Shaftesbury secures £130m loan
The new 15-year loan has a fixed interest rate of 3.2 per cent and will be repayable in March 2030.
It means Shaftesbury can cancel its £100m revolving credit facility with Nationwide. A second revolving facility, totalling £50m, will be refinanced “in due course”.
The landlord has also agreed to terminate £70m of interest rate swaps at a cost of £28.1m, equivalent to a reduction in EPRA net asset value per share of around 10p, equivalent to 1.4% of EPRA NAV at 30 September 2014 (£7.13).
This means the weighted average maturity of Shaftesbury's debt has increased from 6.7 years to 8.7 years, but it has reduced the cost of debt by around 25 basis points.
Shaftesbury's finance director Chris Ward said: "We are pleased to have secured this financing during a period of extremely low gilt yields, and with a lender of the calibre of Aviva.
"Long-term funding is a natural fit with our business model and portfolio of good quality assets with secure income streams."