
A trio of banks have supplied Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate with £225m, in the listed investor’s first corporate debt facility.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan have put in place a three-year, unsecured, floating rate revolving facility of up to £225m. The company intends to use the funds for general corporate purposes, including property and real estate loan acquisitions.
The facility has a maturity date of 29 August 2017, with drawdown being available up until that date. The company has not yet drawn down any of the funds.
Mary Ricks, president and chief executive of Kennedy Wilson Europe, said: “We have a strong investment pipeline and this new unsecured corporate finance facility, which is the company’s first, marks a significant step forward and provides us with additional firepower to capitalise on new investment opportunities and finance further acquisitions quickly, giving us a competitive edge in an active real estate market.
“In addition, it further optimises the company’s capital structure and funding model and assists us in achieving our ultimate goal of delivering attractive returns for our shareholders.”
Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate raised £1bn through an initial public offering in February to invest in the UK, Ireland and Spain. As of 7 August, when the company announced its interim results, it had £202.9m of non-recourse, floating rate debt at a loan-to-value across its portfolio of 17.3%. This includes £127m from GE Capital, which is secured against the Tiger and Artemis UK mixed-use portfolios that seeded the IPO.
The company has made £1.2bn of investments since its listing.