UK shopping centre owner and developer Intu has refinanced the debt on its Merry Hill shopping centre in the West Midlands with a £488 mln (€536 mln) loan provided by four banks, including US lender Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas.
The refinancing follows Intu’s acquisition of the remaining 50% stake in Merry Hill last year from Australia Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) for £410 mln (€527 mln), having purchased an initial 50% from Westfield in 2014.
The refinancing was led by lead counsel Linklaters, with law firm Ogier advising Intu on matters of Jersey law.
Merry Hill is the UK's seventh-largest shopping centre, located 10 miles west of Birmingham with an annual footfall of 22 million.
At the presentation of the company’s first-half results at end-July, Intu said it also raised additional finance of £250 mln for its top UK mall Trafford Centre and ‘imminently’ expected to complete the disposal of 50% of its Xanadú mall in Madrid to TH Real Estate, agreed earlier this year.
Intu announced in March that it had acquired Madrid Xanadú, one of Spain’s top 10 shopping centres, from Canadian mall investor Ivanhoé Cambridge for €530 mln. A €263 mln, five-year loan has been secured on the asset with Santander, BBVA, Credit Agricole and Caixabank.
Two months later, Intu announced the sale of 50% of Xanadú to TH Real Estate via a joint venture agreement.
Spain accounts for roughly 10% of Intu's €10.5 bn portfolio, with the UK accounting for the bulk of the business. The London-listed company says its strategy in Spain is ‘to create a business of scale through acquisitions and development projects’.
Intu owns and manage three shopping centres in Spain - Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza Xanadu in Madrid and Intu Asturias - and has four development sites in the country with the most advanced project being intu Costa del Sol, near Málaga.
