TIAA Henderson Real Estate (TH Real Estate) has secured a new £400 mln (€560 mln) loan on behalf of its £1.1 bn flagship UK Retail Warehouse Fund.
TIAA Henderson Real Estate (TH Real Estate) has secured a new £400 mln (€560 mln) loan on behalf of its £1.1 bn flagship UK Retail Warehouse Fund.
The new facility has been provided by a consortium comprising Wells Fargo, as facility agent, together with Aareal Bank and Helaba, and replaces the current financing which is due to mature at the end of this year.
The deal was negotiated on 'highly-competitive' terms, TH Real Estate said, and is structured for a term of up to seven years. It consists of a £250 mln term loan and a £150 mln revolving tranche to maximise the fund’s flexibility towards operational leverage.
The prime retail warehouse fund invests in retail parks across the UK, with a portfolio comprising 14 dominant schemes and with a fund value of £1.1 bn.
The refinancing follows the six-year extension and restructuring of the fund agreed in September 2014, which also introduced the ability for the fund to raise additional equity of up to 10% of NAV per annum.
The fund produced a total return of 17.8% in 2014 against a benchmark of 14.3%.
Michael Neal, fund manager at TH Real Estate, said: 'Following the successful extension of the fund’s life to December 2021, the terms and structure of the refinancing fully complement our fund strategy, which is endorsed by the unit holders. This secures the operational flexibility required to deliver our asset management pipeline, the firepower to acquire new assets, and locks in a significant reduction in the "all in" cost of finance, to enhance earnings prospects for the fund throughout its new term.'