Nordic shopping centre landlord Citycon has placed a €350 mln eurobond, mainly to help refinance the group's existing €2 bn in debt.
The 10-year guaranteed euro-denominated bond matures on 8 September 2026 has an annual icoupon of 1.25%, payable annually on 8 September.
Helsinki-listed Citycon has applied for the bond to be admitted to the official list of the Irish Stock Exchange and to trade on its regulated market. The bond has been rated BBB by Standard & Poor's and Baa1 by Moody's, in line with Citycon's corporate credit rating.
The net proceeds from the offering will mainly be used to partially repay or refinance part of the shopping centre owner's debt. Over the summer Citycon reported that the fair value of its interest-bearing debt stood at €2 bn at end-June, up from €1.3 bn a year earlier. The increase was due largely to Citycon's acquisition of Norwegian shopping centre owner, Sektor Gruppen, for €1.5 bn in July 2015.
Citycon said that, to a lesser extent, some proceeds from the eurobond placement could be used for general corporate purposes, including the development or acquisition of new properties or to increase shareholdings in its existing joint ventures.
Chief financial officer and executive vice president Eero Sihvonen: 'We are pleased with the success of this placement that was more than six times oversubscribed. The order book reached €2.2 bn in total and the bond was allocated to a broad base of European investors.'
Barclays, Danske Bank, Deutsche Bank and Nordea acted as joint lead managers.
Citycon is an owner, developer and manager of urban grocery-anchored shopping centres in the Nordic and Baltic regions. The group manages €4.7 bn of assets and has a market capitalisation of close to €2 bn.
