£430 million of unsecured debt facilities arranged

RNS Number : 8376N

NewRiver REIT PLC

14 August 2017

 

NewRiver REIT plc

("NewRiver" or the "Company")

£430 million of unsecured debt facilities arranged

NewRiver is pleased to announce that it has successfully arranged £430 million of new unsecured debt facilities, to replace the majority of its secured debt facilities. The refinancing exercise will provide the Company with a reduced cost of debt, increased flexibility and an increased debt maturity. The new facilities were arranged with minimal breakage costs using a syndicate of banks with whom NewRiver has enjoyed long standing relationships.

The new facilities include a £165 million term loan and a £215 million revolving credit facility ("RCF"), with an initial maturity of five years which can be extended to a maximum of seven years, subject to lender consent. The remaining £50 million is a term loan with a maturity of 18 months, providing the Company with the ability to further diversify sources of unsecured debt funding in due course.

The margin payable on all of the new unsecured facilities is 185 basis points. As part of the facilities agreement, the Company is required to put in place interest rate hedging in respect of a minimum of 75% of aggregate drawn debt under the term facility, for which it will utilise existing hedging arrangements making this a very cost effective transaction.

The £430 million of new unsecured facilities replace £414 million of existing secured facilities. The Company has already drawn both of the term loans, and the remaining £215 million RCF will be utilised in the future, providing additional funding capacity as required. Assuming that the RCF is fully drawn, the Company's proforma all in cost of debt will reduce to below 3%, from 3.5% as at 31 March 2017 and debt maturity will increase to 5.8 years (March 2017: 2.5 years) with options to increase this in the future through further unsecured funding.

The syndicate for the new facilities consists of Barclays Bank plc, HSBC Bank plc, The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and Santander UK plc. HSBC Bank plc will act as agent for the facilities. NewRiver was advised on the refinancing by Rothschild & Co.

Mark Davies, Chief Financial Officer commented: "This unsecured refinancing marks a significant milestone for the Company, and further demonstrates the benefits of our conservative financial policies, low financial gearing and increased scale.

We remain focused on delivering growing and sustainable cash returns to our shareholders, and this refinancing further enhances our already efficient operating platform. Importantly, we have been able to achieve all of this with minimal breakage costs and by utilising the strong banking relationships we have established over many years."

For further information

NewRiver REIT plc                                                                                                                                [phone]

Mark Davies (Chief Financial Officer)

Allan Lockhart (Property Director)

Will Hobman (Head of Investor Relations)

Bell Pottinger                                                                                                                                          [phone]

David Rydell

Eve Kirmatzis

This announcement contains inside information as defined in Article 7 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation No 596/2014 and has been announced in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of that Regulation.

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 shopping centres with assets under management 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

 

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