ING refinances Italian mall with €85m loan

ING Real Estate Finance has provided €85 million of fresh debt to Italian property company Forumapulia to refinance a shopping mall near the southern Italian city of Bari.

The new four-year loan is secured by the 26,502 square metre Gran Shopping Mongolfiera shopping centre, located in the town of Molfetta. The borrower, Forumapulia, is owned through a 50/50 joint venture structure by Orion Income Return Partners CV and HB Capital.

The loan extends an existing bilateral facility which was originally provided by ING. It is understood that the Dutch bank first financed the mall in 2008 with a loan of more than €100 million. The new facility, understood to have been prompted by a change in the asset’s ownership structure, extends the outstanding loan balance.

Real Estate Capital has also learned that the facility reflects a loan-to-value of around 60 percent and is priced at more than 200 basis points over three-month Euribor.

Gran Shopping Mongolfiera is anchored by the food operator Ipercoop and is fully let to more than 100 tenants including Media World, H&M, Scarpe&Scarpe, OVS, Zara, Bata and Foot Locker.

ING REF has been active in Italy in recent months. Last October, it provided a €40 million loan reflecting a 50 percent LTV deal to Radegonda, an Italian closed end real estate fund managed by Savills Investment Management.

The deal refinanced an existing €20 million loan on the 26,000 square metre Fidenza Retail Park, plus a new five-year €20 million loan for the acquisition of a 12,000 square metre office building located in Milanofiori, Assago Nuova business district, Milan.