P3 closes the year’s largest pan-European loan

Pan-European logistics developer P3 Logistic Parks has closed a €1.4 billion refinancing of its portfolio in the largest European real estate financing this year, and ahead of a potential sale of the business.

The company has put three seven-year facilities in place, bringing in new lenders, and providing capital to take advantage of future opportunities. The refinancing comes ahead of a rumoured sale, with reports saying that GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, is the front runner to buy the business which owns 163 assets plus development sites, in nine countries worth between €2.5 and €3 billion.

P3 was formerly known as PointPark Properties and was acquired by TPG Real Estate and Ivanhoe Cambridge in 2013; its management team is headed by Ian Worboys.

P3‘s chief financial officer George Aase said the company had been working on the refinancing since MIPIM, last March, and closed the deal last week. Eastdil Secured advised.

He declined to comment on the pricing but said it was competitive and that the collateral was very high-quality and included “a lot of new property with long-term leases.”

He added: “We were really happy that we could get long-term debt at a competitive price – seven-year finance is very, very helpful. There was a lot of competition to finance it which was one compelling reason to do it now.”

Morgan Stanley has underwritten a loan of close to €600 million secured on the western Europe and Polish portfolio which includes properties in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

Pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank is acting as agent and Aase said the German bank “is planning on participating in a piece of that debt.”

There is a second, similarly-sized loan, backed by assets in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, provided by a four-bank club of local lenders. They are ČSOB, which acted as the agent, Komerční Banka,  UniCredit Bank, and Česká Spořitelna. Komerční Banka is part of Société Générale Group, and Česká Spořitelna is part of the Erste Group.

The third, smaller loan is from Raiffeisen Bank International, secured on P3’s Romanian warehouses. A small number of sites earmarked for sale, including in Bulgaria, were not refinanced. The blended leverage across all three facilities is thought to be in the mid 50 percent.

The loan is the largest pan-European financing so far in 2016 and demonstrates there is liquidity for both Western European and Central European logistics property.

“That makes us incredibly proud”, Aase said. “Banks that know us are impressed by our track record which was almost as important as pricing and other elements of the deal. It was one of the key selling points.”