Hibernia gets new €100m facility from Bank of Ireland

Bank of Ireland has provided Irish REIT Hibernia with a new three-year, €100m revolving credit facility.

The corporate loan is the company’s first since its €375m IPO last December. It means Hibernia now has cash and undrawn committed facilities of more than €140m and €134m of debt held against its €336m of investments.

Bank of Ireland, despite having lost billions during the global economic crisis, is one of the Irish lenders to have come out the other side less severely damaged than the likes of Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide which were taken under state control and were ultimately merged into the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation in 2011.

The bank won the mandate to provide a £140m loan to fund Hines and HSBC Alternative Investments’ purchase of the Liffey Valley shopping centre in Dublin in March and in the same month also provided Green REIT and Pimco with a €150m loan to refinance the duo’s Central Park business park in the city.

Paul McDonnell (pictured), head of property finance at Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking, said:

“As Ireland’s number one corporate bank, Bank of Ireland is committed to supporting the Irish property market in this period of growth and to playing an important part in the full recovery of the sector. We look forward to developing our relationship and growing our partnership with Hibernia in the years to come.”

Tom Edwards-Moss, chief financial officer of WK Nowlan REIT Management Limited, the investment manager of Hibernia, said:

“Our first corporate debt facility… provides us with flexible funding at attractive rates with which to invest in and grow our portfolio. We remain committed to a conservative debt strategy, with our loan to value not exceeding 40% at incurrence, well within the limits of the Irish REIT regime.”