Protego arranges debt refinancing for Nordic Retail Fund

Protego Real Estate Investors has announced that it has refinanced EUR 266mln of debt on its Swedish retail portfolio. The five-year senior debt facility with northern European lender SEB is secured against the Nordic Retail Fund's Swedish portfolio

Protego said it also arranged EUR 60mln of senior debt against the Nordic Retail Fund's two Finnish regional shopping centres in Rovaniemi and Lappeenranta. The five-year term loan is being jointly provided by SEB Finland and DnB Nord.

David Turner, director for European investment at Protego, commented: 'The refinance of the Nordic Retail Fund's Swedish and Finnish portfolios, indicates that the Nordic banks are in a stronger position than many other European based banks to offer competitive property finance at the present time. To a large extent, this is a reflection of the strength of the Nordic region’s economy, and the positive outlook compared to other parts of Europe. The fund is now extremely well placed to build on its first year success.'

The fund has entered into a long-term energy partnership with ÅF Group, a Swedish-based firm involved in technical consulting. The purpose of the relationship is to make the properties of the fund as sustainable as possible. The energy use of each shopping centre will be analysed and a plan put in place to reduce the cost and use of energy and water by at least 25% in the following year, Protego said.