Aviva loans Helical Bar £81m

Helical Bar has secured an £81m debt facility from Aviva Commercial Finance to refinance a trio of assets in the UK.

The 10-year loan allows for drawdowns of up to 63% of value and have a fixed interest rate of 2.48%. The assets are two office buildings in London – the 150,000 sq ft Shepherd’s Building in Shepherd’s Bush and the 35,000 sq ft One King Street in Hammersmith – as well as a retail asset within its 250,000 sq ft Morgan Quarter in Cardiff.

The facility replaces £27m of existing debt and will boost the listed company’s cash reserves by £54m.

The deal shows the continued activity and effectiveness of non-bank lenders in the market and the ability of established listed firms to take advantage of the competitive debt market in the UK.

Tim Murphy, finance director at Helical Bar, said:

“Helical has a long standing relationship with the team at Aviva and we are pleased to continue this relationship with agreement of this new ten year fixed rate facility which has extended the maturity on total secured debt within the group to 4.5 years at an average cost of 4%.”

Barry Fowler, managing director at Aviva Commercial Finance, said “We have substantial funds to invest from five years upwards and a very strong appetite for lending.”

Fowler joined Aviva from Lloyds in July from Lloyds where he was previously head of origination for corporate real estate. He was subsequently replaced by Madeleine McDougall who joined from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank where she was head of international clients in the UK.