

Pradera has secured a €163m loan from Aareal Bank to refinance assets in its Pradera European Retail Fund (PERF).
The loan will be allocated across eight shopping centres, seven in Spain and one in Italy.
Jonathan Weaver, funds’ finance director at retail property specialists Pradera, said: “The portfolio loan refinancing represents a significant milestone for the PERF, increasing the fund’s weighted average debt term to approximately four years and also significantly reducing the fund’s weighted cost of debt.”


PERF, Pradera’s first fund, is a specialist retail property fund with a core-plus risk-return profile focused on the retail property sector in Southern Europe.
Launched in 2000, it consists of twelve retail properties across Italy, Spain and Greece and has a current gross asset value of about €400m. It has institutional investors only.
“Whilst we have seen increased competition amongst the lending market, we are pleased to continue the longstanding relationship with Aareal Bank, the fund’s main lending partner,” said Weaver.
“The fund is also progressing a number of accretive value projects over the next few years and the refinancing provides the duration to realise these projects for the fund and its investors.”
Pradera manages four discretionary property funds investing in shopping centres and retail parks across Europe. The funds currently own 34 assets in total, which were valued at around €1.2b as at 31 December 2014.