TH Real Estate seals ING Italian loan

ING has lent TH Real Estate €85m to refinance a designer outlet mall in Italy

The five-year loan is secured against the fund manager’s Serravalle Designer Outlet, located just outside of Milan. The asset is Italy’s first and largest designer outlet, comprising over 38,000 sq m. It is owned by the €1.5bn European Outlet Mall Fund.

The new financing replaces a loan from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and West Immo and was secured “on highly competitive terms”, according to an announcement.

The deal is a sign of the steadily recovering Italian real estate sector, liberalised banking regulations and a desire from investors for yield in an increasingly competitive European market driving the trend.

ING and TH Real Estate already have a well-established relationship and ING is the existing lender on Castel Romano, its other Italian outlet mall in the fund near Rome. Last month, the pair also agreed a €125m financing of the Islazul shopping centre in Madrid.

Colin Throssell, head of treasury at TH Real Estate said: “This is a great result for the fund and its investors, and is one of the last steps in what has been a busy and successful year on the debt front for our European Outlet Mall Fund portfolio; by the end of 2014 we will have (re)financed around €515m; we are very happy to have closed a number of loans across various jurisdictions.”

“The success in achieving these refinancings is really a testament to our strong banking relationships and our reputation for good stock selection, asset management and integrity”

“It has been a year where prevailing interest rates, and the return of strong liquidity to all markets, relevantly to southern European markets such as Italy, has enabled us to really help drive our investors returns.”

The fund’s other refinancings this year have included a €54.7m loan for its Parndorf centre in Austria and a €67m loan to refinance Designer Outlet Berlin, both with Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.

The deal caps a strong year for ING, the Dutch bank having clinched the £365m mandate to finance Safra’s purchase of the Gherkin at 30 St Mary’s Axe in the City of London earlier this month and led a €750m financing of Olayan’s purchase of Parisian retail assets in July.

Mike Shields, head of real estate finance in western Europe, UK, USA, and structured products at ING, said: “Serravalle Designer Outlet is one of the premier retail properties in Europe. ING was very pleased to continue to be selected by TH Real Estate to provide financing on their top retail assets. We pride ourselves in providing our global clients with flexible and efficient execution on property financings across all of country level platforms.”