LondonMetric prices £380m placement to replace existing debt

(Sharecast News) - LondonMetric Property has priced a £380m private debt placement with a number of institutional investors in North America and the UK, it announced on Thursday, to replace existing debt facilities.
The FTSE 250 real estate investment trust said the placement, which was upsized from an initial £150m due to demand, was across a range of maturities, with £135m on a seven-year term at a coupon of 2.06%, and £135m on a 12-year term at a coupon of 2.34%.

Of the remainder, £60m was on a 15-year term at a coupon of 2.45%, and the final £50m was also on a 15-year term, at a coupon of 2.43%.

The blended maturity was for 11.1 years, and the blended coupon was 2.27%.

LondonMetric said the £50m tranche at 2.43% was subject to a 'green framework', under which spend would be allocated to buildings which had high sustainability standards.

The green notes were priced two basis points inside the equivalent non-green 15-year tranche, and represented the first tranche of its kind announced by a UK real estate investment trust.

It said the receipts would be used in due course to replace other existing debt facilities as they approached maturity.

"The private placement market has given us access to attractively priced, longer term debt from an increasingly diversified lender base since our inaugural issue in 2016," said finance director Martin McGann.

"We are delighted that investors have shown their continued support for our logistics and long income strategy, as they have priced our third private placement at a very attractive margin and significantly helped to increase the average maturity of our debt."

At 0818 GMT, shares in LondonMetric Property were down 0.28% at 210.2p.