Pbb, Morgan Stanley finance Henderson malls

Henderson Global Investors has secured over €100 mln in debt finance from Morgan Stanley and German lender pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank for its European retail property fund Herald.

The debt has been secured across three retail assets: Metropolis shopping centre in Italy, and City Centre and Shopping Cité in Germany. The blended margin of the two facilities represents a 1.58% spread.

Metropolis Shopping Centre in Cosenza is a 25,800 m2 centre which was recently refurbished to accommodate 12 new retail units at the site. City Centre is a small 18,000 m2 city centre shopping centre in Hanau, near Frankfurt, while Shopping Cité is a 25,000 m2 centre in the affluent spa town of Baden-Baden.

'The successful refinancing and restructuring of external debt is an essential part of the medium-term strategy of the Herald Fund, and provides the team with the foundations to deliver value-adding asset management initiatives over the remainder of the fund life,' said Carl White, fund manager for Herald.

Herald is a €900 mln pan-European retail property fund managed by Henderson Global Investors.