British Land Closes $480m US Private Placement

RNS Number : 8410N

British Land Co PLC

08 September 2011

 

                                                8 September 2011

British Land Closes $480 million US Private Placement

British Land announces that it has closed and drawn funds on a $480 million US private placement bond issue, the largest US private placement transaction by a UK Real Estate Investment Trust.

The placement, originally launched at $200 million, was three times oversubscribed with British Land subsequently choosing to increase the issue to $480 million. The range of maturities is between 7 and 15 years, and there are 12 investors.  The financing has an average life of over 11 years and was swapped to £300m at an average floating rate of 146 basis points over LIBOR.  British Land took bids and priced the placement on 22 June, signed on 3 August and closed and drew funds on 1 September. After drawing funds and repaying revolving bank facilities, the Group's weighted average debt maturity and interest rate, including share of JV and fund debt, is 9.7 years and 4.8%, respectively.

The following notes were issued; $40 million 3.895% Senior Notes 2018; $220m 4.635% Senior Notes 2021; $135 million 4.766% Senior Notes 2023; and $85 million 5.003% Senior Notes 2026.

Together with the £560 million syndicated bank financing agreed earlier in the year, the Group has raised £860 million since May 2011.

RBS and HSBC acted as joint agents and hedge coordinators, and Lloyds provided hedge underwriting and syndication.

Lucinda Bell, Finance Director of British Land, said: "This financing, together with the £560 million syndicated bank facility earlier in the year, builds on our strong liquidity position and demonstrates our ability to access funding on attractive terms from a range of sources.  We are delighted by the level of demand for the placement, reflecting our scale, high quality portfolio and strong balance sheet."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                            020 7467 2942

Media

Pip Wood, British Land                                                               020 7467 2838

Guy Lamming/Gordon Simpson, Finsbury                                    020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors:

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £15.2 billion (British Land share £9.9 billion), as valued at 30 June 2011. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and visited byover 250 million people each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 98% and average lease length to first break of 11 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 64% of our portfolio, over 80% of which are located at prime out-of-town sites. Comprising around 27 million sq ft of retail space across 91 retail warehouse properties, 99 superstores, 12 shopping centres and 10 department stores, the retail portfolio is generally modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Active asset management delivers attractive space to both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 33% of the portfolio (rising to an estimated 38% on completion of current developments) amounting to 7 million sq ft of office space including Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We are investing £1.1 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.2 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and the 500,000 sq ft NEQ mixed use scheme at Regent's Place.

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business and we focus on five areas which matter most to us and our key stakeholders: managing buildings efficiently; developing sustainable buildings; enhancing biodiversity; exceeding customers' expectations and focusing on local communities. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to our corporate aim of building the best REIT in Europe.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com

 

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