London-headquartered property investment firm Round Hill Capital, together with private markets firm StepStone Group Real Estate, has completed the multi-currency refinancing of the acquisition debt secured against its Nordic industrial portfolio.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The portfolio in question comprises 327,649 m2 of space across 13 assets in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Some 70% is in Sweden.
The new senior loan, with a global insurance institution, is for a five year term. Round Hill said that the facility also covers financing for all currently identified capital expenditure projects.
'We are pleased to have secured this very attractive debt refinancing, which saw strong appetite from institutional debt investors and offers Round Hill Capital funding diversification on highly competitive terms as well as substantial operational flexibility,' said Michael Bickford, founder and CEO of Round Hill. 'We welcome this leading global insurance institution as a supportive partner to Round Hill and we look forward to continue working with them over the long term.'
The refinancing follows the delivery of value-adding asset management initiatives across the portfolio, since its acquisition in September 2016. These have included the signing of 44 new leases totalling 130,143 m2, representing 40% of the total lettable area, increasing occupancy by over 10% to 85%.
Round Hill said it had also increased the weighted average lease term of the portfolio to almost five years from three years, with lease agreements setting new market precedents for rents for their respective areas. It has also sold five non-core assets for what it described as 'attractive returns'.
Round Hill and Stepstone Real Estate’s legal advisors were DLA Piper, while CBRE Debt Advisors assisted in the process.
