£300 million senior unsecured corporate bond

RNS Number : 2866G

NewRiver REIT PLC

28 February 2018

 

NewRiver REIT plc

("NewRiver" or the "Company")

£300 million senior unsecured corporate bond

NewRiver is pleased to announce its debut £300 million sterling-denominated senior unsecured bond. The Company has now successfully completed the transition to a fully unsecured balance sheet and therefore all of its assets are unencumbered. The issuance is in line with the Company's strategy to diversify its sources of funding, increase operational flexibility and increase debt maturity. Fitch Ratings is expected to assign the bond an investment grade rating of BBB+.

The £300 million senior unsecured bond has a term of 10 years and a fixed coupon of 3.5%. The proceeds will be used to repay existing secured facilities totalling £177 million, existing unsecured facilities totalling £50 million and for general corporate purposes. Upon repaying the existing facilities, NewRiver will have a fully unencumbered and straightforward balance sheet with £680 million of debt facilities being a £300 million corporate bond, a £165 million term loan and a £215 million revolving credit facility ("RCF"). All of the Company's drawn debt will be 100% fixed.

Following the issuance of the bond and the repayment of existing facilities, the Company's weighted average debt maturity, including extension options, will increase from 5.5 years in September 2017 to 8.0 years, with a well spread maturity profile. Assuming that the existing £215 million RCF is fully drawn, the Company's proforma all in cost of debt will be 3.1%.

Barclays Bank plc and HSBC Bank plc acted as joint active bookrunners; NatWest Markets and Santander acted as joint passive bookrunners. The Company was advised on the bond and credit rating by Rothschild & Co.

Mark Davies, Chief Financial Officer commented: "We are delighted with the level of investor support received for our debut senior unsecured bond. Going forward, the benefits to the Company of increased maturity, better operational flexibility and fixed cost debt will be significant.

Since our £225 million equity raise in July 2017, we have successfully transitioned from a secured to an unsecured debt structure and all of our balance sheet assets are now unencumbered.

The bond market provides access to capital for the future and the management team will remain focused on maintaining our strong rating."

For further information

NewRiver REIT plc			[phone]
Mark Davies (Chief Financial Officer)
Will Hobman (Head of Investor Relations)

Finsbury			[phone]
Gordon Simpson

About NewRiver

NewRiver REIT plc (ticker: NRR) is a premium listed REIT on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 and EPRA indices. The Company is a specialist real estate investor, asset manager and developer focused solely on the UK retail and leisure sector.

Founded in 2009, NewRiver is one of the UK's largest owner/managers of convenience-led community shopping centres with a property portfolio of £1.3 billion principally comprising 33 UK wide shopping centres together with further nationwide retail and leisure assets. The portfolio totals 8 million sq. ft. with over 2,000 occupiers, an annual footfall of 150 million and a retail occupancy rate of 97 per cent. Visit www.nrr.co.uk for further information.

LEI number: 2138004GX1VAUMH66L31

 

END

 

 

IODUWAVRWWAUUAR