euros," it added.

Corio will use the net proceeds from the private placement to refinance parts of its existing debt, and to finance projects currently in the pipeline, it said.

According to the company, the initial issue of €305m was increased to €923m ‘in response to the very strong demand’. Closing of the placement is due to happen in March and May 2007.

Corio is one of the largest listed real estate funds in Europe. Its portfolio mainly consists of retail centres in The Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain.

The company has a portfolio of €5bn and own assets of €2.8bn. It reported a 61% rise in net results – up to €268m, or €4.05 per share – during the first half of 2006.

Its pipeline consisted of €1.4bn of projects, which will continue to focus on the core market of dominant retail centres.

Meanwhile, property investor VastNed Group announced the appointment of Jako ten Holter as director Dutch offices of its international fund Offices-Industrial.

Ten Holter, 51, will succeed Raymond Beaujean, who has joined a start-up investment brokerage. However, he will keep on advising VastNed on its German portfolio, VastNed general council Arnaud du Pont said.

The new director at Offices-Industrial will report to VastNed Group’s CIO Hans Pars.

Ten Holter has been working for Vaste Waarden Nederland (VastNed’s predecessor). He has also been in executive functions at Wereldhave Management Nederland and Troostwijk Group.