Credit Facility Closes at ?310 million

RNS Number : 7994G

British Land Co PLC

12 June 2013

 



                                                                                                                        12 June 2013

British Land Closes £310 million Credit Facility

British Land is pleased to confirm that the new five year unsecured revolving credit facility signed in May 2013 has closed at £310 million, following the addition of a further bank. The facility, which has an initial margin of 135bps pa, was increased from £200 million at launch due to over subscription. The terms include British Land's standard unsecured financial covenants.

Lloyds Banking Group is Facility Agent and Co-ordinator. Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. were Bookrunners.

JP Morgan, Scotiabank and Mega International Commercial Bank, being new lending relationships for British Land, together with Bank of China and Santander joined the Bookrunners in providing commitments.

Lucinda Bell, Finance Director, said: "We are delighted with the success of this syndicated facility and with the support from both existing lenders and several banks new to the British Land relationship. Our ability to continue to access diverse sources of low cost debt finance is a key competitive strength. It provides us with the resources and flexibility to pursue our objectives and grow the business."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                    020 7467 2942

Media 

Pip Wood, British Land                                      020 7467 2838

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                       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 £16.4 billion (British Land share £10.5 billion), as valued at 31 March 2013. 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 receive over 300 million visits each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 96.8% and average lease length to first break of 10.7 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 60% of our portfolio, around 80% of which are located at prime out of town sites. Comprising around 29 million sq ft of retail space across 80 retail parks, 91 superstores, 17 shopping centres and 13 department stores, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 35% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 38% on completion of current developments). Our 6 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. Since 2010, we have committed £1.2 billion to create London's largest committed office development programme to deliver 2.3 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 a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

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 vision 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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