ING provides €41m for Italian mall refi

ING Real Estate Finance (REF) has provided a €41.3 million loan to the Portuguese retail investor Sonae Sierra to refinance a shopping centre in North West Italy.

ING Real Estate Finance (REF) has provided a €41.3 million loan to the Portuguese retail investor Sonae Sierra to refinance a shopping centre in North West Italy.

Gli Orsi
Gli Orsi shopping centre

The loan is secured by the Gli Orsi – ‘The Bears’ – shopping centre, located in the Piedmont town of Biella in the foothills of the Alps. The 27,428 square metre shopping centre contains 102 shops and was opened in 2008.

The terms of the deal were not made public, although Real Estate Capital understands that the facility reflects a conservative loan-to-value ratio of around 50 percent and has been priced in the region of 200 basis points over three-month Euribor. ING is the sole lender in the deal.

The mall had previously been financed by German bank BayernLB. The bank provided a construction facility to Sonae Sierra in 2008, which subsequently converted to an investment loan and was due to mature this year.

ING REF has had a relatively busy year so far in the Italian real estate market. In June, it took part in a club financing of a designer outlet mall in Rome alongside Credit Agricole CIB (CACIB) and UBI Banca. The €100 million loan was provided to a vehicle owned by TH Real Estate’s European Outlet Mall Fund and is secured by the Castel Romano mall.

Also in June, ING REF provided a €46.7 million loan to TH Real Estate’s European Cities Fund to refinance the Meraville Retail Park in Bologna.