Klepierre, the French shopping centre and office property group, has raised bank financing of EUR 700mln which will primarily be used to repay a EUR 600 bond with 6.125% coupon interest that matures on 10 July.

Klepierre, the French shopping centre and office property group, has raised bank financing of EUR 700mln which will primarily be used to repay a EUR 600 bond with 6.125% coupon interest that matures on 10 July.

The new loan facility was syndicated with six banks. BNP Paribas was responsible for coordination, documentation and was the credit agent. The other banks were Banque de l'Economie du Commerce et de la Monetique (Credit Mutuel group); Credit Foncier de France (Caisse d'Epargne group); ING Real Estate Finance; Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen Girozentrale and Intesa San Paolo. The cost of the new financing is 5.05%.

Klepierre said that once this transaction is completed and after redemption of the EUR 600mln bond, the average remaining time to maturity of Klepierre’s debt will be 5.5 years and its undrawn credit lines will amount to more than EUR 610mln.

The company added that the available funds cover a large portion of Klepierre’s financing requirements for 2008 and the loans offer financing terms that are in line with the group's profitability targets.

Klepierre leases and manages over EUR 11bn of property assets and also manages assets for third parties. Shopping centres accounted for 86% of Klepierre's portfolio at end-December 2007, with shopping centres in France making up 50% of the total. The company has shopping centre holdings in at least six other European countries. Office properties in and around Paris account for 10% of the overall portfolio.