Multi Corporation is meeting its obligations to its banks with regard to a €900 mln loan, a company spokesperson told PropertyEU.
Multi Corporation is meeting its obligations to its banks with regard to a €900 mln loan, a company spokesperson told PropertyEU.
Company spokesperson Ellen van der Feltz made the comment in response to media reports that US private equity group Blackstone may be close to taking control of European largest shopping centre developer due to liquidity problems.
Market watchers have speculated that a restructuring was on the cards for Multi since Morgan Stanley turned off the equity tap at end-2011 and cut its losses through its MSREV V fund.
On Monday the Financial Times reported that Blackstone had already quietly acquired almost half the €900 mln in corporate debt in the last nine months at a hefty discount of 50 cents per euro of debt. According to the report, which cited anonymous sources, Multi missed an interest repayment last Friday, which 'is likely to force bank lenders still holding their loans to take writedowns and sell their exposure'.
Van der Feltz declined to comment further on Multi's capital structure.
The €900 mln debt facility was provided to Multi in 2011 by a consortium of 11 banks, with Dutch bank NIBC as lead arranger. The loan facility is set to mature in 2015. A spokesperson for NIBC confirmed that Multi had met its contractual commitments, but declined to provide further details.
Multi is an active developer, manager and owner of shopping centres in 14 European countries. The Dutch developer is market leader in Turkey with 10 existing centres and several more in the development or construction phase. In recent years Blackstone's European real estate arm has put together shopping centre portfolios in Poland and Turkey. Gaining control of Multi would give Blackstone a pan-European retail business.
