Fibra Uno, Mexico’s largest listed property company, has secured a $850m (€775m) cross-border club loan from seven international banks.
Santander, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, BBVA, Itaú BBA, Goldman, Sachs & Co and HSBC financed the company, which pioneered a REIT-like structure in Mexico with its 2011 flotation.
The revolving credit facility has a five-year term and will help fund future growth initiatives, according to Joy Gallup, a partner in the Latin America and corporate practice group at Paul Hastings, the law firm that acted on the transaction.
Fibra Uno, which has a market cap of about $8bn and owns a portfolio of 475 properties, declined to comment on the credit facility.
The new loan facility allows the borrower to request funds above the initial loan amount from the lenders.
While the feature is common in such transactions, according to Gallup, the additional amount is typically limited to 20-25% of the original loan.
Fibra Uno will be able to request up to 50% more funds, which could bring the total credit extended by the lenders to more than $1.2bn.
“It’s because the borrower is such a large and solid company that it can get a club loan put together,” Gallup said.
“Not every FIBRA is going to have access to that market.”
The credit facility will be structured with about 50% of the funding in dollars and 50% in Mexican pesos.
Most cross-border loans have been weighted more heavily towards dollars.
Fibra Uno was the first Mexican property company to take advantage of legislation that created REIT-style public offerings of exchange-listed shares in property development and investment companies in the country.
The legislation afforded favourable tax treatment to Mexican pension funds, called Afores, that invested in the FIBRA vehicles.
Assets under management in the 12 Afores came to around $155bn, with nearly 70% of assets in the four largest funds, according to Mexican pension regulator Consar.
FIBRAs have raised large amounts of equity and debt over the last two years.
While a recent research note on the sector from Goldman Sachs claims growth expectations are set too high, the company says compelling estimated dividend yields of 4.6% and 5.7% for FIBRAs in 2015 and 2016, coupled with strong growth prospects, warranted an attractive outlook for Mexican property.
In late July, Fibra Uno reported revenue and net operating income in line with expectations.
Both rental rates and occupancy increased in the second quarter.
Goldman Sachs said Fibra Uno was “delivering growth” and had solid development and acquisition pipelines.
The banks believes investors will focus on the company’s “solid operational trends and execution of the growth strategy”.
Fibra Uno launched a listed development vehicle in June, with participation from Mexican institutional investors, according to a company statement.
Distinct from the FIBRAs regime, the Helios vehicle has capital commitments of around $370m.
The first capital call in June tapped 20% of the total.
Helios is exclusively targeting large-scale mixed-used development projects.
