DekaBank provides £39m loan for C&R’s retail buy

DekaBank has financed the acquisition of a shopping centre in Ilford, Essex, with a £39 million (€44.9 million) loan.

The German bank has provided the investment facility to fund Capital & Regional’s purchase of The Exchange Centre in Ilford which was acquired earlier this week for £78 million, implying a 50 percent loan-to-value for the financing.

The loan has been hedged for the full term and the all-in cost of debt is 2.76 percent.

The seller was Meyer Bergman, the London-based real estate investment firm, which reportedly bought the asset for £71 million in 2010.

Capital & Regional, the UK-listed REIT, owns and manages six shopping centres across the country together with a separate co-investment and management interest in a seventh asset. Its portfolio comprises approximately 750 retail units in total and attracts around 1.5 million shoppers each week.

Ken Ford, Capital & Regional’s executive director, said the asset had previously been owned by the firm’s Mall Fund, which it launched in 2002. The seven assets, referred to above, are also managed by the Mall Fund.

The £39 million loan with DekaBank was drawn on completion of the acquisition of The Exchange Centre yesterday (March 8).