LondonMetric completes £780m of new debt

(Sharecast News) - LondonMetric has completed its £380m private debt placement, with a blended maturity of 11.1 years and a blended coupon of 2.27%.
The FTSE 250 firm also announced the completion of two new revolving credit facilities totalling £400m at the same time, comprising a £175m facility for a five-year term with two plus-one year options with Wells Fargo, and a £225m facility for a three-year term with two plus-one year options with NatWest, Barclays, HSBC and Santander.

Taken together with the placement, the company completed £780m of new debt, replacing the existing £444m revolving credit facility due to mature in April 2022, and two bilateral loans with Wells Fargo of £75m and HSBC of £75m.

The firm said it would also repay its £130m secured debt facility with Helaba.

Overall, the refinancings increased LondonMetric's loan maturity by four years to 8.2 years, with the average cost of debt on a drawn basis to be 2.6%, down from 2.9% at the end of March.

As it had previously disclosed, a £50m tranche of the placement would be subject to a green framework, under which spend would be allocated to "highly sustainable" buildings.

The green notes are priced two basis points inside the equivalent non-green notes.

LondonMetric said the revolving credit facilities also had a green framework, structured under the Loan Market Association's sustainability-linked loan principles.

Sustainability performance targets were set, aligned to LondonMetric's responsible business targets, which focus on EPC ratings, renewable installations and developments meeting a minimum BREEAM 'Very Good' standard.

The pricing of the revolving credit facilities would be subject to a two-basis point adjustment for compliance or non-compliance with the targets.

"We have undertaken very significant refinancings of our debt position and are delighted with the support shown by our revolving credit facility lenders and the increased diversification of our private placement investors in North America and the UK," said finance director Martin McGann.

"These refinancings lengthen our debt maturity and reduce our overall cost of borrowing."

At 1011 BST, shares in LondonMetric Property were down 0.09% at 225.2p.