Intu inks £600m arrangement

Intu Properties has secured a new £600m corporate revolving facility from a club of seven banks.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, UBS, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland have jointly provided the loan.

A five-year term has been agreed with the shopping centre specialist and a two-year extension option at an initial margin of 140 bps over Libor. Its portfolio includes the Trafford Centre in Manchester (pictured).

Matthew Roberts, chief financial officer at Intu said: “Despite the increase in the size of the facility we have been able to reduce margins and fees such that expected on-going costs will be lower than under the previous facility. Intu takes relationship banking very seriously and therefore I am also very pleased that we have been able to maintain, and indeed enlarge, our core relationship banks within this, our principal corporate facility.”

The arrangement replaces a £375m facility that was due to expire in November 2018. This was put together by the same club excluding Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland.

The company said that its costs had reduced by between 25 and 50 bps compared to the existing facility and that taking into account the lower margin, and a lower commitment fee the new facility will have a lower all-in cost despite the larger facility size.

Large listed corporate property companies have been looking to take advantage of the competitive debt market this year by putting in place new, cheaper facilities. London specialist Great Portland Estates also announced it had agreed a £450m revolving credit facility this morning, at a margin of 105 bps.