British Land is raising £200 mln (€237 mln) in two private placement transactions in the US.

British Land is raising £200 mln (€237 mln) in two private placement transactions in the US.

The UK real estate investment trust said it has signed terms with two of its existing US investors for the issuance of £200 mln of 12-year notes in the first quarter of 2014.

The two Sterling fixed-rate notes of £100 mln each have been agreed with New York Life and Pricoa Capital Group, and swapped to an effective floating rate of 3 month LIBOR plus 103 basis points.

British Land said the attractiveness of this funding opportunity was enhanced by the ability of the US investors to provide Sterling and to defer drawdown, enabling the group to continue to benefit from historical low margin bank facilities.

On drawdown, in March 2014, it is estimated that the financing will extend the group's proportionally consolidated weighted average debt maturity by 0.4 years.

British Land has now raised over £2 bn of funding since March 2012.

Lucinda Bell, finance director of British Land, said: 'This financing, together with the £410 mln bank financings earlier in this financial year, builds on our strong liquidity position and demonstrates our ability to access funding on attractive, flexible terms from a range of sources.'