Hammerson launches EUR 500m bond

UK REIT Hammerson has announced the launch of a EUR 500 mln seven-year bond with an annual coupon of 2.75%.

In a statement on Wednesday, the retail property specialist said the bond, maturing in 2019, was priced at 145 basis points over the mid swap rate. The issue was six times oversubscribed.

Following this issue, Hammerson will have available committed financing of £2.8 bn (EUR 3.4 bn). The proceeds will be used to fund growth in Hammerson's chosen retail property sectors of prime shopping centres, convenient retail parks and designer outlet villages.

Timon Drakesmith, CFO of Hammerson, said: 'We have had an excellent response from our debt investors for this transaction, which we greatly appreciate. The funds from this bond issue will be put to good use in a variety of growth projects.'

Hammerson is the fourth listed property company in Europe to issue bonds this month. Earlier in September, Unibail Rodamco, Europe's largest publicly-traded property group, raised another EUR 750 mln from the issue of a convertible bond. The nominal value per bond was set at EUR 217.28, representing a premium of 35% on Unibail-Rodamco's reference share price on NYSE Euronext in Paris. Similarly, French retail property specialist Klépierre issued a EUR 500 mln bond maturing 17 September 2019 and British Land raised EUR 400m bond through the launch of senior, unsecured convertible bonds due in 2017.